Newcastle Culture Partnership

Unfolding Theatre has been working with Newcastle City Council and Newcastle Gateshead Cultural Venues to help develop a Newcastle Culture Partnership, bringing together cultural workers from across the city to shape the future of culture in Newcastle. This work was initially delivered through our North East Culture Social programme, which expanded significantly in 2025-26.

In September 2025, we hosted an event at Newcastle City Library to relaunch the city's Culture Partnership, discuss Newcastle's cultural strategy and explore the next steps for the partnership. The event featured a keynote from Newcastle’s then Council Leader Cllr Karen Kilgour, alongside creative provocations from rapper Kay Greyson (Free School Meals & Serving Up) and David Almond. Ten bursaries support funded places for freelancers.

Building on that launch, in 2026 we’ve hosted events at Live Theatre exploring the theme of 'Place' and Northern Stage exploring ‘Prosperity’. Speakers came from NewBridge Project, New Writing North, NE1, Newcastle City Council and North East Museums.

We are continuing to work with Newcastle City Council to develop the Culture Partnership into 2027.

If you would like to hear about further updates to Newcastle Culture Partnership, sign up here.

The next event will take place on the afternoon of Thursday 14th January 2027 and is themed around Opportunity for Children & Young People. It will be co-hosted by Newcastle Culture Partnership and GLOW! Newcastle. Watch this space for booking information coming soon.