The Auxiliary Project Space started in 2017 as a self-funded, sound-art residency in Stockton and has grown into one of the leading artist-led organisations in the North East, backed by an unstoppable creative community. A National Portfolio Organisation for Art's Council England since 2023, The Auxiliary is based in an 11,000sq foot creative complex in the heart of Middlesbrough, currently undergoing a capital development project supported by funds from DCMS's Cultural Development Fund and TVCA's Middlesbrough Development Corporation. The Auxiliary is home to 25 studios, an exhibition space, an experimental music venue and a growing community programme, welcoming over 100 artists annually through the artistic programme.

From the beginning, The Auxiliary has worked to counter the inertia of dormant, vacant retail units in Tees Valley, acting as an instigator in the town centre, providing artists with the resources, spaces, and community needed to thrive. Auxiliary’s two sister festivals, Sonic Arts Week and Middlesbrough Art Week, work with artists at all stages, from graduate and early career talent in the region to internationally recognised practitioners. The Auxiliary is a founding member of the Middlesbrough Cultural Partnership, represents the visual art sector on TVCA's Creative Place Advisor Group and is an active member of the Tees Valley Festival Network. As part of an ecology of artist-led organisations in Teesside, The Auxiliary has been pivotal in transforming Middlesbrough’s industrial landscape into a site for experimental, artistic and cultural disruption.

Our Team

Liam Slevin - Artistic Director

Liam Slevin is the artistic director of The Auxiliary Project Space. After graduating with a Fine Art degree from Limerick University in 2007, Liam opened his first gallery, theSPACE, in Cork city. In 2009 he opened TACTIC gallery, a curator focused gallery space. In 2011 he moved to Berlin and ran several pop up spaces including Klo, and worked with groups such as Salon Bruit and NK Studios. He has taken part in residencies in Iceland, Detroit and Berlin. He moved to Tees Valley in 2016. Liam devises and manages the artistic programme of the The Auxiliary, Middlesbrough Art Week & Sonic Arts Week
Anna Byrne - Director

Anna is currently on secondment as Project Director with Creative Factory Middlesbrough. Creative Factory aims to revitalise Middlesbrough through acquiring sustainable, long term space for the cultural and creative sector in Middlesbrough Town Centre. For more information, contact anna@theauxiliary.co.uk

Anna Byrne studied scriptwriting and film at Galway Institute of Technology. After graduating she worked in costume and set design in theatre and directed several short films. She moved to Berlin in 2011 to focus on writing and film making. She moved to Tees Valley in 2016. She was the executive director for The Auxiliary and Middlesbrough Art Week from 2016 - 2024
Edel O Reilly - Director

Edel O'Reilly is an Irish curator and organiser now working as executive director for The Auxiliary and Middlesbrough Art Week. Informed by a background in artist-led initiatives and collaborative production models, she has worked across Ireland, the UK and Europe. In Belfast, she worked as a co-director at Catalyst Arts and was an associate member of Array Studios. Following post-graduate studies at the Dutch Art Institute, she worked as Curator of Exhibitions at Aalto University, Finland focusing on the strategic development of the university's exhibition activities. She has previously worked within the exhibition, gallery and project teams at Belfast Exposed Photography, Frieze Projects London, Temple Bar Gallery + Studios, Dublin, Boers-Li Gallery, Beijing.
Sue Loughlin - Community Connector

Sue Loughlin is an artist whose work is rooted in sculpture, painting and installation, and encompasses education, social engagement, curation and project production. Sue works extensively with art organisations and Cultural Learning Partnerships across the North East and is the founder of MOTHEROTHER, a mutually supportive network for artist parents and carers in the region and has 15 years of experience delivering and leading art education both regionally and internationally. Sue was awarded a Creative Development Fellowship by Sunderland Culture in 2019, completed The NewBridge Project's Collective Studio Programme in 2020, and the UNION 23 Social Practitioner Programme from the Northern School of Creativity and Activism in 2023.
Dani Fejer - Communications Producer

Freelancers

Will Hughes - Project Manager

Will Hughes is a freelance project manager at the Auxiliary and a multi-disciplinary artist based in Teesside. Their work is conceptually driven by their lived experiences as a queer, non-binary person in the UK, mixing pop culture references with material language to construct moments. They wish to seduce the viewer through often using repetitive mechanical movement, glossy/shiny surfaces and the lens of glamour as a means of storytelling.
Rachel Deakin - Photographer

Rachel Deakin is an artist based in Middlesbrough, her projects are inspired by her immediate environment and include photography, collage, found objects and elements of the everyday. Rachel is co-founder of photography collective WAX and studio holder at The Auxiliary Project Space.
Simon Cole - AV Specialist

If it’s got a wire Simon will make it work…
Beth Hinde - Production Assistant