L-INK 2025/26

L-INK are a group of young people who work with the Laing Art Gallery and Hatton Gallery to create events, workshops, resources and make their own art work. The project is annual, beginning each year in October and finishing in June/July, in line with school and college terms. Each year, the L-INK project invites new participants to join, as some older members leave to study or work in different places. The group is usually made up of a core 15 young people, who attend or have recently graduated from schools and colleges in Newcastle, Northumberland, North Tyneside and Durham.

The L-INK 2025/26 project builds on themes from the previous year during which the group, inspired by Laing & Hatton exhibitions, have considered the relationship between artist and curator, have developed their own art-making process. The group explored the concept and possibilities of uniqueness: what makes them unique as individuals and how they are unique within and as a group with a collaborative arts practice, culminating in an exhibition of their own work. 

For their 2025/26 project, L-INK will work with the Hatton team to curate an exhibition of works from the Jerwood Collection, exploring how artists become artists. Unlike most other professions or vocations every artist becomes an artist in a different way and at different times in their life. Some artists are art-makers all the time; others have relationships to the creative process which vary in their intensity, incidence and fluidity.

They will research the lives of artists, specifically, the ways in which artists have progressed their practices through both formal and informal education and lived experience. Part of the exhibition will be dedicated to the work of school children at different stages of their own arts progression, and who have been inspired by work from the Jerwood Collection. This project takes inspiration from Victor Pasmore’s 1957 ‘Art Education Exhibition’ in which the work of non-degree specialist art from children to mature students was shown together. L-INK participants will also have the opportunity to meet and work with practising artists and Art Galleries staff.

Additional opportunities: Where possible and appropriate, we endeavour to explore exhibitions at other galleries through research trips to other venues both in and outside the local area.

The Jerwood Collection of Modern and Contemporary art has been acquired during the last 30 years by Jerwood Foundation, a charity dedicated to supporting the arts in the U.K. Originally displayed on the walls of the Foundation’s then office in Fitzroy Square in London, the focus of the Collection is now to provide public benefit through its active exhibition and loaning programme. 

The history of the Jerwood Collection reflects, in part, the wider story of Jerwood itself and, as with most private collections, many works have a personal significance. In the first years of collecting Jerwood Foundation Chairman Alan Grieve CBE (1928-2025) was guided by the Jerwood Advisory Board and the late Sir Peter Wakefield (Director, National Art Collections Fund, now the Art Fund) who suggested some early key purchases including, Sir Frank Brangwyn’s From my Window at Ditchling. Bought in 1993.

Through its promotion of a broader understanding, interpretation and enjoyment of modern and contemporary art, an important part of Jerwood's philanthropic mission is delivered by the Jerwood Collection, which holds a significant number of paintings, works on paper, sculpture and prints by artists such as Wilhelmina Barns-Graham, Barbara Hepworth, John Piper, Stanley Spencer RA, Barbara Walker and Rose Wylie RA. It continues to grow with new acquisitions and donations under the direction of Lara Wardle, Executive Director and Trustee.  

Apply for L-INK 2025/26: L-INK Application Form

Any questions? Email zoe.allen@northeastmuseums.org.uk 

Application deadline for L-INK 2025/26: Monday 13 October 2025

2025/26 Session Dates
Saturday 18 October 2025
Saturday 15 November 2025
Saturday 13 December 2025
Saturday 10 January 2026
Saturday 14 February 2026
Saturday 14 March 2026
Saturday 11 April 2026
Saturday 9 May 2026
Saturday 13 OR 20 June 2026 (TBC)
Saturday 11 July 2026
August: Overnight Galleries trip, dates TBC

*Session dates are subject to change to accommodate group member schedules and exhibition schedules as much as possible.

L-INK sessions usually run from 10.30am – 4pm with a break for lunch. Snacks are provided but participants should provide their own lunch. Where necessary, some sessions may be shorter and could take place via video call. Advance notice will be given.

About the Hatton Gallery

Newcastle University’s Hatton Gallery was founded in 1926 and named in honour of Professor Richard George Hatton, professor of what was then the King Edward VII School of Art, Armstrong College, Durham University. He subsequently became Head of the Department of Fine Art at Newcastle University.

The Hatton’s diverse collection includes over 3,000 works from the 14th – 20th centuries. Key pieces in our paintings collection include works by Francis Bacon, Prunella Clough, Richard Hamilton, Palma Giovane, Patrick Heron and William Roberts. The gallery also has extensive archive material including paintings, sculpture, prints, drawings and textiles, and material connected to the history of the Gallery, such as exhibition posters designed and printed in the art school.

The Merz Barn Wall

The Merz Barn Wall is part of a construction created by German artist Kurt Schwitters in a Lake District barn in 1947-8. The Elterwater Merz Barn was based on the idea of collage, in which found items are incorporated into an art work. Schwitters applied a rough layer of decorator's plaster and paint over these found objects, giving the three dimensional collage an abstract quality. Asked what it meant, he replied 'all it is, is form and colour, just form and colour'.

The barn was designed as a permanent structure, somewhere Schwitters could exhibit existing work. When he died in January 1948 it was left unfinished. In 1965, after lengthy discussions about the barn's future, the Wall was given to Newcastle University who undertook its removal, restoration and preservation.

About the Laing Art Gallery 

The Laing Art Gallery was founded in 1901, by Alexander Laing, a Newcastle businessman who had made his money from his wine and spirit shop and beer bottling business. Alexander Laing didn’t leave any paintings or other art to the Gallery. He said that he was confident “…that by the liberality of the inhabitants [of Newcastle it would soon be supplied with pictures and statuary for the encouragement and development of British Art”.

The gallery today is home to an internationally important collection of art, focusing on British oil paintings, watercolours, ceramics, silver and glassware.

Hodgson Sayers sponsor North East Museums young people’s programme.