Real Tees Valley YouTube playlist made up of 25 films from the Real Tees Valley Film Trail. In the order they were shared on social media.
Arts Council England
YouTube Premiere of Real Tees Valley Trailer
Join us at 4pm for the launch of our Real Tees Valley Trailer, which we’re showing on YouTube Premiere (see above).
The film marks the beginning of our celebration of the Real Tees Valley film project, working with more than 25 young people living across the five boroughs of the Tees Valley, mentored by six professional filmmakers to help tell you their stories around the themes of culture and place and become film-makers in their own right.
To see all 25 films, join us on the Real Tees Valley film trail, which will be launching on the 15th November across the Tees Valley, as well as being available to watch online.
Watch out for Further Details.
Real Tees Valley is part of Great Place Tees Valley, which is a Great Place Scheme – funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund and Arts Council England, working with Historic England – run by the Tees Valley Combined Authority on behalf of the communities of the Tees Valley.
Real Tees Valley
Real Tees Valley
Visual Stories of Youth
Real Tees Valley is a film project run over a year across the five boroughs of the Tees Valley, encouraging young people to use the medium of film to tell their own stories around their experiences of living in the area.
Our young prospective and developing film-makers worked alongside six professional film-maker mentors, including a lead mentor film-maker to make the short films which vary in length from one to ten minutes.
The project explored what place and culture meant to this group and wrote a new narrative for the Tees Valley, away from the traditional headlines of industrial boom and decline, through using real voices to illustrate life in contemporary Teesside directly from those who might carve out its future.
Impact
30+
young film-makers
25+
films made
8
artists employed
The Films
Our young film-makers and lead artists have co-produced 27 diverse, visually interesting and story-rich films, around the themes of place and culture, 25 of which the young film-makers have gracefully given consent to show in the public arena.
Working together, lead Film-maker Maxy Bianco supported Tees Valley Arts Curator Miki Rogers to curate these films into five collections which pick up the main themes observed through delving into all the work produced and recognising common threads as the films were being made. Additionally, the locations of the films, their length and how each themed set works together to make a whole body of work was considered.
The themes are: Place – Culture – Diversity – Community – Life
Place

Place features the following films: Roseberry by Harry Twohig, South Park by Jake Blakely-Fisher, Middlesbrough by Jared Boyle, Shoreline by Anna Nappa and Farming by Molly Drew.
You can watch the Place Playlist on YouTube here.
Culture

Culture features the following films: Pasteque by Ryan Welsh, Street Game by Max, Music Culture by Daniel D’Arcy, Deadland by Ryan Whitelock & Ryan Welsh and Surflepool by Elliot Whysall.
You can watch the Culture Playlist on YouTube here.
Diversity

Diversity features the following films: Football by Omran Al Koteishe, Build by Chris Healey, Luke by Luke Devey, Female Rugby Coach by Lucy Wealleans and Traditions on Teesside by Mohammed Miah.
You can watch the Diversity Playlist on YouTube here.
Community

Community features the following films: Football Coaching by Kieran Janicki, From Syria to Hartlepool by Nasim Daraj & Ammar Haskal, Darlo Dean by Dean, Tees Valley on My Mind by Nina Bianco and Corner House.
You can watch the Community Playlist on YouTube here.
Life

Life features the following films: Femininity by Ellie Craven, Sadie by Sadie Rogers, 3 Years by Adam Watson, Displaced by Mohammed Albedai and Alisha by Alisha.
You can watch the Life Playlist on YouTube here.
The Artists
Stories
25 films for 25 days of Christmas YouTube
Real Tees Valley YouTube playlist made up of 25 films from the Real Tees Valley Film Trail. In the order they were shared on social media.
Traditions On Teesside By Mohammed Miah
https://youtu.be/3pvOPMcnTJA Mohammed who is 18 and from Middlesbrough wanted to show a world he might have been brought up in as a child. Instead, personal turmoil at home would change his upbringing significantly. This documentary highlights the importance of providing a safe and well-educated understanding of religions. It discusses some of the traditions which have…
#brilliantlyboro #creativefactory takeover!
Join us from 10am today for our week-long take-over of the #brilliantlyboro #creativefactory space in the Hill Street Centre, Middlesbrough, where we will be working from for the next week. So if you’re in Boro and fancy popping along and meeting with us, then we look forward to seeing you. What’s Going On There will…
Hi my name is Megan Dobbyn
I’m an illustrator who grew up in the Tees Valley, I studied my foundation diploma at Cleveland College of Art and Design and studied illustration at Leeds Arts University. I graduated last July and I am currently living in Leeds working on freelance illustration projects. Being asked to create a map for the Real Tees…
Read More Stories about Real Tees Valley
In Collaboration With
Cornerhouse, Creative Darlington, Darlington Borough Council, Hartlepool Borough Council, Imagine You Can, Middlesbrough Borough Council, Open Shop, Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council, Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council, Tees Valley Combined Authority
The Funders

