In art worlds where creativity meets uncertainty, five voices come together to explore what it means to practise and make a living as an artist in the North East. 

Dr Ewan MacKenzie is a musician (Dextro and Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs) and lecturer in Work and Employment at Newcastle University.

Ewan will be presenting on his ongoing research into hope labour and liminalities in cultural and creative work. This research explores the power relations that shape the lived experiences of creative life and work against a background of intersecting structural crises, with a view to reclaiming hope for democratic and collective ends. 

Dr Susan Jones is an independent researcher and commentator specialising in close examination of interrelationships between artists and the infrastructures for the contemporary visual arts and culture. 

Susan will be presenting research on the ‘cultural credibility gap.’ In-depth study of artists’ lives has identified the disjunction between government’s creative industry ethos and contemporary visual arts organisations’ business models and the conditions most supportive of visual artists’ resilience over a life cycle.

Kat Bevan is an artist with a background in visual and community-based practice and a PhD student in Cultural Sociology at Northumbria University.

As government policy increasingly targets health inequalities, artists delivering participatory creative health projects are recognised as playing a key role in these efforts. Kat’s research asks: how does this work affect the artists’ own health? Her findings contribute to her ongoing PhD exploring the intersection of participatory arts, health inequalities, and local cultural development.

Dr Tom Hopkin is a musician (Louse and KNYF) and co-founder and co-director of The Lubber Fiend, a Grassroots Music Venue (GMV) opened in Newcastle, in 2022.

Over the past 2 years the venue has transitioned from an informal organisational structure to something more sustainable. This change is partly the result of external pressures but also natural internal adaptation to best support the venue’s cultural and social aims. 

GMVs operate in an extremely precarious sector and an unexpected aspect of working in this area is the regular need to lobby and advocate for positive policy change to support spaces like The Lubber Fiend.

Theresa Easton is a community artist, printmaker, and founding member of Artist Union England.

Artwork by Joe Munsey (@munseydesign, https://www.instagram.com/munseydesign/)