Middlesbrough Art Week 2025, the North East’s leading contemporary art festival, returns for its eighth edition with an ambitious program of artist and community exhibitions, performances, workshops, talks, and public interventions happening across the town from September 25th to October 4th. It opens in tandem with The Auxiliary Project Space’s brand new capital building.
Middlesbrough Art Week is built on collaboration, support, and the nurturing of creative practices. This year, it weaves together diverse artistic voices and community perspectives into a collective expression of solidarity. Under the evocative theme In All Possible Worlds, the festival dares to imagine a future shaped by creativity, resilience, and hope. MAW25 embraces this uncertainty, offering a space where we see and feel through one another’s eyes. By providing space for mutual support and creative nourishment, the festival becomes a platform for new ideas, new perspectives, and the possibility of new worlds, In All Possible Worlds.
The art week launches the brand new Auxiliary Project Space. The Auxiliary began as a self-funded, sound art residency in a house in Stockton in 2016 and has grown to become one of the leading artist-led organisations in the North East, backed by Arts Council England NPO funding and an unstoppable creative community. Through exhibitions, commissions and festivals, they work with over 100 artists annually and a 13,000 square foot warehouse will reopen in September 2025 as a major creative complex, supported by DCMS Cultural Development Fund and Mayoral Development Fund. The building will be home to over 25 artists’ studios, a gallery, garden, event and social space right in the heart of Middlesbrough.
The Auxiliary Project Space is a significant development of an older industrial site in the town, with sections of the current building estimated to have been constructed in the early 1900s, with reference to earlier constructions on site as far back as 1894. The project has been undertaken by De Matos Ryan Architects and Linton DMC (Design, Management and Construction) working towards a building which is secure, sustainable, accessible, and fit for purpose for artists workspace, exhibitions and community events.
Jane Tarr, Director North East, Arts Council England said
“We are proud to support The Auxiliary as part of our National Portfolio and it’s so exciting to see the new Auxiliary Project Space launching with Middlesbrough Art Week. Having accessible cultural spaces on the doorstep is vital for artists and for communities and this new space, supported by the DCMS’ Cultural Development Fund, will help make that real and visible. Middlesbrough Arts Week is always an innovative and creative experience for artists and audiences alike and I’m sure this year’s festival will be as exciting, thought-provoking and supportive of artists as ever. It’s always on my Don’t Miss list.”
Liam Slevin, Director, The Auxiliary Project Space and Middlesborough Art Week, said,
“We know art is for everyone, but understand not everyone has had the same opportunities to engage in a creative life. We see this and challenge it by bringing art to the people with pop up exhibitions in ex-retail units and spaces and places where people are. With this year’s programme, our most ambitious to date. as well as our new space, we can’t wait to bring everyone together in September to celebrate our future steps”
The Second Act was established as a gallery committed to supporting working-class artists and creatives from the North of England. From the beginning, we have aimed to reflect the demographics of the communities we serve. Based in Blackburn, Lancashire—where approximately 35% of the population is of South Asian heritage—we curated 22 Carat Gold, an exhibition dedicated entirely to showcasing the work of British South Asian female artists.
For MAW25 The Auxiliary will host a group exhibition including the artists: Erin Dickson, Richie Culver, John B. Ledger.
Artists across Middlesbrough Art Week will include:
A Man Called Adam, Andrea Hasler, Bethany Dallas, Carl Truscott, Charlotte Baldwin Hay, Clare Massey , Close & Remote, Darren Cullen, Demdike Stare, Elen Murgasova, Elliot Kitchener , Erin Dickson, Faye Magkanari, Filippos Tsitsopoulos, Iris Ollier, John B Ledger, Jonathan West, Kitty McKay, Lauren Shilling, Lily-Grace Dawson, Petra Szemán, Regis, Rosie Gibbins, Sigita Silina, Simon Poulter, Slow White Fall, Zaeemah Bashir
Programme collaborators Mike Stubbs, Alex Zawadzki & Ishma Shah, Tim Maxymenko, Sue Loughlin, Penny Payne, & Steve Kirby
Artists will create performances, exhibitions, workshops, as well as talks or discussions.
