The Arts Cafe @ Community House has run a programme of workshops and exhibitions led by artist’s and co-created with community participants.

Co-created by artists Bex Harvey and Sarah Li with young people from Dawdon in Seaham and Barnard Castle in Teesdale Queer Futures was a celebration of youth culture and inclusivity.

SCRAN was a contemporary response from artists and communities engaging and reacting with Gordon Matta-Clark’s ‘FOOD’, exploring food, the county and art & creativity. SCRAN featured commissions by artists Lady Kitt, Pink Collar Gallery and Max Cooper-Clark, alongside Roisin Crowley Linton and Jonluke McKie.

The Gay Shed is a new, tourable addition to the Beamish Museum Collection made by and for LGBTQIA+ and ally youth as a fun and safe space that represents LGBTQIA+ and ally youth culture in County Durham today. Artist Bex Harvey and Sarah Li worked with two youth hubs in County Durham Dawdon Youth Hub in Seaham and TCR Hub in Teesdale to design and construct the fabulous 'Gay Shed' and the accompanying picnic blanket inspired by the Beamish quilt collection.

Celebrating the position of women in a town named after a man, Nana’s House wasn’t a gallery. It wasn’t a workshop programme. It wasn’t even really an exhibition in the traditional sense. It was something else entirely - a public living room in Peterlee, a space to rest, to remember, to feel welcome, to explore what happens when people are invited into a space that feels like “Nana’s House.”

Owt & About Print is a unique project designed to bring the joy and creativity of printmaking to communities across County Durham in collaboration with Foundation Press. Portable printmaking kits and workshops will provide individuals with the tools and knowledge to create their own prints, creating a new opportunity for artistic expression and creative community connection.

Artist Narbi Price and writer Mark Hudson explore themes surrounding the 1984 miners strike and its legacy in Horden, County Durham 40 years on.

‘You Heard Us’ is a public art project that demonstrates the power of community engagement and collaboration. Developed over an extended period of time, it involved more than 100 participants who contributed their voices, stories and energy. The project led by Lizzie Klotz and Luca Rutherford, took place at two key locations: the Quaking Houses Community Centre and the Greenhills Centre in Wheatley Hill.

In the heart of County Durham a groundbreaking project is challenging societal perceptions and empowering marginalised young people to find their voices, work with artists to create their world.

A long-term collaboration with Durham University and the communities of County Durham the Street series explored the idea that big art, museum artifacts and concepts like the universe shouldn’t just be held in institutions and traditional buildings like galleries and museums.

‘A Seat At The Table’ is a theatre project inspired by and made with residents connected to Community Hubs that sustain many neighbourhoods across County Durham. Through collaborative workshops and powerful performances, the project gives voice to the challenges and triumphs of these essential community spaces.

Artists Sally Southern and Nicola Lynch worked with hundreds of people across the village of Annfield Plain to explore their stories, pride of place and how the high street can be viewed differently through workshops, make and take events and pop-up bus stop takeovers.

5 years on from the original If These Walls Could Talk artists Sally Southern and Nicola Lynch returned to Horden to celebrate and co-create another series of bus stops with the residents of Horden.

Hearts & Hopes of Horden brough together the community of Horden to explore their future hopes and what it means to be from a place like Horden.

Working with men’s crees and community groups across East Durham towns and villages since 2022, The Six Twenty Theatre company have co-created a project celebrating their hobbies, interests and fandoms - bowling, music collecting, building Meccano, pigeon fancying, beekeeping, and wrestling are big passions authentically retold.

Centred around the concept of gathering around a campfire with food to share stories, artists from the The Auxiliary drew out untold stories from East Durham residents (co-creators) through gathering, listening, walking, music, drawing, making ceramics and open & safe space building.

Untold Stories is a series of ongoing projects, inviting creatives and residents to come together to collaborate, telling the stories of underrepresented or unheard people and communities.

Artists Andrew Wood has created a ‘game space’, representative of a digital version of the new town of Peterlee as it turns 75. It’s impossible to tell the story of Peterlee, its 75 years, or to chart its course forward without first reckoning with its multitude of canceled futures.

Digital Residency artist Alistair Flindall re-tells the incredible (but true!) stories of Bishop Auckland Football Club through his mural and Augmented Reality works - unlocking fascinating local heritage of the most successful amateur club in English Football history for new audiences.

Artists Bex Harvey and Sarah Li worked with the young people from the Youth Hub at Dawdon Youth and Community Centre (DYCC), exploring the archives from Durham University. They discovered that Durham Castle has a bust of Sappho, influencing conversations and many questions, perhaps the most thought-provoking being, “Are there any queer landmarks in Durham?”