Gongs of Teesside

steel gong being tempered, credit: Nell Catchpole

Sarah Irwin has been working with Nell Catchpole, an ecological sound artist based in Teesside. Building on early support from the LAHRI Sapling fund we made gongs of steel with local blacksmiths and, with support from Historic England, developed our collaborative, creative, community centred arts and research project exploring memories and meanings of place, and hopes and concerns about the future, across generations. Our website which tells the story of the project is now live. Its seven 'chapters' describe the project's evolution through making the gongs, running gong soundings in local places with diverse community members (from the Redcar blast furnace remains to the East Cleveland Hills), our collaborations with young adults and our 4 day interactive exhibition.

Once one of the most prosperous industrial heartlands in the world, Teesside has experienced decades of de-industrialisation. It is now home to new investments linked to Net Zero manufacturing. We are interested in how different generations of citizens think about, experience and relate to local places, industry and social and environmental change. We have used sound art and linked activities as a way of working with local  citizens.

We have worked with blacksmiths to make metre-wide gongs from locally sourced steel and, in partnership with Tees Valley Museums, we involved young adults in creatively documenting the process, and in curating a public engagement event. (see 'Forging the Gongs'). We have involved local metalwork students in designing decorations for our gong stands. We have partnered with local organisations and communities to run gong sounding events with different generations of local citizens. These are held in places identified by local people as important to them, and which prompt memories and stories, as well as enabling cross- generational conversations. Participants have then joined us in group discussions and in one to one interviews. The sounding events are also being creatively documented by local young adults using sound, video and photography, and they will help to design and curate an exhibition based on the project.

The project has been supported through the Leeds Arts and Humanities Research Institute Sapling Fund and an Historic England Everyday Heritage grant, and our work to date is summarised in this LAHRI news update