Arcadea Arts

Come along to the Late Shows for the closing event for The Sheer Brass Neck! The event will include a performance by The Wino Halibut Quartet in the gallery at 9pm. Free entry, everyone welcome. Also taking place from 6 - 9pm, High Bridge Works Open Studios. • Arcadea Disability Arts / Hub Studio Arcadea is disability arts charity working to develop and represent artists with learning disabled artists via the Hub Studio and our ICEbox youth project. Arcadea CIO, Ground Floor East,, Grainger Town Car Park, Waterloo Square, Newcastle, NE1 4AU, 07869 713203 / • The Wino Halibut Quartet The Wino Halibut Quartet involves the fusion of bizarre electronic noise and dark, disturbing reflections about making sense of growing up disabled towards the end of the 20th Century. ‘It Ruined the Holiday for Everyone Else’ is a half-hour soundscape backing a personal and confrontational critique of societal attitudes towards disability, especially the tendency to view it solely as a negative or abnormal state. It challenges conventional assumptions and expresses joy for the unique perspective and insight gained through resistance to the imposition of the non-disabled’s banal expectations. It involves some sweary words. The Wino Halibut Quartet comes from Whitley Bay and Blyth. • DJs Not Pjs at the Hub Studio Hubba hubba! For one night, Arcadea Disability Arts’ Hub Studio flips into a buzzing dancefloor. Live on Nova Radio, studio members take over the decks, dropping their own selections and setting the pace, while the space is transformed with an environment that glows, pulses, and wraps the room in colour. There’s a bar, there’s movement, there’s bass you can feel — and an atmosphere built by the artists themselves. Come to dance, connect and be part of a night where access, creativity and club culture meet. Everyone’s welcome! #thelateshows #newcastle #northeast #artexhibtion #newcastlecontemporaryart

Last chance to see The Sheer Brass Neck, a show featuring Acarcadeas Hub artists 1-3. Terry Doherty Untitled 2025- 2026 Textile embroidery on acrylic mesh 85 cm x 70 cm 4. Terry Doherty Untitled 2025- 2026 Textile embroidery on acrylic mesh and sequins 74 cmx 136cm Check link in bio for more information Open Thursday, Friday, Saturday 12-5pm + late opening on Saturday for the Late Shows ✨

ARCADEA WITH FOUNDATION PRESS AND LILY MAE KROESE: FRIDAY FOX (2026) 26 Earthenware ceramic pieces, featured within the exhibition STARTING LINES @balticgateshead (until 30 August 2026). Alex, Beth, Charlotte, Jane and Grace are part of the Friday Women’s group at Arcadea Disability Arts’ Hub Studio. They have been working with Artist-in-Residence Lily Mae Kroese @lilymaekroese to create their own artworks and work towards an exhibition The Sheer Brass Neck at Newcastle Contemporary Arts (17th April - 9th May). The group worked with Foundation Press to make their own alphabet out of clay. Be sure to check out their show @visitnca before it’s gone!

The Sheer Brass Neck (Gallery 2) Mass Observation and the NorDAF Archive An exhibition bringing together the NorDAF archive and new work by Arcadea’s Hub Studio Artist. Alan Don | Richard Thomas | Terry Doherty | Luke Scott | Marylin Haddock | Jayne Tate | Alex Taylor | Grace English | Charlotte Frank | Beth Nixon | Jason Thomas | Juary Delgado Lima | Jeremy Chan | Tracey Beaty | Daniel Rae The Sheer Brass Neck marks 30 years since the introduction of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 and 35 years since the founding of the Northern Disability Arts Forum (NorDAF) in 1991. Presented by Newcastle Contemporary Art and Arcadea CIO in partnership with North East Museums, the exhibition reflects on the fundamental role disabled artists and activists have played in shaping the narrative concerning the struggles for equality, access, and cultural representation in the UK. 📍The Sheer Brass Neck is on view at Newcastle Contemporary Art until 9 May 2026. 🔗 Click the link in our bio for more information

The Sheer Brass Neck (Gallery 1) An exhibition bringing together the NorDAF archive and new work by Arcadea’s Hub Studio Artist. Alan Don | Richard Thomas | Terry Doherty | Luke Scott | Marylin Haddock | Jayne Tate | Alex Taylor | Grace English | Charlotte Frank | Beth Nixon | Jason Thomas | Juary Delgado Lima | Jeremy Chan | Tracey Beaty | Daniel Rae The Sheer Brass Neck marks 30 years since the introduction of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 and 35 years since the founding of the Northern Disability Arts Forum (NorDAF) in 1991. Presented by Newcastle Contemporary Art and Arcadea CIO in partnership with North East Museums, the exhibition reflects on the fundamental role disabled artists and activists have played in shaping the narrative concerning the struggles for equality, access, and cultural representation in the UK. 📍The Sheer Brass Neck is on view at Newcastle Contemporary Art until 9 May 2026. 🔗 Click the link in our bio for more information

We’re excited to announce details of The Sheer Brass Neck, an exhibition that brings together the NorDAF archive and new work by Arcadea’s Hub Studio Artists.  17th April – 9th May 2026  Open: Thursday - Saturday, 12 - 5pm  Quiet hours: Fridays, 12 - 2pm  Preview: 16th April, 5 - 7 pm  The exhibition draws on the never before released archive of material from NorDAF, an influential disabled-led organisation active in the North East during the 1990s, later established as the charity Arcadea in 2004. The archive documents a period when disabled artists in the region were organising, publishing, performing and reshaping cultural spaces on their own terms. The exhibition celebrates the legacy of the late Geof Armstrong, who was instrumental in the formation of NorDAF. He later returned as Director to Arcadea in 2010 and developed it into the vibrant studios they have today. Alongside this archival material, Arcadea’s Hub Studio Artists present new work responding directly to the archive’s activist energy. Working across disciplines including portraiture and embroidery, they explore what has changed over the past three decades — and what barriers around access, representation, authorship and power within the arts still remain. Links to more information about the exhibition and events can be found in our bio. #TheSheerBrassNeck #DisabilityArts #NewcastleContemporaryArt #NorthEastArts #NewcastleExhibitions

One of our HUB members has been working hard on a new series of drawings over the last few weeks, in preparation for our exhibition next year! He has been creating dynamic and vibrant portraits of important people within our disability community - some are activists who have created change on an international scale and some have played an instrumental role in establishing our own organisation. Watch this space!

Our Tuesday group has been making some marvellous masks from recycled objects 🤩 here’s some of the works in progress… 🎭

Getting ready for the BBQ

*EVENT CHANGED TO SATURDAY 17TH AUGUST* Due to the planned protests in Newcastle on Saturday we have taken the decision to move our annual BBQ to next week. This is to ensure the comfort and safety of everyone attending. We are sorry for any disappointment this may cause.