About the Film

As the Great Exhibition of the North was wrapping up in 2018, I completed one of my favourite projects of that summer, filming the N18 Artist Programme for NewcastleGateshead Initiative. This creative collaboration documentary film follows 18 artists from across the North East as they spent ten weeks exploring how digital tools could shape their practice, and how the experience changed the way many of them thought about themselves as artists.

The Great Exhibition of the North

The Great Exhibition of the North was a landmark cultural event celebrating the creativity, innovation and pioneering spirit of Northern England, held across NewcastleGateshead in 2018. It brought together exhibitions, installations, performances and events showcasing art, design and technology from across the region, built around the ambition to tell the story of the North and how Northern ideas and talent continue to shape the world. For emerging artists on the N18 Artist Programme, it offered a genuine platform to develop new work and connect with wider audiences.

Digital Tools and Creative Collaboration

Between June and August, N18 brought 18 creative practitioners together with mentors, workshops and hands-on experience in digital technologies. Some artists found themselves combining existing skills in new ways, uniting things like ceramics and digital design into hybrid forms of work, while others explored entirely new territory such as projection mapping and augmented reality. As one artist put it:

The main thing that I got out of the project was the confidence to start working with digital technology. It’s expanded my practice in lots of different directions while simultaneously helped me refine what I’m doing.

Building Confidence Through Creative Collaboration

What came through most clearly while filming was how much of the programme’s value lay in creative collaboration itself, not just in learning digital skills. Several artists spoke about how intimidating new technology had felt at first, and how working alongside other artists made it far more approachable. One participant explained it simply:

I used to be really scared of digital, but now I’m not. I think of it as a tool in my toolbox and I’m not scared to ask questions about it, and I’m not scared to give something a go.

Others spoke about the value of working across disciplines with mentors and peers, building connections that were likely to outlast the programme itself.

Becoming an Artist

For some participants, N18 changed something more personal than their technical skills. A few described the programme as the point where they first felt able to call themselves artists at all.

Before I started this project, I wouldn’t have considered myself an artist. And really, it’s given me the confidence to say that, and to also open up the possibility for collaboration, which I never would have considered before.

That is the real power of a programme like N18. It does not only teach technical skills. It builds networks, confidence and a sense of belonging within a wider creative community.

Filming N18

As a filmmaker, it was a privilege to document this particular kind of creative collaboration, watching conversations, experiments and small personal breakthroughs unfold across a whole summer rather than a single afternoon. Projects like N18 are a reminder of how much creative collaboration can drive not just new work, but real shifts in confidence and identity, and it will be good to see how these artists continue shaping the cultural landscape of NewcastleGateshead in the years ahead.