Art exhibitions, storytelling, and theatre are just some of the activities that can be enjoyed online as part of North Tyneside Creativity and Wellbeing Week (May 17-23).
The week is part of a national festival celebrating work being done across the country to bring together culture, creativity, health and wellbeing. This year’s event once again coincides with Mental Health Awareness Week.
A host of events and activities will be taking place across North Tyneside throughout the week and the council is encouraging people to tune in and discover the health benefits of the arts.
Councillor Sarah Day, Cabinet Member for Culture, Sport and Leisure, said: “Research shows that engaging in creative activity has been the most effective protector of people’s mental health and wellbeing during lockdown. It can help to improve people’s confidence, self-esteem, communication, social skills, and a whole range of things.
“North Tyneside Council has co-ordinated a week of events that individuals and families can enjoy online as we continue our journey out of the lockdown restrictions and back towards normal life.”
Creativity and Wellbeing Week 2021: What’s on in North Tyneside
Daily art exhibitions posted at 9am and 8pm on Facebook and Twitter.
The work of local artists who had booked library exhibition space to show their work will now feature in a virtual art exhibition. The following artists work will be shown on our Library Facebook pages and Twitter with a full exhibition at the end of the week on the library YouTube Channel. Bill Scott, Michael Dennison, Darin Lambton, David Crawford, Joseph Mulroy, Katie Steward, Alison Sydney, Reza Grayloo, Raj Rani, Shaun Flett, Trish, Val Norriss, and Stuart Jones
Multilingual story-times read by North Tyneside Library staff
Monday 2:30pm - Facebook
Lost and Found by Oliver Jeffers (Perdu? Retrouve! By Oliver Jeffers)– storytime in English and French (Colette Anson and Ruffine Apudu)
One day a penguin arrives on a boy’s doorstep and he decides the penguin must be lost. The boy decides to take the penguin home himself, and they set out in his rowboat on a journey to the South Pole.
Wednesday 2:30pm Facebook
The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle – BSL story-time (Caroline Gibson)
A much loved classic with imaginative illustration and clever cut out detail charts the progress of they very hungry caterpillar as he eats his way through the week.
Friday 2:30pm Facebook
Little Monkey’s One Safe Space by Richard Edwards (Un lugar seguro para Pequeno Mono by Richard Edwards)– storytime in English and Spanish (Oscar Alfonso and Denise Faulds)
When little monkey is frightened by the storm he runs to his mother’s side. ‘Don’t worry, there is always one safe space’ she says. But little monkey doesn’t know where to find his one safe space. He searches all through the jungle but he can’t find it. He finally realises his one safe space is much closer to home than he expected.
Bookstart Rhymetimes
After the success of virtual Rhymetimes libraries are holding some Rhymetime sessions in Customer First Centre’s during Creativity and Wellbeing Week. The small, pre-booked sessions will be the first, but important step in resuming these activities which provide the vital opportunity for parents and carers with young children to connect with each other and support wellbeing.
Today’s Problem’s Tomorrow’s Leaders
Shared daily at 10:30am Facebook & Twitter
Daily challenges set by Today’s Problems Tomorrow’s Leaders whose goal is to educate young children about current issues such as the pandemic, racism and mental health, in a way that is understandable and engaging. We also want to show young people that they can be just as successful in business as adults can and should follow their dreams despite what society may tell them. For this Creativity and Wellbeing Week, they are giving a sneak peek the characters from their new upcoming book.
12 noon Daily on Facebook and Twitter
Showcasing work of local creatives and Arts Organisations
Company of Others is a dance theatre company based in the North East of England, led by Artistic Director and Choreographer Nadia Iftkhar.
Grief Floats is an honouring and witnessing of all that we have to grieve, living in this moment together. The work asks us to not look away, to not ignore the human rights violations taking place daily, to not ignore the destruction of our planet, to not forget the names of those we have lost. Instead it offers a moment to remember them, to remember our ancestral ways of healing through being with the ocean, through moving and being together.
Set in the North Sea, Grief Floats will be Company of Others’ first outdoor work premiering Summer 2021.
https://www.companyofothers.org.uk/grief-floats-2021/
Cloud Nine Theatre Company
Fire and Water—the almost forgotten story of Thomas Brown from North Shields who rescued the Enigma code books from a sinking German U Boat during WW2, and arguably changed the course of the war—written by Artistic Director of Cloud Nine, Peter Mortimer and directed by Neil Armstrong Tickets are now on sale https://bit.ly/2R5mvZb
Watch the opening monologue FIRE AND WATER intro on Vimeo
Planet Corona
The First 100 Columns by Peter Mortimer
From the onset of the coronavirus lockdown at the end of March 2020, writer and playwright Peter Mortimer began penning a daily column in The Journal. The first 100 columns are published in Planet Corona, a mixture of humour, satire, surrealism, absurdity and occasional anger as he fixed his unique eye on a world turned upside down.
Whitley Bay Film Festival
From organising a screening of Jaws on the local beach, the Festival has gone from strength-to-strength and now delivers a celebrated annual programme of films and cultural events in unique settings with a strong imaginative and creative ethos.
The patron of the festival is film and screenwriter Ian La Frenais. This video offers a taster of some of the events that have taken place over the years and looks forward to working with artists and film makers to ensure a safe return in august 2021. https://youtu.be/D18RIaW4O3c