To celebrate 40 years of the Tyne and Wear Metro, we worked with artists to bring the network to life through dance, song, music and visual arts projects involving people right across the region and funded by Arts Council England.
Major regional arts organisations including Sunderland Culture, Dance City and Cultural Spring ran community projects and commissions that were showcased at Metro stations.
Learn more about our unique initiatives below.
Metro Community Takeover Events
We launched Metro Takeover with pop-up dance performances specially co-commissioned by Nexus and Dance City, and choreographed by Robby Graham of Southpaw Dance Company.
The new work, a dance-theatre production called REACH, was performed by 14 emerging dance artists who were part of the postgraduate company The Collective, based at Dance City. In a community-sourced narrative written by Lee Mattinson, it examined the possibilities and the optimism of re-connecting once again as the country emerged from lockdown, culminating in a celebration of the things that connect us and will support our recovery, through friends, family, community and reconnection.
REACH was performed at Park Lane Interchange, Tynemouth Metro station and Newcastle Civic Centre between 4 and 6 August 2021.
The second Metro Takeover event was Society of Strays presenting their new outdoor work, Cycle, at Whitley Bay Metro Station and Gateshead Interchange Metro concourse on 3 and 4 September 2021.
Cycle looks at the multitude of cycles we play out in our lives on a macro and micro scale. From the monotony of our daily routines and the journeys we take, to falling in love and falling apart. It looks at our need for community and the challenges that separate us. It is set to be a truly captivating performance that taps into a range of emotions.
In a twisty, punchy, dark comical tone, the work involved a professional cast, voluntary cast and live Soprano.
Youth theatre group, Stage Tynemouth, performed two short, choreographed, contemporary pieces, featuring thought provoking and entertaining stories told through the mediums of drama and dance at Cullercoats, Monkseaton and Whitley Bay Metro stations on 4 and 5 December 2021.
The two new pieces 'The Witch' and 'The Bird' were created especially for Metro by local writer Sam Neale and dance facilitator Katherine Whale. This marked the first ever time that live theatre was performed on the Metro system.
Curious Arts, the leading LGBTQIA+ arts organisation in North East England, set up ‘Story Stations’ on Metro to tell the stories of customers’ everyday journeys on a giant colourful mural. Our Story Stations were Central Station on 26 March and Monument on 27 March 2022.
The illustrators mapped out the stories on a large paper canvas, which over the two days became a huge Metro map of families’ stories and adventures that interweave.
While the families were enjoying their time at the Story Station, with consent the illustrators, they had sketched their portraits. The quick-fire sketches were offered to them as a memory of their Metro journey that day.
In partnership with Sunderland Culture and The Fire Station, local and regional music talent performed at Park Lane Interchange in Sunderland city centre on Friday 2 and Saturday 3 September 2022.
Friday’s performers: Labyrinthine Oceans; Rebecca Young; Louis Chrisp; Hayley McKay; Rob Heron; Paper Boats; Yusuf Yahaya; Lily Cooke; Hivemind.
Saturday’s performers: Pud!; Georgia May; Sour Mash Trio; Lesley Roley; Keddy Sowells; Ruby & the Mystery Cats; Ruth Lyon; AP3; Fire Lady Luck.
We worked with with graphic artist Mike Duckett to create a graphic novel based on the experiences of our frontline Metro teams.
Mike spent time with some of our frontline employees, listening to their stories and turning them into drawings.
10,000 copies were made available and distributed to community groups, public spaces, schools, colleges and universities and distributed to Nexus employees.
We worked with composer, instrumentalist and music facilitator Holly Khan on a song for Metro.
Holly led song writing and performance workshops with local schools, choirs and community groups to formulate the Song for Metro.
The song's lyrics are:
VERSE 1
Through the veins of the city
Wherever we go
With our tickets in pocket
All our to’s and fro’s
All our points of arrival
On schedule, in lives
One rich one poor
All running on time
PRE CHORUS
Our adventures all start
With a point on our map
And our legend of zones
And our options to tap
All our solo missions
Congregate on the tracks
The beat of percussion
Of electric click clacks
(click clacks, click clacks)
CHORUS
The echo of our journey
All our A to B’s
The destination you
The starting point me
X2
VERSE 2
With a sigh or a yawn
Or a glance or a smile
Whatsoever the weather
We’ll clock up the miles
To our jobs, to our homes
And the schools, shops and bars
The tracks beat the traffic
so abandon your cars!
PRE CHORUS
Our adventures all start
With a point on our map
And our legend of zones
And our options to tap
All our solo missions
Congregate on the tracks
The beat of percussion
Of electric click clacks
(click clacks, click clacks)
CHORUS
The echo of our journey
All our A to B’s
The destination you
The starting point me
X2
We worked with creative education organisation Little Inventors in March 2022, to encourage primary school children to invent something that might make journeys on Metro even more fun.
The winning inventors were:
- Lily Kenyon, age 10, who invented the Mettie Mash Virtual Tour Guide, giving customers information on the sights they were passing on the Metro;
- Eva Browell, age 9, who invented the Super Ultra Pup Seat to make sure dogs feel at home on Metro;
- Maddie Wilson, age 11, who invented the Move and Groove ticket dispenser which gives active customers 50% off their ticket price if they move or dance before buying their ticket
- Eden Armstrong-Kirtley, age 7, who invented the Metro Fun Park, a Metro carriage just for children, with a ball pool, climbing frame and bouncy castle.
Artwork celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Tyne and Wear Metro went on display at three South Tyneside stations in July 2022.
The artwork was produced through a project delivered by The Cultural Spring, working with County Durham artist Laura Brenchley and a mix of local community groups.
The artwork is in the form of large collages made up of individual tiles created by members of the community groups, and can be seen in Hebburn, Chichester and Bede stations. Groups and schools who took part in the project included Hospitality and Hope’s Wellbeing Hub, Hebburn Sea Cadets, Lord Blyton Primary School, Monkton Academy, groups from Bilton Hall Community Trust and NAAFI Break South Tyneside, an organisation run for veterans by veterans.
Acclaimed artist Chad McCail was commissioned by Sunderland Culture in July 2022 to create a large-scale community-led mural on a wall facing the car park at Millfield Metro Station.
McCail worked alongside Young Asian Voices (YAV) and Pallion Action Group over a period of 7 weeks between September – November 2022. During this period the groups supported by McCail produced puppets and discussed Sunderland’s past, present and future - leading to the development of Hopes and Fears.
Chad McCail (born 1961 in Manchester) studied English at the University of Kent and obtained a BA in Fine Art from Goldsmiths, University of London in 1989. His solo exhibitions include: TOY, Northern Gallery of Contemporary Art, Sunderland (2020); We are not dead, Gallery of Modern Art, Glasgow (2006); Food, Shelter, Clothing, Fuel, Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore (2004); and Life is driven by the desire for pleasure, The Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh (2003). His group exhibitions include Eye on Europe: Prints, Books and Multiples, 1960 to Now, MoMA, New York (2006); British Art Show 5, UK touring exhibition (2000); and Becks Futures, ICA, London (2000). He lives and works in Thankerton, South Lanarkshire.
