Coming up in our Gallery

North Sea Scape - Watercolours and Photographs

5th - 19th May

Open for free events as part of the Late Shows

New Studio Courses -
Life Drawing - Silk Painting - Digital Imaging

Start in June - Fees include Tuition, Materials, Refreshments

Our Westgate Road elevation is getting a makeover. As part of our programme of improvements our front onto Westgate Road is having an overhaul and repaint with colours from a traditional artist palette to add colour to our street.

We now have a high speed fibre optic Internet access to our office and meeting rooms so pictures and video will down and upload up to 40 times faster than our current service.

Refurbished offices / design studio available on 'easy in' 'easy out' terms from January 2012

Email for information

Westgate Road Milecastle to get a 'blue plaque' to mark the discovery of south-west corner of this fortified gate in Hadrian's Wall in 1985. This discovery confirmed that the Roman Wall ran along the south side of Westgate Road and is marked by a replica of the foundations that can be seen in the Black Swan Courtyard at Newcastle Arts Centre. This should not be confused with the Mile Castle pub which is further down the street. Dave Fry (top left of the photo) who led the excavation now runs the Pottery Studio at the Centre.

Councillor Nick Forbes Leader of Newcastle City Council
will unveil the plaque at the entrance to Black Swan Court on Thursday 29th September at 1pm.

Work is now underway to convert the former Eagle Star House into a 148 bedroom 4 star Hotel just yards from
Newcastle Arts Centre.

The former Hell’s Kitchen star Chef Marco Pierre White has confirmed that his latest eatery will become
the focal point of the new £14m boutique Hotel expected to open in Fenkle Street early next year.

The new Steakhouse Bar and Grill will be a 120 seat restaurant that will offer a private dining area, bar and lounge.

www.details-express.co.uk

At the end of March we said goodbye to our old web shop www.details.co.uk which has served us well but could not be updated.

Our New web shop is nationally competitive on price and service

* is directly linked to our stock control system

*has a secure direct Paypal and Card payment process

*has a built in product search

* has bigger clearer pictures and more information

* is easier and quicker to use

* has a direct link to parcel tracking

www.northofenglandartclub.co.uk

The venue is open 6 days per week.

Directory of this month's Exhibitions in Tyne & Wear

GALLERY . CRAFTSHOP . FRAMESHOP . CAFÉ . STUDIOS
ARTS VENUE . ART MATERIALS
Tel: 0191 261 5618 / 261 5999

Open Monday to Friday 9am – 5.30pm, Saturday 9am – 5pm.
Café open Tuesday to Saturday 11am – 4pm.

 

Newcastle Arts Centre is situated in the heart of Newcastle, a short walk from the Central train station and Metro and is well known for ‘details’ art materials store.
Opened in 1988 by Prince Charles and built on the site of a Roman Mile Castle the Arts Centre provides space for cultural industries such as Watkinson Glass, Dave Fry Ceramics, Sumo Design,and Skimstone artistic media community.

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Onward 2012

Many thanks to all who made 2011 a successful year

Including Fakeindielabel for music with a difference. Skimstone and Black Cab Cabaret for live performance,David and Margaret with their ongoing enthusiasm for Salsa. All the artists who brought colour to our Gallery, and the staff of The Centre for Life Long Learning for their award winning programme. Last but not least on own crew who have worked hard enable our progress.

Fortunately Newcastle Arts Centre has never had annual revenue funding for its programme and back in 1993 survived being cast off by Northern Arts. The result is that since then we have earned our living and been forced to be truly sustainable. It was not until 2000 that we could fund a Gallery and a performance space, and now we enable dozens of events per year.

Our involvement with Heritage Open Days and The Late Shows have been very successful and it has been a pleasure to see The Centre for Life Long Learning and the Moving Gallery make good use of our space. Our main Heritage project the restoration of 55 Westgate Road is now on hold, but it was good to have it used as the main location for the movie 'Frank' and have the Arts Centre as a production space accommodating a crew of 50. And last year's work on this building was topped off by the award of a commendation by the Georgian Group as runner up to the restoration of the West Wing of Buckingham Palace!.

we celebrated our 30th year with a programme of improvements

Newcastle Arts Centre was formed as a Company in July 1981 and bought a derelict part of the City centre in October that year. A group of 8 buildings bounded by Westgate Road, Forth Lane and Pink Lane were refurbished and restored over a 7 year period to be opened by Prince Charles in 1988. following presentation of a Times/ RIBA Community Enterprise Award. Since then we are firmly established as a sustainable self funding arts company that has enabled dozens of arts projects to work in Newcastle.

Improvements included -

The Refurbishment of part of our main site is now with : - the installation of a new lift,
a 40 seat Digital Studio , an open access practical arts teaching studio,
and major improvements to the heat and ventilation system.
This is all aimed at making the Centre more usable and accessible to enable a new programme of workshops and courses to be launched soon.
In addition we are working to make the Centre more energy efficient with better heating systems, daylight illumination ( from the sky! ) and LED's in corridors and more insulation. We are on target to cut our energy bills by more than 30%.

Meanwhile we have launched a new on line shop details-express, fast and secure online art and graphics shopping for the UK

The City's oldest Art group the North of England Art Club has moved to the arts centre with an active membership of 80. They have their own Studios and run weekly Life Drawing and Portrait sessions. The venue is open 6 days per week.

 We all look forward to making some creative progress and will be announcing a strong programme of events soon.

Click for Courses at the Arts Centre for the New Term
For Subscriptions please call 0191 515 2800 or
email lifelong.learning@sunderland.ac.uk

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The Black Swan venue at the arts centre is available to hire and is suitable for concerts, theatre or dance performances, corporate events, either conferences or social and is a unique venue for celebrations such as birthdays or weddings.

- Regular nights include Salsa on Fridays from 7.30

The Gallery Café is a friendly central meeting point with an additional attractive courtyard seating area watched over by the ‘Iron Man’ - not a formal sculpture but a giant stage puppet built for the London Young Vic's production of The Iron Man by Ted Hughes.

The café serves freshly made sandwiches, panini, salads, soups, cakes and treats.

Newcastle Arts Centre Craft Shop “Newcastle’s longest established specialist shop for original work by leading makers. More than a gift shop, it is a showcase for handmade ceramics and glass from across the UK and Europe.”

now with listings by location

click for the latest information & videos

Painting hints and tips ....Simple Gilding ...how to prime and stretch canvas ...
How to Batik ....how to enlarge a picture ....how to paint on glass .. Silk Painting . How to cut a picture mount

In the Autumn of 1982 we opened our first trading venture 50 yards away from the Arts Centre site of 67-75 Westgate Road, because this group of of buildings was still a derelict shambles undergoing a major restoration. Our 'New Shop' at 57 had been trading as Woolfes, a picture framer and art materials dealer since 1924 and in 1982 we took it over to acquire a presence on the street and a much needed revenue stream. Back then we began as the smallest of seven art shops in Newcastle, and many long
standing names - Mawson Swan & Morgan, North of England School Furnishing Co,Waughs, Wards and Thorns are no longer on Newcastle's high streets.
'Details' has grown steadily over the years and its revenue has made possible the galley and performance studio. Best of all was the consolidation of all departments of the Arts Centre in 2000 which was made possible by the trading cash flow.
The Arts Centre's independence and credibility in the arts community is down to 'details' and our commitment to making things possible.

A programme of restoration is part completed to the building that housed our first shop.
55/57 Westgate Road click

'details' Offers