There are also numerous opportunities for artists to participate. The North East Open Call (NEOC) will also again take place and artists based in the North East or with a connection to the area to submit existing works for exhibition. Selected artists showcase their pieces in a group exhibition or through interventions across Middlesbrough. The 2025 Selection Panel: Penny Payne NEOC Curator & NEOC Alumni Artist, Alex Zawadzki Founder & Director of The Second Act gallery, Helen Welford, Exhibition and Collection Curator (MIMA), Rose McMurray, Assistant Curator (The Baltic) Amani Mitha Assistant Curator (The Baltic) David Hoyland, Director (Seventeen Gallery) & Seamus McCormick, Curator (New Contemporaries). The Tees Valley Solo Show (TVSS) is a new opportunity for artists based-in, or from, the Tees Valley. The selection panel were Abi Shapiro, Curator at The Hepworth Wakefield, Artist Liz Wilson and Polly Wright, Curator at Devonshire Collective in Eastbourne. Finally, the New Graduate Award (NGA) is designed to support recent art graduates from North East institutions as they transition into professional artistic careers.
Middlesbrough Art Week, September 25th – October 4th 2025 @middlesbroughartweek
Grand opening of The Auxiliary Project Space September 25th
About
Middlesbrough Art Week was born in 2017 as an artist-led festival powered by The Auxiliary Project Space, a growing team of artists, curators and coordinators, and fuelled by wide reaching partnerships. MAW supports artist ecologies in the North East, connecting artistic practice and ideas with like-minded peers nationally and internationally, and is committed to practise, and not just, preach principles of fair work and social justice. @middlesbroughartweek
The Auxiliary Project Space is an artist-led, National Portfolio Organisation based in Middlesbrough that emphasises artistic development, large scale exhibitions, cultural development strategies and community participation. While the organisation is active across middlesbrough and teesside, its home is an 13,000sq ft warehouse, currently under capital development supported by the DCMS Cultural Development Fund and Middlesbrough Development Corporation. In addition to the provision of artists studios, workshops, events and gallery spaces for local and international artists, The Auxiliary is the creative engine powering two further cultural festivals each year; Sonic Arts Week and Middlesbrough Art Week. A founding member of the Middlesbrough Cultural Partnership and an advocate for the visual arts and festival sector, The Auxiliary has been instrumental in transforming the region’s industrial landscape into a hub for artistic and cultural innovation. @theauxiliaryprojectspace
Liam Slevin is a creative instigator, sound artist, and artistic director. He is interested in artist communities and ecologies, DIY/T cultures, and building physical and digital spaces for culture and artists to thrive. Alongside Anna Byrne, he co-founded the Auxiliary Project Space C.I.C. (2016) and Middlesbrough Art Week (2017). In addition to devising and managing the artistic programs for both, he has co-led The Auxiliary Project Space through a period of rapid growth, becoming a National Portfolio Organisation in 2023 and undergoing a £1.4 million redevelopment with funding secured from DCMS and TVCA. He also founded and co-directs Sonic Arts Week, represents visual artists on the Creative Place Advisor Group for TVCA, is a founding member of Middlesbrough Cultural Partnership, as well as an active member of Tees Valley Festival Network. @slevin.liam
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- A Man Called Adam
- Andrea Hasler
- Bethany Dallas
- Carl Truscott
- Charlotte Baldwin Hay
- Clare Massey
- Close & Remote
- Darren Cullen
- Demdike Stare
- Elen Murgasova
- Elliot Kitchener
- Erin Dickson
- Faye Magkanari
- Filippos Tsitsopoulos
- Iris Ollier
- John B. Ledger
- Jonathan West
- Kitty McKay
- Lauren Shilling
- Lily-Grace Dawson
- MAW25
- middlesbrough
- Middlesbrough Art Week
- Petra Szemán
- Regis
- Richie Culver
- Rosie Gibbins
- Sigita Silina
- Simon Poulter
- Slow White Fall
- Zaeemah Bashir
