Newcastle Common
Appetite Newcastle Common ran from 2021 to 2024, this project focused reimagining empty shops to the home of art and creativity for the people who use the town centre and bringing artists into Newcastle-under-Lyme town centre through all sorts both in-shop and on the street.
We took an action research approach to create a programme of artist residencies*, programme of exhibitions, workshops and performances for people who live, work and visit to experience and be inspired by, and we developed projects with partners such as Brampton Museum and Art Gallery, Staffordshire County Council Library and many more.
In conceiving the project, we worked with artist, writer and empty-shops expert Dan Thompson, thank you Dan. Thank you to our team of Project Managers, Duty Managers and volunteers who made the project work.
Newcastle Common is delivered by Appetite in partnership with Newcastle Business Improvement District and is supported by Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council. It is funded by the National Lottery through Arts Council England’s Creative People and Places programme.
*What is an artist residency? When an artist such as a painter, illustrator or performer creates work over a period of times in a particular place. At Newcastle Common, an artist will work in our space as well as creating work for audiences like you to enjoy.
Hat to the Future
by Holly Johnson
July – October 2024
Hat to the Future was a What Would You Do artist residency project by local hat maker Holly Johnson. Following from her 2021 residency, Holly set out to create three hats inspired by what people in Newcastle-under-Lyme thought fashion in the future would look like.
Holly documented her hat-making journey with regular videos which can be viewed on our YouTube channel and invited participants to Newcastle Common to try their hand at hat making too. Her three final pieces were displayed in Newcastle Common.
Image credit I Jenny Harper
Talking Teapots by Scruffy Little Herbert
June 2024
If you could have a cup of tea with anyone in the world, who would it be? What would you ask them?
As part of their residency, artist Scruffy Little Herbert asked participants to decorate a small, ceramic teapot and answer the question if they could have a cup of tea with anyone who would it be?
The decorated teapots then took pride of place in our Newcastle Common shop window.
Esme’s residency was part of the What Would You Do residency collective. We invited artists who had previously worked with Appetite at Newcastle Common to present us with proposal inspired by what they would like to do next in the space.
Image credit I Jenny Harper
Madame Deficit
by Kitsch n' Sync
May – June 2024
Long time friends of Appetite Kitsch n’ Sync returned from Cardiff to Staffordshire in the spring of 2024 as artists in residence. Their aim was to research and develop a comedy-dance theatre show loosely inspired by the life of Marie Antoinette called ‘Madame Deficit’ with help from the people of Newcastle-under-Lyme.
The performers took to the street to ask the public questions such as what did they think of the royal family? And if they could invent a new law what would it be? They also had a regal photobooth and some audience members were even put into the stocks.
Madame Deficit was performed as part of our 10th edition of the Big Feast in Stoke-on-Trent City Centre (Hanley).
Listen to an interview with Kitsch n’ Sync, recorded as part of the Appetite Takeover on 6 Towns Radio.
GAME
by Hunt & Darton
December 2023
Ready, Set, GAME! Comedy duo Hunt & Darton took over Appetite’s Newcastle Common empty shop in December 2023 and turned it into a game shop! Throughout the two days, participants could take part in the Giant Chocolate Game, Not the Great British Bake-off and a Lunge Off, as well as the DIY arcade which replaces machines with humans as well as card games. Participants had the chance to earn tokens which they could redeem in exchange for Christmassy prizes.
We are proud to have welcomed Hunt & Darton to Stoke-on-Trent countless times, including Radio Local as part of The Big Feast ’18 and Kids Business in Longton 2022.
Image credit I Holly Johnson
LUMA
November 2023
We reopened our Newcastle Common empty space project in style with LUMA by AirGiants as part of Newcastle BID‘s Christmas Light Switch on.
Luma is a nine-metre-long snail who loves an audience. Her presence as she looms above visitors is gentle, welcoming and otherworldly.
As part of the celebrations, audiences could also make their own Hype Badges with Jenny Hunt. We also invited audience members to come along and tell us what they wanted to see in Newcastle Common.
Image Credit I Andrew Billington
Women and Girls in Science Day
February 2023 – February 2024
Working with our partners at Keele University, we have delivered activity at Newcastle Common in celebration of Women and Girls in Science Day, which takes place on 11 February each year.
