A call out for participants to have a go at sending messages around the town using semaphore. We will quickly, either individually or in pairs, or in groups, devise a short phrase for you to send using a signaling flag system to others in the town who are a distance away and will translate. This is a fun and accessible activity, it will all be filmed in many different locations and we hope will feature the town to a worldwide audience when distributed online. Anton Hecht’s channel has 2 million views alone.  The flags are specially made and represent aspects of Darlington’s heritage. So if you, your business, your friends or group want to take part in this work, want to have a go at using semaphore, please get in touch with Anton Hecht at antnhec@gmail.com .   Filming on the day should take approximately fifteen minutes and is expected to take place during the day on Friday 29th October 2021.

Darlington Borough Council and/or Creative Darlington have supported several programmes devised by Anton Hecht, including the Trolley Dance in the Market Square a Stop Start Tango inside Darlington Market, a Sign Language Duel during the Festival of Ingenuity and Slime Tango in the Market Square and Sign Language duels, with many works shared online and some featured in film festivals thereafter. If you want to explore Semaphore as Metaphor in a particular location the first step is getting in touch with Anton to find out more. We hope you enjoy it if you take part.

Cabinet of Curiosity are delivering a Grand Constructions project inspired by Darlington’s engineering and construction heritage. Further details of the Grand Constructions programme are below. There are opportunities to download a selection of paper-toy making templates and to have a go at making the models below yourself from the programme website https://www.cabinetofcuriositystudio.com/pages/grand-constructions , with all four templates available from 1st October 2021.

As part of the project Cabinet of Curiosity delivered workshops during Darlington Arts Festival 2021 involving c 40 participants who made their own model of Darlington Clock Tower. If you’re visiting Darlington Library there are some of the paper-toy making templates printed onto card available alongside a display of the models which can be made. The paper-toy making templates of Darlington Clock Tower are printed at A3 on card and you can take one for free with only scissors and glue (e.g. a glue stick) required to make the models, while stocks last.

Darlington based artists Phil Sculthorpe and Brian Ramsey for collaborating to create a Poetry meets Myriorama Exhibition in Darlington Town Centre during Darlington Arts Festival 2021. The Poetry meets Myriorama exhibition combined original poems evoking some of the distinctive aspects of Darlington’s life, with images of well known local buildings and sites. Neither Phil nor Brian were Darlington born but both sought to celebrate their current hometown and they have combined their creative talents to develop an eye-catching and thought provoking affectionate tribute to Darlington’s heritage and character.

Phil and Brian provided a few sets of postcards combining images and poems which customers were able to collect for free from Guru, Darlington Art Shop and Waterstones during Darlington Arts Festival 2021 before supplies ran out, unfortunately they had when I got to the Art Shop, but glad to hear a colleague collected a set which we’ll add to the Local Studies collection in Darlington Library.

For me, the myriorama brought something of the fascination of some of the devices used in the past by people to capture places, like a pinhole camera, and presented Darlington in an amusing, exciting, stimulating way and original way. Thanks to Phil and Brian for sharing their work during Darlington Arts Festival 2021 and to Darlington for Culture for supporting the project with a small grant.

???? Darlington Arts Festival is an exciting way to end off September, running between the 24th to the 27th.

???? The festival will run throughout the town centre and other venues, and offer you the chance to watch all sorts of performances, browse through art in the giant marquee, and take part in workshops.

???? All genres of art are welcome, and the festival offers a fantastic opportunity to display the creativity of Darlington, Tees Valley, and the North!

ℹ For more info: https://tinyurl.com/6bedwt46

⭐ Starring international superstar Britt Ekland and Coronation Street’s Tracy Shaw, The Cat and the Canary is a suspenseful star-studded thriller returning to the UK stage.

????️‍♀️ Twenty years after the death of Mr. West, his descendants gather to learn who will inherit his vast wealth and the hidden family jewels. Within moments, the heritage hunters turn into prey. Walls crack open, shadows loom, and dark secrets are revealed.

Don’t miss out on this phenomenal performance brought to Darlington by The Classic Thriller Theatre Company in their fifth production.

???????? The Cat and the Canary comes to Darlington Hippodrome Tuesday, September 21, 2021 to Saturday, September 25, 2021, find more info here: https://darlingtonhippodrome.co.uk/whats-on/the-cat-and-the-canary/

The Bridge Centre for Visual Art is hosting a range of ticketed arts courses for adults, including Painting and Drawing, Jewellery Making and Ceramics, with the new term of courses starting from Monday 27th September 2021. So, if you’re feeling creative why not contact them to see whether places still available.

Creative Darlington has been instrumental in supporting Unforgettable Experiences to recruit, design and develop opportunities for older adults to improve their mental health and memory through its extensive network of high-quality artistic practitioners.

The pandemic has had a serious impact on people’s mental health with an increase in demand for support from health and social care professionals for common mental health disorders and more serious mental illnesses. In addition to meeting the needs and challenges of increasing mental health issues, ‘the pandemic and lockdown has had detrimental effect on cognitive functioning’ with many older adults presenting issues with focus, concentration and/or memory complaints to their GP. Sadly, the arts, cultural and entertainment sector was hit one of the hardest by the pandemic. The Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee warned that the pandemic presented “the biggest threat to the UK’s cultural infrastructure, institutions and workforce in a generation”.

