What's on Calendar

Create North has collaborated with the Durham County’s cultural and heritage venues to create a new exhibition which celebrate the nation’s wonderful love affair with its four-legged best friends. Our BARKING exhibition show all sides of the beloved pooch through the ages in paintings, sculptures, prints and ceramics.

Jane Shaw Create Norths Director initially developed the idea behind the exhibition to illustrate a point in a training programme on how to apply for funding, but workshop participants loved the idea so much that they encouraged Jane to put the idea into action and make it a reality. The outcome being a six-month long project that’s created opportunities for local artists to hone their curation skill, develop new art works and creative participatory projects with dog lovers in mind.

The outdoor exhibition will run at Ushaw Moor Historic House, Chapels and Gardens between Friday April 8 and Sunday July 3, and has been curated from public and private collections across the North and beyond.

Contributors to the exhibition include Artist Betty Barnet Brown and Andrew Heard who curated the exhibition, Ushaw Historic House, Chapels & Gardens, The Bowes Museum, Durham University, The Oriental Museum, The Chapter of Durham Cathedral, The EMI Archive, The Gemini Collection and The Auckland Project, Beamish Museum, John Cornish (son of the artist Norman Cornish), Ramside Hall, Durham Town Hall and Anna Bartram (daughter of Ted Holloway)

As part of the celebration of dogs, there will also be a one-off family event at Ushaw on Sunday April 24 entitled Hounds on the Bounds. There will be a makers’ market which will include dog portraits, treats, art works and dog grooming demonstrations. There will be dog themed stories in Doggie Tails and dog themed circus acts with the Retro Poodles and Les Amis D’Onno. Visitors will also be able to take part in a Make Your Own Dog exhibition using recyclable materials with the support of artist Betty Barnet Brown and turn their hand to creating dog themed origami.

 Barking: Dogs in Art and Hounds on the Bounds will be free to annual pass holders at Ushaw and included in daily admission.