The Bellwether Project brings together 26 members of the community who have worked with professional artists, INSTAR, to create new artworks inspired by nature, wildlife and the environment. See it at the Woodhorn Museum. Among the fabulous stuff on show …

‘The Lost Spells: Listening to a Landscape of Voices’ is an immersive exhibition featuring original artwork, soundscapes and interactive experiences. ‘The Lost Spells…’ features artwork and words by artist Jackie Morris and writer Robert Mcfarlane, which …

Peter Hanmer’s ‘Seeking Armageddon’ features over 10 years’ worth of apocalyptic musings. Grotesque! Unnerving! Hilarious! Peter Hanmer seeks to explore our demise in his own inimitable style, blurring the line between fantasy and reality by presenting mu…

You can’t miss Derek Hill’s paintings, but their subject matter concerns the microbial world. Derek Hill’s interest in the microbial world came about when he got a life-threatening streptococcal infection, which profoundly influenced his artistic developm…

Gail-Nina Anderson checks out BALTIC’s latest shows and pulls out four plums. Once upon a time, even within the living memory of BALTIC-goers, contemporary art prided itself on an ivory tower approach, where formal qualities were headlined over content, v…

South Shields Museum are really pushing the boat out for their new show. First point: shipbuilding/repair would not be my go-to topic of interest. Second point: this exhibition is so entirely right for place and time that it feels it has always been here,…

Durham Cathedral’s interior is set to be utterly transformed this October. Oh my! This looks astonishing! We all know that Durham Cathedral is the most spectacular building in the UK, but it will be taken to a whole new level of “Wow!” this autumn when ar…

Need a little bit of love? Try Janina Sabaliauskaite’s moving exhibition, SENDING LOVE, which sees her reaching into her personal life to empower anyone of a queer and feminist background. Sabaliauskaite is a Lithuanian-born and Newcastle-based multi-tale…

‘When the Boat Comes In’ is an exhibition celebrating Hartlepool’s stunning maritime art collection. Of course, you’re not going to be able to move for people in stripy tops shouting “Ahoy there!” in Hartlepool next year – what with the Tall Ships in town…

Currently showing at the Side Gallery is ‘Classic Street Style: Weegee, Doisneau, Foysyth’ featuring work from three masters. Weegee is perhaps the most famous of all ‘street’ photographers. His stark, black and white photographs of New York helped define…

Emii Alrai’s exhibition at Workplace Foundation weaves together diasporic narratives referencing ancient mythology, heritage and post-colonial museum collections and displays. There’s been an increasing amount of attention given in recent years to appropr…

The Spanish Gallery in Bishop Auckland have pulled off a real coup this summer by bringing two of the most famous depictions of Christ together. This is quite something. On loan from Glasgow is one of the most famous paintings held by any gallery in the U…

A new exhibition at South Shields Museum tells the proud story of shipbuilding and ship repair in South Tyneside. This show will feature a new series of works by the legendary South Shields artist Robert Olley (who painted the iconic ‘Westoe Netty’), whic…

Lubna Chowdhary’s work is absolutely fizzing with invention but hard to pigeonhole. Maybe that’s why we love it so much. Lubna Chowdhar was born in Tanzania to Indian parents. Later she would move to the north of England and then study ceramics at the Roy…

‘Permanent Marker’ is a solo exhibition by Manchester-based artist Nina Chua, which you can see at Workplace Foundation. I love the feeling you get when you pop the top off a brand new marker pen (and no, I not talking about the heady aroma). When you’re …