VARC x The Auxiliary

It is with great pleasure to announce that from July to September 2023, The Auxiliary and VARC will facilitate thirteen Tees Valley artists to participate in VARC’s residency programme.  

'As part of our artistic development programme, we had spoken to our studio holders about what might help with that,' says Liam Slevin, artistic director at The Auxiliary. 'One of the things that came up was going on residencies, and we’ve been really lucky in being successful in our application as a consortium to VARC.'

The group is multi-disciplinary and includes ceramicists, painters, sculptors, photographers, sound and textile artists. All of the artists will spend at least one week each at the residency.  As studio based artists living in an urban landscape, this is an excellent opportunity for the artists to spend time in a rural location and investigate how this meets and shapes their individual and collective creative practice and expression. 

We at the Auxiliary are really excited to be working with VARC in partnership to offer studio artists from the Auxiliary and a few collaborators a chance for a mini residency up in Rural Northumberland with VARC. This week we commence our residency program which will run from the 8th of July until the 23rd of September, with 13 Artist over 11 weeks. The residency program will culminate in an exhibition at Middlesbrough Art Week from the 28th of September until the 7th of October. 

I am lucky enough to be one of the artists involved in this project as well as coordinating it with Helen Paling at VARC. On a recent visit I was surprised by the remoteness of the location which I had been warned of many times but just being there it was a shock to the system. Living in Stockton I’m used to the sounds of roads, the planes coming into land and trains going past. But in the studio at High Green all I could hear was birds and the wings of many insects! I had to retune my ears and also block out these new sounds, I had become habituated with the urban environment and forgotten what the countryside sounded like. 

I will be using my time to work on my own practice solidly for a week, I never get the time to do that anymore, due to working and other commitments and this sentiment was something expressed across our group of artists. As a group we have no set output requirements for the residencies but we all hope for some good weather. 

This residency was designed as a way for urban based artists to have some time away in the rural environment and in smaller weekly blocks so as many artists as possible could benefit from the experience. This is also a paid residency supported by funding from VARC and The Auxiliary.

We will be sharing updates over the course of the summer via our own social media here at the Auxiliary but also through VARC’s own Instagram. A full list of the artists involved can be found below with their Instagram handles.

Andy Newcombe @vision25c
Anna Bryne
Chris Suttie @ravel_and_clay
Dianne Bowell @dianneartist
Emma Bennett @emma_bennett__
Gordon Dalton @gordondalton666
Graham Easterlow @dyad_dayd
John James Perangie @john_perangie
Lisa Nelson
Loucey Bain @loucey.bain
Nell Catchpole @nellcatchpole
Rachel Deakin @racheldeakin_
Will Hughes @will_hughes_art_

Words and images Will Hughes