Culture House Sunderland announces the activities coming soon

The £27m Culture House Sunderland will open its doors in autumn 2025 and has now commissioned 12 programme partners to deliver activities between November 2024 and February 2025.

Taking place at the Creative Smart Hubs at Washington and Houghton, as well as at the Keel Square Pavilion, the pre-opening programme will give communities a flavour of the type of activity they can expect when the venue opens.

All the successful programme partners are based in the North East, with the majority of them Sunderland organisations.

Activities will include script writing courses, fashion design, craft, conversation sessions and sustainability workshops; giving just a glimpse of what will be on offer in around a year's time.

Culture House Sunderland - The National Centre for Creative Smart Cities - will be a multi-purpose cultural venue in Keel Square.

The venue will be home to the new City Library and packed with dynamic, digitally powered, interactive education features, with a year-round programme of fun things to do and see.

The 12 programme partners delivering the preopening events are Harbour Printworks, Pink Collar Gallery, Reinvented with Love, Ellie Clewlow and Kirsten Luckins, The Art Room, New Writing North, King Ink, Holmeside Writers, Curious Arts, Threads in the Ground, Southpaw and Tactic North.

Cllr Beth Jones, cabinet member for Communities, Culture and Tourism at Sunderland City Council, said: “I’m delighted with the line up of partners and events that have been commissioned as part of this programme.

“When Culture House Sunderland opens it will be a dynamic, modern venue that will have something that appeals to everyone.

“It’s also great that this programme is able to support and showcase the work of local organisations who do such fantastic work to bring cultural activity to our communities.”

This project is funded by Sunderland City Council and also by the UK Government through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund.

According to city leaders, the project is expected to boost spending, while attracting more than half a million visitors a year.