The NewBridge Project Gallery is closed throughout March. NewBridge Books will be open as usual.
As part of Blazing New Worlds, Bethany Stead will be hosting ‘Sculpting Sight’, a clay workshop for visually impaired people exploring accessibility within arts and creative spaces, and how our new world can be improved by sighted and sight impaired individuals to be more inclusive and accessible.
Friday 25 February 2022, 1.30 – 3.30 pm
Please note: We will meet at The NewBridge Project bookshop and take participants to a well lit studio where the workshop will take place. NewBridge Books is located on the ground floor of The Shieldfield Centre.
Location:
The NewBridge Project
4 – 8 Clarence Walk (off Stoddart Street)
Shieldfield Centre
Newcastle upon Tyne
NE2 1AL
To book: email dawn@thenewbridgeproject.com
If you have any enquiries or questions, email Dawn on dawn@thenewbridgeproject.com or call 07811343688
Artist Bethany Stead will lead ‘Sculpting Sight’, a clay workshop for visually impaired people. This will be a closed workshop for visually impaired people only, if you would like to take part please email Dawn on dawn@thenewbridgeproject.com
Using clay, the workshop will respond to the themes of the NewBridge Project’s last exhibition Blazing New Worlds. Participants will sculpt and fire a ceramic ‘object of survival’ and then participants will exchange between themselves the objects they have made in the session.
During the workshop, Bethany will be assisted by artist Matilda Sutton to facilitate an informal discussion of the issues of accessibility experienced by visually impaired people, particularly in relation to accessing the arts and creative activities.
This workshop will feed into The NewBridge Project’s ongoing evaluation of what communities it engages with and how.
Images by Sadaf Chezari
Bethany Stead is an artist and works as Activities Coordinator for the charity Newcastle Vision Support.
Their work explores materials and techniques associated with traditional craft and folk art, which are assigned to humans of a particular class, gender and sex. Working between clay, wood, textile and paper, they are intrigued in using these materials to incite conversations about the societal barriers they, and others face, due to these classifications.
Drawing inspiration from surrealism, their drawings and imagery become animistic characters residing within imagined, disturbing, domestic spaces, whilst hand-sculpted vessels and objects dissect the awkwardness of inhabiting a body, hinting towards aspects of folk dress and haute couture. Symbolism, semiotics and folklore are themes which thread throughout their work, alluding to the influence of intergenerational storytelling and writing as a form of therapy. An ongoing facet of their practice is social engagement and mutual aid, contributing towards opportunities, voices and space for underrepresented individuals, regularly facilitating various community projects and workshops.
Blazing New Worlds is a programme of commissions, events and workshops in celebration of The NewBridge Project’s 11th Birthday. Throughout the programme a series of open calls and funding opportunities were released and supported projects were hosted in the gallery and online. Commissions by the artists Graeme Hopper (Grassi Art) and Cassie Thornton have been publicly displayed in the gallery throughout the programme, since October.
We commissioned Slack’s founder Jon Cornbill, to construct a radio booth that has been on display in the NewBridge gallery throughout the Slack’s Radio residency. The first round of the residency saw Slack’s Radio take over the gallery with a programme of music, performance, spoken word and conversation.
Location:
The NewBridge Project : Gateshead, 232-240 High Street, Gateshead, NE1 8AQ
T: +44 (0)191 477 1884
E: admin@thenewbridgeproject.com
The NewBridge Project is supported by Arts Council England, Newcastle Culture Investment Fund, Newcastle University’s Institute for Creative Arts Practice and the North of Tyne Combined Authority.