See our other Great Place Tees Valley projects here.
Heritage on Track
This page is about an 18 month project called "Heritage on Track" by Tees Valley Arts, Creative Darlington and Groundwork NE & Cumbria.
Great Place Tees Valley
Great Place Tees Valley is supported by the National Lottery through Arts Council England and the National Lottery Heritage Fund.
TVA Announces New CEO
TVA, which is committed to the impact of art for individuals and communities across North East England, has appointed a renowned local arts practitioner with an international network as its new Director and CEO.
James Beighton, an arts scholar and curator from Saltburn-on-Sea, will lead us forward, replacing long-serving CEO Rowena Sommerville. James worked as Senior Curator at the prestigious Plus-Tate gallery the Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art (mima) for 12 years where his role included securing the funding, planning and staging a far-reaching programme of world-renowned exhibitions from international contemporary artists as well as public engagement work both with visitors inside the gallery and out in the communities around Middlesbrough.
James left mima in 2014 to undertake a doctoral study examining the history of the visual arts in Teesside. During this time, he also established ‘New Linthorpe’ an exciting project with artist Emily Hesse to recapture the spirit of one of the most important artists in the Aesthetic Movement, Christopher Dresser, whose creations were realised in the Victorian kilns of Middlesbrough’s Linthorpe Art Pottery. Using local clay, the project created a new pottery collection while highlighting the town’s social history and inviting visitors to its exhibition and pottery-making workshops to explore the concept of locality.
In his new role as Director of TVA James will be working with artists and makers across all art forms – from visual arts, to music, to performance. He will work closely with funding, business and public service partners to engage diverse audiences across the Teesside community and address issues including environment, heritage, health and wellbeing, poverty, crime & justice, addiction, and asylum – often working with some of the region’s most vulnerable residents. TVA partners the likes of Teesside University, the Ministry of Justice, the NHS, and environmental agencies, but is also supporting the ambitions of the Tees Valley Combined Authority to bid for UK City of Culture 2025 and working closely to align its work with the strategy of Arts Council England and other key national government and funding partners.
James said:
“This is a truly exciting time to be involved with the arts in Tees Valley. I believe that art and culture form a fundamental part of everybody’s lives. It is a force for good in the world, helping to break down barriers, build confidence and aspiration and capturing the energy and pride of our region’s diverse communities. It’s a privilege to be able to continue my career with an organisation like Tees Valley Arts in a part of the world that I think of as home and I look forward to working with all of the partners and artists to extend TVA’s impact in the years ahead.”
The Chairman of TVA’s Board of Trustees, Richard Anderson, welcomed James’ appointment:
“We are delighted to have secured someone of James’ calibre with such a strong reputation in the arts regionally, nationally and internationally. His work at mima, throughout the TATE gallery network, his PhD study and his inspirational work as an arts practitioner in our region will inform his work as Director, building on the impressive legacy of impact and reach led by Rowena Sommerville and our current team.”
James will take up post from the 1 August, working from TVA’s office at Royal Middlehaven House in Middlesbrough.
Tees Valley officially a Great Place
Tees Valley Combined Authority has secured £1.5 million as part of the Heritage Lottery Fund and Arts Council England Great Place scheme to fund activities which will put arts, culture and heritage at the heart of the community.
We’re simply delighted to be part of the successful Greater Places bid led by the Tees Valley Combined Authority, which will engage people across the sub-region. We look forward to starting our two projects, Real Tees Valley and Five Rivers, which will work with young people and diverse communities in all five boroughs.
Michael Lavery, Vice Chair of Tees Valley Arts
Heaven and Earth by Eric Bainbridge
Heaven and Earth is a public sculpture by Eric Bainbridge, commissioned by Hartlepool Borough Council and funded by Arts Council England.
Harmony-on-tees
Film-maker Yussef Nimer and creative writer Dina Murphy worked with a group of young muslims in Middlesbrough to create a film.
Best Dresses
Best Dresses was a programme which aimed to support the creativity and mental wellbeing of women with substance abuse issues to promote raised self-esteem.