VARC partnered with The Auxiliary, a Middlesbrough-based contemporary art organisation, to host thirteen Tees Valley artists in a special residency programme at Highgreen. The collaboration formed part of The Auxiliary’s wider artistic development initiative, designed to give emerging and mid-career artists opportunities to expand their practice through new contexts and environments.

As The Auxiliary’s Artistic Director Liam Slevin explained:

“As part of our artistic development programme, we had spoken to our studioholders about what might help with that. One of the things that came up was going on residencies, and we’ve been really lucky in being successful in our application as a consortium to VARC.”

The participating artists represented a wide range of disciplines—including painting, ceramics, sound, textiles, sculpture, writing, and installation. Each spent at least one week in residence at Highgreen, using the time to explore how a rural environment might shift their perspectives and practices as artists more accustomed to working in urban spaces.

On 12 August 2023, several artists took part in an open day at VARC, presenting live demonstrations and informal talks that offered visitors an insight into their processes and early responses to the landscape. The residency culminated in the exhibition From the Urban to the Rural, curated by Will Hughes for Middlesbrough Art Week (28 September–7 October 2023). The show brought together documentation, objects, and artworks created during the residency, celebrating the dialogue between two very different environments.

Throughout the programme, each artist approached the landscape of Highgreen in distinctive and personal ways:

• Gordon Dalton used the uninterrupted time to walk, paint, and write, producing lyrical landscape paintings that combined memory and invention to explore belonging and romanticism.
• Anna Byrne, writer and managing director of The Auxiliary, used her stay to continue a new novel and plan future writing projects.
• Dianne Bowell worked with painted textiles, installing and photographing her fabric pieces in outdoor settings to explore transience and feminine expression.
• Rachel Deakin reconnected with analogue photography and experimental processes, responding to the pace and textures of rural life.
• Emma Bennett created a series of paintings inspired by Highgreen’s architecture, translating structures and materials into abstract compositions on concrete panels.
• Will Hughes experimented with new sculptural prototypes using a 3D printer and silicone casting, drawing inspiration from the nocturnal atmosphere of the site.
• Andy Newcombe (Vision 25-C) produced sound and film works exploring authority and communication, while Dyad developed text-based installations questioning social hierarchies and power structures.
• John James Perangie reimagined objects through a queer lens, queering materials and forms to propose new narratives.
• Loucey Bain responded intuitively to the unfamiliar rural surroundings through drawing and sculpture that examined space, scale, and architecture.
• Chris Suttie created ceramics using locally sourced clays, firing works in wood kilns to highlight the connection between material and place.
• Lisa Lovebucket developed new collage works and audiovisual experiments linking her artistic practice to foraging and psychogeography.
• Nell Catchpole, environmental sound artist, created improvised “micro-rituals” in the landscape, recording sounds and gestures that embodied connection and presence.

Together, the participating artists formed a vibrant cross-section of contemporary Tees Valley practice. Their time at Highgreen offered a rare opportunity to slow down, reflect, and create in a landscape far removed from their usual urban studios. From the Urban to the Rural captured this shared journey, revealing how shifting contexts can reshape creative expression and deepen the relationship between artist, place, and community.