Tees Valley Projects Shine at Culture Awards

A talented list of winners has featured in a prestigious 2025 North East Cultural awards ceremony.

With the support of the Combined Authority as Headline Partner, a packed Globe Theatre, in Stockton, celebrated the worthy winners on Thursday evening (28 November).

Tees Valley Winners included:

• Special Award for Young Achievement – The Young Producers, Tees Valley Museums.  The project has gone from strength to strength, led and supported by Tees Valley Museums. The Young Producers are a collective of 16 to 25-year-olds transforming museums and galleries across the Tees Valley.
• Best Event or Exhibition – Between the Tides Festival which saw more than 20,000 people attend its latest edition at Kirkleatham Museum, such was its pulling power.
• Best Arts & Business Partnership, in partnership with Tees Valley Combined Authority – winner Navigator North, TransPennine Express and Middlesbrough Council. Navigator North are a co-delivery partner with The Auxiliary in FORGED a programme funded by TVCA to develop tourable artworks. Joint efforts have yielded featured 10 works by artists Emma Bennett, Catherine Bertola, Ed Carter, Nell Catchpole, Rachael Clewlow, Gareth Hudson & Toby Thirling, Beth Johnson, KEINO, Helen Pailing and Adam Shaw which were displayed at Middlesbrough railway station over 12 months. The partners worked closely and the project was so well received that TransPennine Express took ownership of three works which will remain at the station for the foreseeable future.

Tees Valley is on a mission to lead the UK’s creative economy by becoming an engine room of production – a place where global stories, ideas and content are made and exported across the globe.

This is being done by attracting investment, building infrastructure, and creating a climate to capture the full benefits of the growth coming into the region’s towns.

Bringing the North East Culture Awards to our region, and supporting the incredible local talent recognised through this platform, is a key part of this.

Shortlisted finalists for awards were singer-songwriter Finn Forster, one of the five Tees Valley Artists of the Year, for Performer of the Year, Land of Iron and ARC Stockton, for Best Museum or Cultural Venue, and for Best Event or ExhibitionPlay UNRULY by Vici Wreford-Sinnott was also shortlisted for The Arts Council England Award, and writer, performer and musician Dominic Nelson-Ashley was nominated for Writer of the Year.

Photographer Ian Macdonald reached the final three for the Visual Artist of the Year prize, while Nana Kofi Asamoah-Adu was shortlisted for as one of the Newcomers of the Year. Aaron Bowman was also nominated for the Off Stage Creative of the Year award.

The awards are hosted by Reach PLC and more info can be found here.