The day is an opportunity to promote full and equal promote full and equal access to and participation in science for women and girls (source).
We marked the day across the two years with activities at Newcastle Common where science meets art. Participants took part in activities such as melting fabric, creating colour tones and discovering how clay modelling is used in science!
Planet Dance
by FRONTLINEdance
March 2023
In March 2023, two aliens landed in our Newcastle Common space. The only way they could return to their home planet was by mastering the moves of the dance routines of Planet Earth.
Audience members were invited to come along to share their favourite dance routines, from the floss to foxtrot, the Charleston to the Cha Cha Slide. The final piece was then performed on the streets of Newcastle.
Planet Dance was brought to you by Appetite in support of the FRONTLINE Arts Festival. ‘What’s all the FAF about?’ is a four-month awareness-raising project from FRONTLINEdance that highlights the creativity and skills of d/Deaf, disabled, and neurodivergent artists culminating in a festival day. FAF aims to increase the number of d/Deaf, disabled and neurodivergent artists working, commissioned, and showcased in Stoke-on-Trent and North Staffordshire.
Image Credit I Pete Stonier
TRIBES
October – November 2022
We partnered with Kwanzaa Collective UK* to launch a new month-long exhibition in Newcastle Town Centre titled Tribes: Matabeleland to Staffordshire.
The exhibition showcased the art of Black and Brown artists living and working in Staffordshire, and was part of a cultural exchange with artists in Matabeleland, Zimbabwe. The exhibition ran concurrently with an exhibition in Matabeleland.
Artworks on display included photography, film and digital painting reflecting on the theme of cultural heritage and documenting aspects of rich African culture such as body art, ceremonial dress, beadwork and piercings, their practice and relevance today. Work by the Staffordshire artists also explored lived experience of how their African cultural identity informs their life in the UK.
Image Credit I Holly Johnson
Life, Clay & Everything
by Keith Brymer-Jones
February 2022
Ceramicist and The Great Pottery Thrown Down judge Keith Brymer-Jones celebrated his life’s work in our 23 High Street space. The exhibition coincided with the release of his autobiography The Boy In A China Shop: Life, Clay and Everything.
Flora ceramic artist and designer Rita Floyd was specially selected by Keith Brymer-Jones as the artist-in-residence during his exhibition. Rita hosted drop-in sessions where audience members could try their hand at making their own clay flowers.
Podcast credit I Jerome Whittingham
Light Over Winter
January 2022
The Light Over Winter exhibition featured photographs produced by participants of Appetite and GRAIN Photography’s Our People, Our Places project, which celebrated the locations, residents, people and places of Stoke-on-Trent, Newcastle-under-Lyme and surrounding areas.
The work was created during workshops and explores one of the key fundamentals of photography – Light, through various photographic techniques such as Lumen Printing and Long Exposures, the photographs also reflect on the Winter Season.
Newcastle Common Library
August 2022 – October 2024
Our Newcastle Common library was created as an extension of the collections available at Staffordshire Libraries.
Our library housed books by underrepresented authors featuring stories about people from every walk of life and exploring diversity. Books could be loaned by existing Staffordshire Libraries members and people could also sign up for memberships with us.
Various activities have taken place in our library over the years, included a Silent Book Club started by Appetite volunteer Deb and a book-drop in Newcastle Town Centre, with books provided by the National Literacy Trust.
Image credit I Jenny Harper
Urban Clay
by Sally Fitchard
September – October 2022
In Autumn 2022 businesses in Newcastle Town Centre contributed to our very own clay town! Artist-in-residence Sally Fitchard asked local businesses to create a shoebox version of their very own store. Responses were really creative and varied!
Sally then invited members of the public to come in and create their very own clay buds – small people created using air-dry clay to populated the paper town created in Newcastle Common.
Image credit I Natalie Willatt & Jenny Harper
Featured
September 2022 – October 2024
Since 2020, the Appetite Audience Choice Award has been an included category as part of the Three Counties Open Art Exhibition hosted by Arts Keele. In 2022, we introduced Featured; an exhibition of artwork in our Newcastle Common space featuring the winners of the various prizes associated with the exhibition.