When Unforgettable Experiences approached Creative Darlington with an innovative new solution to provide opportunities for artists whilst benefitting local residents who are struggling with their mental health and memory, Creative Darlington were excited to be a part of its journey and contributed towards costs for local artists to design and develop a bespoke programme to keep people’s minds active and stimulate cognition whilst translating a broad range of artistic disciplines online.

Creative Darlington also helped through networks and local contacts to progress recruitment of 10 subcontractors who had significant experience in developing their artistic disciplines in art, music, dance, storytelling, creative writing, history and photography to work with Unforgettable Experiences to design and develop the programme. The pilot has been a huge success receiving over 134 referrals and supporting over 71 people to access a minimum of 12 therapeutic artistic sessions online in just four months. An independent evaluation of the project showed that it had improved wellbeing, memory function and quality of life for older adults who accessed the project by a staggering 20%.

Unforgettable Experiences have since received funding from The National Lottery Community Fund to expand the service across Tees Valley to work with up to 1000 older adults. Creative Darlington have offered to continue their support to help the service to develop and nurture the talent of young artists to support the roll-out and delivery of the service to help more Darlington residents. For further information call 01325 238700 or visit www.unforgettableexperiences.org.uk

There are opportunities for those aged 16 and over with ID to have a go at riding an Enviro-Bike for free at the Head of Steam railway museum, until Friday 17 September 2021, during museum opening hours (10am – 4pm). Bikes can be borrowed and taken out anytime up to 3pm and you can take them as far as you wish to go provided they’re returned same day to the Head of Steam before 4pm.

Enviro Bikes are at the Head of Steam as part of the Middlesbrough Art Weekender 2021 programme, thanks to the The Auxiliary, who also programmed artist Jo Lathwood to share a Lava Pour at the Head of Steam on 11 September and to the 53 people who came along to find out more and saw rock heated to lava and poured on site. I found it fascinating and it was great to see the lava cool to form what I understand is obsidian (bottom picture below). Artist Jo Lathwood shared her interest in exploring how the fantastic scoria tiles which pave many of Darlington’s back lanes, were created, and there will be another opportunity to find out more about her practice in the MAW 2021 programme.

There are loads of opportunities to get creative during Darlington Arts Festival 24th to 27th September 2021 – Darlington for Culture including one on Saturday 25 September 2021 for up to 60 people (5 sessions each with a capacity of 12 participants) to get crafting and build your own Darlington Clock Tower using Cabinet of Curiosity Studio’s ‘Grand Constructions’ paper toy-making template offering children the opportunity to explore the architectural and industrial heritage of the North East! This is a free paper crafts workshop with all materials and equipment provided. This activity is suitable for ages 6-11 years.

‘Grand Constructions’ was commissioned by Creative Darlington as part of our New in Town programme to support original creative projects informed by place and local heritage, and also supported by National Lottery Project Grants.   The five sessions on Saturday 25 September 2021 each last 40 minutes and are scheduled to run 11.15 – 11.55am, 12.15 – 12.55pm, 1.15 – 1.55pm, 2.15 – 2.55pm and 3.15 – 3.55pm as part of Darlington Arts Festival 2021. There is a maximum of 12 participants per session and children must be accompanied by an adult to take part. If a session is full people will be offered an opportunity to sign up for the next available session.

Thanks to Cabinet of Curiosity Studio and Darlington Arts Festival 2021 for making Saturday 25 September a time to get creative and offering those visiting our Town Centre an opportunity to craft your own Town Clock.

There will be two opportunities to creatively explore semaphore and to make your own flags during Darlington Arts Festival 2021, with drop in activity from 10am on Friday 24 September 2021 in a marquee in the Market Square, and activity at the Head of Steam railway museum on Sunday 26 September 2021. Both drop in sessions are supported by Creative Darlington and Arts Council England through Project Funding.

Semaphore is Metaphor offers free drop in activity, learn how you can make flags and how to use them to send words visually across distances. Semaphore is a traditional signing language used across distances before alternate modes of communication like mobile phones or Tablets were developed. It is still used today by various bodies such as the army and navy. So come make your own flags and then have a go on an interface developed created by artist Anton Hecht, to acquire the visual language. What messages will you send, how far can they go, and who will they be to?  

Artist, Anton Hecht, who has developed this activity with other artists, has brought many playful ideas to Darlington in the past which have been filmed and shared online and within arts and film festivals nationally and internationally, helping to spread the word about Darlington’s creative spirit! Other works which Anton has shared in Darlington include a Trolley Dance in the Market Square working with GOLD, urban Maypoles throughout the Town, a Stop Start Tango in Darlington Market. He’s also orchestrated A Guidonian Hand where people were guided to sing by prints on their palms, a Sign Language Dual and brought Slime Tango to the Festival of Ingenuity here in 2019.

If you get to either Semaphore is Metaphor session and have a go we hope you have fun flag-making and that if you have a go, people get your message with everyone smiling and nobody flagging (except literally!).