Field Music help curate a new exhibition at Sunderland Museum & Winter Gardens

The indie band has been working since April on the Paint the Town In Sound exhibition, which runs at Sunderland Museum & Winter Gardens from November 21 to February next year.

Taking Field Music’s own collaborations as a starting point to explore wider trends, the exhibition has been developed as part of Sunderland Culture’s prestigious partnership with Arts Council Collection (ACC), the National Partners Programme.

Last year it was announced Sunderland Culture was one of only three ACC National Partners and the Museum had been chosen to host artwork from the acclaimed Arts Council Collection, an important national loan collection of modern and contemporary British Art.

The artworks in the exhibition, chosen by Field Music, are drawn from the Arts Council Collection and will feature work from Helen Cammock, Jeremy Deller, Anthea Hamilton, Mark Leckey and Susan Philipsz.

The exhibition also features a roster of artists and musicians born or working in the north east, including Simeon Barclay, Laura Lancaster and Narbi Price.

Mercury Prize-nominated Field Music consists of brothers Dave and Pete Brewis.

Dave said: “We were approached in April to see if we’d be interested in working on the exhibition and jumped at the chance. There is such a long tradition of cross-over between art and music, and this is particularly true in the north east.

“Pete and I started by looking through the amazing Arts Council Collection looking for artwork which linked music, pop culture and visual art. There were some brilliant pieces, like a project from Jeremy Deller about artwork inspired by – and about – The Manic Street Preachers.

“There are a lot of local bands with artists as members – such as Paul Smith from Maximo Park – so it’s not just about bands engaging with art through album covers and sleeves.

“I think people’s choices in music they like and art they like defines them as people – it almost creates a self-portrait. So it’s been a really fascinating project for us to work on – not least as it has involved me looking through 70 years of album artwork. You can see how the artwork has evolved through the decades, although it has to be said that the 90s artwork was rubbish!

“Through diving into this musical history I’ve come across some great stories, such as how Lindisfarne’s iconic Fog on the Tyne album came about. The album was to be called Stories, Dreams and Nightmares until a producer heard Fog on the Tyne and said that had to be the first single and should be the name of the album.

"The band then asked an old school friend to quickly create some artwork for the new album cover and they raided Newcastle Central Library for some inspiration. The artwork used for the album came from an engraving found in that archive.

“Paint the Town In Sound will feel like a traditional exhibition, but will include plenty of music videos and a huge display of historic north east album covers. We’re also developing a Spotify list of tracks from each of the albums featured,” Dave explained.

A programme of activities and workshops has been developed to run alongside the project.

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