Dovecote Street Arts

05/07/2026

🎬Exhibition Film!

We're pleased to finally share our Exhibition Film! Our exhibition 'Amble, Northumberland, England' has closed and if you didn't get a chance to visit, or you did and wanted to learn more about the 70 artworks on display, here's your chance! Thank you to Jim for all his hard work on this.

Earlier this year we issued an Open Call for our exhibition, to tak...

01/07/2026

📸Thanks to everyone that joined us for last night’s Crit night!

It was great to hear from everyone that presented, including Maurice Ward and his presentation on light in art, Sarah Bradford speaking about Gwen John as well as Carmen Gordon and her spectacular huge painting!

Christine Daniel shared more about her very personal and emotive exploration of the themes that influence her art and Romina, who shared more with the audience about her journey to Low Hauxley and getting back to making art!

We also showed a clip at the start from the Exhibition Tour Film that Jim has produced for our recent show, detailing all of the artworks on display. This will be available by the end of the week on our YouTube channel and we’ll be sure to share it to our social media accounts. Stay tuned!

11/06/2026

📸Well! That's a wrap!

Yesterday Jim & I took the exhibition down and tomorrow will see the artists starting to return to collect their work from us. I often liken exhibitions to Icebergs, in that there is much beneath the surface that goes into making the bit above the waterline (or on the walls) visible. Exhibitions like this are a huge exercise in logistics!

It will also be great to see many of the works exhibited head off to their new homes. We are really grateful to the members of the public that have supported the work of local artists by buying original art.

We've loved every moment of it and it has truly been a pleasure welcoming each and every one of you across the threshold! To round things off, we thought we'd share some of the friendly faces that took part in our exhibition, the artists alongside their artworks! We're also really appreciative of all of the participating artists that volunteered their time to invigilate the exhibition, it's truly been a team effort!

A reminder that you can join us for our next Crit (the 4th last one!) on Tuesday 30th June to see some of these characters and their work!

06/06/2026

📣Last day! A reminder that tomorrow is the last day of our latest exhibition ‘Amble, Northumberland, England’! Thanks to the over 400 of you that have visited so far! Especially to those of you that have bought works, we’ve seen red dots on nearly 1/3 of the artworks!

📹Fret not if you haven’t managed to get along yet, or equally if you have visited and wanted to learn more about the works on display, I’ve been down with Jim this afternoon recording a special film piece documenting the show. Jim will edit it together and we’ll make this ‘curators tour’ available on our YouTube channel in the next couple of weeks!

04/06/2026

📸Was fantastic to welcome the Amble WI for a visit & guided tour to our 'Amble, Northumberland, England' exhibition yesterday! Always a warm reception from this bunch, I spent time talking the group through the nearly 70 artworks on display, sharing some of the various stories behind the pieces. Just a reminder that you've got until this Sunday to see the exhibition, which has seen over 400 visitors now in just this short period!

28/05/2026

📸Thanks to everyone who came along to this month's Crit on Tuesday!

As those of you who were there heard, Jim & I have made the decision that September's Crit - which will mark 3 years since we first began these events, will be our last & final one.

It's been a great laugh over the past 3 years hearing from you all, exploring ideas & your work as a community, however there's no avoiding the fact that it is an enormous amount of work behind the scenes - all of which is voluntary and unpaid on the part of me and Jim. We've kept it up as long as we can, but both feel 3 years is a good run and that there is merit in quitting whilst we are ahead.

The Crit has generated a tremendous community - and it's now up to you lot how you take things forward. I know some of you already have ideas and both Jim & I look forward to seeing how they develop and where they lead. We do feel confident that the fantastic, positive & warm community that has been generated won't dissipate.

An enormous thanks to those of you who have taken part in our current open exhibition. We had well over 100 people through the door at the opening night and have seen a further 200 visitors since Saturday. You have got until Sunday 7th June to see it.

27/05/2026

📰Huge thanks to journalist Tony Henderson for this fabulous feature in yesterdays Journal! Well done to winners, Andrew Holder, Carmen Gordon & Marjorie Firth who's work is featured in the article on Page 10.

25/05/2026

🎨LAOTY Competition!

We had such a fantastic time on Sunday for the Annual Amble Puffin Festival Landscape Artist of the Year competition, which saw 8 artists competing for the title!

Top prize went to Janet Moloney for her winning watercolour painting of the dredger moored outside the Harbour Commissioners building, with Angi Hodges in second for her atmospheric sketch of the old staithes and North Pier and John Tuff in third for his evocative mixed media piece depicting the Little Shore and pier.

Big well done to all of the participants and a special thank you to the judges; artists Katherine Rousselange & Ted Taylor and Harbour Master, Gary Paxton. Particular thanks go out to our competition sponsors The Old Boat House Food Group for their gift vouchers, and to the Coquet Shorebase Trust for their gift voucher.

Details in captions. I couldn’t manage to grab a photo of Angi with her piece as she was on duty at the RNLI shop but there’s a photo of her piece in there!

23/05/2026

📰Thanks to journalist Tony Henderson for this great feature on our new exhibition in ! Read via the link below, ft. artists Andrew Holder, Carmen Gordon, Marjorie Firth, Anthea Wood & Antony Beal.

https://www.culturednortheast.co.uk/p/northumberland-open-call-exhibition

23/05/2026

💵We'd like to say a huge thank you to the Alnmouth Arts Festival committee for their grant of £400 towards the core costs of putting on our exhibition! Here are committee members and festival organisers Jayne Billington & Helen Holden at last night's opening.