Celebrating our region’s heritage at Being Human Festival
The region’s landmarks and rich heritage will be celebrated at events organised by Teesside University researchers as part of this year’s Being Human Festival.
Middlesbrough skyline
Teesside University is one of just five universities which has been chosen as a hub for this year’s Being Human Festival events taking place in November.
Being Human Festival, a nationwide festival celebrating the humanities, takes place from November 7 to 16 and is led by the School of Advanced Study, University of London, with support from Research England, in partnership with the Arts and Humanities Research Council and the British Academy.
Teesside University’s events, which will be held at venues across the region, will explore local landmarks and heritage, with events and discussion ranging from the role of the River Tees, to challenging the lack of diverse representation in public statues, and creation of a public exhibition celebrating of the region’s iconic skyline.
Events will include interactive workshops, tours and exhibitions, soundscapes, film screenings and guided walks, with art and discussion events to consider the role of landmarks and the link between historical landmarks and the lives of people living in the region today.
Admission to all events is free. The full programme of events includes:
• Bridging Past and Future Through Digital Storytelling. October 28, Transporter Bridge visitor centre Participants will take inspiration from the local landmark that has dominated the Middlesbrough skyline since 1911 for a storyboarding activity to visualise memories from the past and to dream about the future of the region
• Memorialising Middlesbrough’s Women. November 9, The Fire Station, Middlesbrough Town Hall Workshop reflecting on the 100-year anniversary since Ellen Wilkinson was elected as a Labour MP in 1924, the only woman election during that year’s general elections
• Remembering the Golf Balls, November 9, Stephenson Building, Teesside University Take part in an epic rebuild of the geodesic radar domes which once dominated the North York Moors landscape
• Geodesic Sounds. November 12 to 16, MIMA Experience a unique soundscape of the North York Moors by award-winning ecological sound artist, composer and music technician David de la Haye
• Marks on the Land. November 12, ARC Stockton Screening of In the Veins, a short film about the miners’ strikes. Created in collaboration with North East Film Archive and a group of community curators. The screening will be followed by a Q&A with historian Ben Lamb, Yorkshire and North East Film Archive manager Graham Relton and members of the community curatorial group who were instrumental in ensuring the authenticity and accuracy of the film
• Centre Square's Landmark Public Art. November 14. MIMA Guided walk and talk which will explore the stories behind the public artworks that can be found around this public square
• Remembering Wompra and the Golf Balls. November 14, Thornaby Archives Discover the legacy of photographer Dennis Wompra at an exhibition of archive material collected by the archives at Thornaby. Part of Wompra’s work involved documenting construction of the iconic radar domes at RAF Fylingdales
• River Shapes. November 16, MIMA Artist Sam Metz, whose work Instability was created in response to the River Tees, will lead a workshop exploring responses to art and the region’s landscape using non-verbal creative methods
• A Celebration of Bridging Past and Future. November 16, Transporter Bridge visitor centre Exhibition of digital stories, connecting narratives and communities across the Tees. Storyboarders will be on hand to discuss the process, while entertainment will be provided by members of local choir The Infant Hercules and Teesside University’s Community Engineer, Mike McGrother
Sally Blackburn-Daniels, Research Fellow at Teesside University’s School of Social Sciences, Humanities & Law, said: “I am delighted to be involved in leading Teesside’s Being Human Festival Hub, which is one of only five hubs across the UK.
“Our programme is firmly rooted in the Tees Valley and showcases the best of the arts and humanities research which is ongoing at Teesside University. Being Human’s Landmarks theme has given us the opportunity to think locally and to bridge the past, present, and future of Middlesbrough.
“The programme uses iconic structures, such as the Transporter Bridge and Centre Square’s public art, as opportunities for creativity and reflection. The team has worked hard to develop a programme which is exciting, innovative, accessible, and welcoming.”
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