About

Creative Darlington is a partnership of stakeholders who share a passion to strengthen and sustain a vibrant cultural offer in Darlington borough.  We believe culture should be available to everyone, bring people together, and champion inclusion and social cohesion.

Creative Darlington programmes exhibitions at Crown Street Art Gallery and the Darlington Town Hall exhibition space and manages access to the Borough Art Collection

Creative Darlington Manager

“Working with the Creative Darlington board, my job is to take forward and update Creative Darlington’s vision.  The arts, culture and heritage bring people together, encourage self-expression, stimulate debate, explore ideas, and help bring a smile to people’s faces.  We work to bring individuals, enterprises and organisations together to create the conditions in which the arts, culture and heritage enrich lives and thrive across Darlington borough.  If you’d like to find out more or get involved, please email me at  stephen.wiper@darlington.gov.uk“

Stephen Wiper, Creative Darlington Manager

The Creative Darlington Board

Creative Darlington’s board members currently include Arts Council England (observer role), Darlington Borough Council’s Head of Culture and Heritage, Darlington Borough Council’s Cabinet Member with responsibility for Culture, Darlington Town Centre Partnership and Events Service, Darlington Hippodrome, Durham Music Service, Darlington Partnership, The Forum Music Studios, Tees Valley Combined Authority, Theatre Hullabaloo and The Northern Echo.   Board meetings usually take place every three to six months.

Who we’ve worked with…

While we manage the exhibitions programme at Darlington Library and your access to Darlington Borough Art Collection directly, most of our work is taken forward through partnerships led by individuals, enterprises, and organisations beyond Darlington Borough Council.  

We work across different art forms and within and beyond the creative sector.  To date we’ve supported events, exhibitions, festivals, programmes and projects involving people from Darlington borough, Tees Valley, the North East of England, the United Kingdom, and internationally.  Activity in which we play a part does not need to be exclusively held in Darlington borough and sometimes takes place across the wider Tees Valley or North East of England, but the support Creative Darlington may offer partner’s proposal is informed by the level of public benefit they are likely to bring here.   

To date we’ve worked with individual artists, The Auxiliary, Blue Cabin, businesses, charities, choreographers, colleges, community groups, curators, Curious Arts, dancers, Durham Music Service, Equal Arts, film-makers, Forum Music Studios, Helix Arts, libraries, Middlesbrough Art Week, MIMA, museums, Orchestras Live, producers, schools, TeesDANCE, Tees Music Alliance, Tees Valley Combined Authority, Theatre Hullabaloo, Tracks Darlington, universities, voluntary groups, writers, and many more people, enterprises and organisations.  We hope you’ll get in touch if the Creative Darlington vision aligns with some of your existing practice, work or emerging ideas.  We’re keen to discuss proposals and explore ideas which may take one or more of Creative Darlington’s current priorities forward. 

Click the purple buttons below to find out more about who we’ve worked with…