Spectacular night celebrates The Cultural Spring's tenth birthday

Since 2014 The Cultural Spring has been working in Sunderland and South Tyneside to make excellent art and culture part of everyone’s lives.

To mark its first decade, the Arts Council England funded project held a special celebration featuring some of the people, groups and organisations it has closely worked with over the last ten years. The evening was held at The Fire Station in Sunderland last Wednesday, and was hosted by former BBC Look North presenter Jeff Brown, a long-term supporter of the project.

Performances came from:

· We Make Culture, who performed songs from their Cultural Spring Bitesize show Sweet Caroline and the Football Boots;

· Unfolding Theatre, who have worked with The Cultural Spring on several projects, performed excerpts from their forthcoming Bitesize show Here Be Dragons;

· Southpaw Dance – the hugely respected dance company performed a specially-choreographed dance piece, created for The Cultural Spring’s birthday;

· Theatre Space North East, another regular Cultural Spring collaborator, performed excerpts from a MARRAS show;

· Doorstep poet Rowan McCabe, who has led regular poetry workshops for The Cultural Spring as well as delivering Doorstep Poetry project, performed three poems, one of them based on a poem written as part of The Summer Streets Festival;

· The Cultural Spring GUB Club performed alongside The Cultural Strings;

· Keel Line Singers – the acapella singing group performed several songs.

As well as live performances, the night of celebration featured an exhibition of work produced by some of the popular arts groups supported or established by The Cultural Spring, including Fun with Fabrics, Grindon Painters and calligraphy clubs.

There was also a presentation from Sunderland-born inventor and artist Dominic Wilcox, who led The Cultural Spring’s Inventors project, which went on to become a global phenomenon.

The premiere of a specially-made tenth anniversary film, created by Newcastle-based production company Candle & Bell, was also a part of the evening, while a tenth anniversary magazine, tracking the project’s decade of success, was distributed.

Performers on the night were quick to praise the contribution The Cultural Spring has made to the local arts and culture landscape, as well as saying how much they’d enjoyed the evening.

Ashleigh Lowes, who performed songs from Sweet Caroline and the Football Boots alongside Paige Temperley, said: “It was an amazing evening, full of emotion, and we both really enjoyed performing. The show was a reminder of The Cultural Spring’s breadth of work and the number of organisations it has worked with.”

Laura Brewis, who runs We Make Culture, added: “The Cultural Spring has been hugely important to our development and it’s hard to think what the cultural landscape would look like in Sunderland and South Tyneside without its input. The show was fantastic, full of brilliant people doing brilliant things.”

Dominic Wilcox said: “It’s been a few years since we launched Inventors through The Cultural Spring, and it was great to share what we’ve been doing since then. The project has gone on to great things – we’ve given talks at The United Nations and had a Canadian programme launched from space. But what’s also true is that Little Inventors and the work The Cultural Spring continues to do has led so many people into arts and culture.

“It’s the snowball effect, with The Cultural Spring the snowball which started the overall momentum. It’s a wonderful project which has had such massive impact.”

Jeff Brown added: “It was a magical evening that I was delighted to be part of – I’m a regular at a Cultural Spring ukulele group as well as hosting the annual Summer Streets Festival (which was a Cultural Spring project) so I know at first hand the great work that project Director Emma Horsman and her team do.

“They’ve introduced so many people to new opportunities, skills and hobbies – as well as providing regular, well-paid opportunities to local artists and arts practitioners.”

Graeme Thompson MBE, Chair of The Cultural Spring’s Steering Group, said: “The evening featured an extraordinary line-up of world-class artists and passionate communities. I and many others found the celebration incredibly emotional and it was an opportunity to reflect how much has been achieved in the past decade and how many lives have been impacted by our work.”

Emma Horsman added: “I’d like to thank everyone who performed and attended – you did us proud. Speciall thanks go to our friend Jeff Brown who compered the evening so expertly, and to our amazing show producer Posy Jowett who pulled so many different elements together with true professionalism.

“We think the evening summed up what we’ve been about for the last ten years – working in our communities to show arts and culture is for everyone, and to give Wearsiders and South Tynesiders the opportunity to experience the transformational power of the arts.”