Members of the public have been able to see the stunning award winning works of art in our Newcastle Common spaces. Appetite also selected one of the award winners as an artist in residence during the time of the exhibition.
Images I Featured 2023
Image Credit I Nat Willatt
Depositry of the Dull by Siobhan Mcaleer
February 2022 – ???
The Depository of the Dull (DEPOD) was a moving, roving, living, gallery, museum and cabinet of curiosity, collecting up stories and histories of people and spaces through objects. The Depository of the Dull and their curator, Shiv, invited people to come down to Newcastle Common to share their everyday, extraordinary, extravagant objects with a great story to be part of an exhibition.
DEPOD worked with the Brampton Museum & Art Gallery and Newcastle Common to collect as many objects and stories as possible from and about the people of Newcastle for online and in-person exhibitions.
Following the project, there was an exhibition of discoveries at our Newcastle Common Astley Walk space. Some objects were also included in an exhibition at Brampton Museum & Art Gallery.
Peace
November 2022
Peace is a series of projects and activities by artist-in-residence Dan Thompson. Peace was launched at Newcastle Common in November 2022 and will continue until the artist dies.
Newcastle-under-Lyme was the perfect place for Peace to begin as it takes inspiration from Newcastle-born Vera Brittain. A pacifist, author and campaigner, Brittain’s family owned a papermaking business, with mills in Hanley and Cheddleton.
Dan’s residency explored Vera’s story through her connection with the town and remembering her paper-making ancestry and also included a live-brief for local college students to respond to. Their responses were included in an exhibition at Newcastle Common, as pictured.
Green Town
April 2022
From the impact of food wasted by supermarket chains to the carbon cost of demolishing buildings that could be repurposed, we brought together artists, writers, performers, and thinkers who looked at the role of our town centre in saving the environment.
Green Town ran across our two shops at 23 High Street and Astley Walk, with some activities taking place outside those spaces. Work included a Green Town Exhibition including a reading room of books to help visitors feel inspired; Text Works by Jon Paul Green of various quotes painted onto the ground of Newcastle town, WILD I LIFE The Pat Callaghan Collection, an installation of the work of the last environmental campaigner brought together by her son Danny Callaghan and the Green Diagnosis Van, an interactive and fun performance offering green prescriptions for health and political engagement.
Appetite for More
2021
A Tri Services Veteran Support Centre and Armed Forces Covenant Fund Trust funded project which aimed to give local veterans and their families a place to be creative and a taste for the arts.
The Appetite for More group would meet regularly at Newcastle Common and take part in craft activities. The group also met outside of Newcastle Common and attended Appetite takeaways.
Image credit I Jenny Harper
Road Movie
by Simon Warner
December 2021
We worked with the Brampton Museum & Art Gallery to create an artist residency, inviting people to respond to the museum’s 2D collection of paintings, photographs, prints and drawings as an inspiration to produce new work.
Simon became fascinated with Newcastle-under-Lyme’s past as a key location on the London – Carlisle stagecoach route. By accessing the museum’s 2D collection online, by researching and visiting Newcastle-under-Lyme, he pieced together this largely forgotten history of the market town.
His film showcases the town today, but also evokes its past, interweaving the museum’s collection with his specially filmed re-enactment of the coaching route through the town. An atmospheric sound track accompanies the film by singer songwriter David Boulton.
Open Up by Ian Mood
August 2021
During his artist residency at Newcastle Common, Ian’s collection focused on the faces and places that make Newcastle town centre the wonderful place it is. The work came from Ian spending time on the streets of the town centre earlier in the year, talking to people and drawing them and the situations he saw.
The exhibition was then on display in the Newcastle Common shop for members of the public to enjoy. Ian also documented his residency with a series of blogposts.
Image credit I Jenny Harper
The Hatstory of
Newcastle-under-Lyme
by Holly Johnson
January – Februry 2021
As our first Newcastle Common artist-in-residence, local hat maker Holly Johnson set out to uncover Newcastle’s hat making past. Holly invited members of the public to share their memories and pictures of hats of the past
She created two hats inspired by her discoveries: a town crier hat and an Edwardian hat. You can check out every stage of Holly’s process over on our YouTube channel.
