It was the 5th Birthday of NewBridge Projects recently, celebrated with their exhibition…Do we need to Grow up? Artists showing – Minna L Henriksson, Timothy Ivison & Julia Tcharfas , James Lomax, Agnieszka Polska and Joseph Shaw. The space is closed for summer but reopens on 10th-11th September for a 2 day event.
Here’s their manifesto;
“Supporting artists to investigate and challenge the boundaries of contemporary art practice. The NewBridge Project is an artist-led community comprising of over 80 artist studios, an exhibition space and book shop based in a 29,000sqft former office block in Newcastle city centre.”
Queer in print was also showing in their bookshop with Queer Zines, magazines and independent underground publications. It was part of the Northern Pride (http://www.northern-pride.com/event/mainevent) celebrations which took place during July in Newcastle and is now in the 8th year. Pride was soooo busy with a really welcoming attitude, lovely to behold!
In the book shop I was particularly taken with a typed out letter, pinned up on the wall, from one member of the Gay Skinheads who seemed to have bitten off a bit more than he could chew organising a trip to London for 40 skinheads. He was worried about how any hotel would react when they all turned up late at night. An intimate insight into the mundane admin nightmares of belonging to the Gay Skinheads, back in the day.
A publication I enjoyed was PINUPS
Each issue seems to be devoted to one particular naked man. I was drawn to Issue 9 featuring Evan, with nothing but a beach ball and some coastline. Printed in black and white risograph the full magazine folds out to reveal a giant poster of Evan. They are created by Christopher Schulz and you can read more about him in this article.
