Middlesbrough Art Weekender (MAW) is returning – and we couldn’t be more excited.
What started as an under-the-radar Arts Festival is beginning to cement itself into the diaries of culture-vultures across the Tees Valley and is one of the finest displays of local, national and international art in the North East cultural programme. Since last year’s event in May, we’ve kept our eyes peeled for the announcement of its next outing.
From 4th – 7th October, MAW18 will take over the town and pack it with arts, culture and music with over seventy artists – both international and regional – to exhibit and perform at the festival.
This year’s theme is Connectivity, and the festival will connect the dots along Albert Road, from the Constantine Gallery at Teesside University to Basecamp at Exchange Square (formerly House of Blah Blah), and lots of venues in between.
The weekend will host seminars with visiting artists, workshops, performances and exhibitions. Artists from all over the world – including Australia, America, Canada and Europe – will join local and regional artists and showcase Middlesbrough Town Centre as a fantastic place to produce and show contemporary art.
The festival kicks off on Thursday with performances and previews of all the exhibitions. Friday night sees Gateshead-based artist Tess Denman-Cleaver’s Town Hall residency culminate in her performance, ‘Town Hall Meeting of the Air’. Combining theatre, poetry, sculpture, sound installation and live radio, the piece explores how civic architecture, media and technology shape the language of public discourse.
Skizze, a Berlin-based DJ outfit, will come to Middlesbrough to perform a very special club night at Basecamp on Saturday 6th – so get ready to dance your socks off. And on Sunday, polish off the weekend by joining festival-goers for the closing event: the announcement of the Art Trail winner, judged by an independent panel including MIMA curator, Helen Welford.
“We are really excited by the artists and the venues this year,” said Liam Slevin, artistic director at The Auxiliary Project Space and one of the directors of MAW.
“We’re absolutely thrilled to be able to show the wealth of talent in the area. Everyone in the town, from the Holiday Inn Express to local landlords giving us space, have been really supportive of it happening again, and we just want as many people as possible to get involved and show how much Middlesbrough and the Tees Valley has to offer.”
All events are free or operated on a Pay What You Decide basis.
For further information please head to middlesbroughartweekender.com.
