The event celebrated a decade of artistic engagement in the North Tyne Valley, combining exhibitions, workshops, walks, and live events across Highgreen’s gardens, outbuildings, and surrounding moorland.

Artists were invited to create new temporary works, re-present earlier pieces from their residencies, or collaborate with visitors on participatory projects. The celebration showcased work made through VARC’s Artists’ Project Fund as well as long-term resident projects, highlighting the diversity of artistic practices and the ongoing connection between artists and the landscape. Saturday’s programme concluded with a hog roast and ceilidh in the barn, creating a convivial atmosphere for all participants.

Artistic contributions included:

• Gavin Thorogood and James Wyness, who produced Curse of the Hollow Stones, an immersive audio-visual work combining illustration, text, spoken word, and sound composition.
• Linda Gordon and Lucy Andrews, whose installation Divining Rods transformed a clearing into a drift of wooden poles drawing the eye to expansive views.
• Susan Grant and Adrian Lear, presenting Wayside, a site-specific intervention in a remote hilltop building with light, sound, found objects, and sculpture.
• Collaborative works such as Over, Cover by Violet Bennell, Thomas Whittle, Theo Harper-Davis, and Robbie Hudson, which explored rapid societal change through an evolving participatory structure.
• Karen Rann and Helen Goodwin’s Temporary Connection, an installation in a hillside field documenting the creative process over the weekend.

Other highlights included Nigel Morgan’s Northumberland Drawing, Thomas Donaldson’s stencil Angel, Nicky Coutts’ film Passing Place, Bridget Kennedy’s Black Middens, and workshops led by Imi Maufe, Sonja Stringer, Kate Hersey, Kate Bellis, Helen Brown, and James Wyness.

Visitors were encouraged to participate in workshops, contribute to artworks, and explore the surrounding landscape through guided and self-led walks, connecting the creative activities with the natural environment that has inspired VARC artists for a decade.
VARC is grateful to Arts Council England and Northumberland National Park Authority for financial support.