Artist Martha Ellis has begun a new residency at Berwick Academy – the school’s first-ever Artist in Residence, and possibly the first of its kind in any Northumberland school.

This is a rare opportunity for both the school community and the artist to work together to create original artwork, while giving pupils the chance to learn new creative and technical skills.

The residency forms part of the Living Barracks development project and is being produced by the Maltings (Berwick) Trust under the name ‘Berwick Shines’, funded by the UK Government’s Cultural Development Fund. It is one of a series of residences and commissions bringing art into the community, inspired by Berwick Barracks and supported by partners including Berwick Barracks Heritage Trust, English Heritage, The King’s Own Scottish Borderers, the Maltings (Berwick) Trust and Northumberland County Council.

During the 2025–26 academic year, Martha will work with pupils, teachers, and the wider school community to create an exhibition of new work inspired by the school and the heritage of Berwick-upon-Tweed, working closely with the Berwick Record Office. The finished pieces will remain at the school as a lasting legacy of the residency.

Martha Ellis is an artist who specialises in cut-out drawing and sculpture. She has previously been Artist in Residence with Edinburgh Academy and the Hugo Burge Foundation in Berwickshire. Earlier this year, Martha was commissioned by Queen Margaret University to design and create a sculpture commemorating the University’s 150th anniversary.

Martha’s most recent work for the Living Barracks project took place in November 2024, when she collaborated with five local schools to create giant willow-lantern salmon sculptures. These were paraded through Berwick at the December 2024 Christmas Lights Switch-On and later gifted to Berwick Town Council for future civic occasions, including the annual Salmon Queen Procession.

Commenting on her appointment as Berwick Academy’s Artist in Residence, Martha Ellis said:

“Working with a ‘real-life artist’ can be life-changing for students at secondary school age. Learning new skills and seeing what’s possible beyond school education is hugely important – and often missed.

The role of an Artist in Residence offers a chance to both educate and inspire future artists. I have high expectations of the students I work with, ensuring that the outcomes we create together are of a high artistic standard.”

Ben Ryder, Head Teacher at Berwick Academy, commented:

“I am delighted that Berwick Academy will be working with Martha over the coming academic year. This is an exciting opportunity, and I am grateful to the Living Barracks team at The Maltings for their support and commitment in making this possible.

Martha will work directly with our students to enrich the art curriculum and provide a range of creative opportunities throughout the year. We look forward to sharing updates with parents and the wider community as the partnership develops.”

Lucy Vaughan, Head of Maltings Creative Engagement, added:

“This is such an exciting opportunity for everyone involved, and we hope this is the beginning of a vibrant and rewarding relationship. We’re looking forward to working together throughout the school year and exploring the new opportunities for learning and creativity that can emerge from this kind of residency.”

As part of the Living Barracks project, the Maltings’ team has built a strong track record of creative engagement with local schools – from art projects and choir commissions to a film club and initiatives focused on creative careers, with plenty more still to come.

Earlier this year, November Club rebranded as Novo Theatre. We have been chatting with Participation and Talent Producer,  Louise Taylor-Asheg, to find out more about the work Novo has been doing with young people in Northumberland.

Novo Theatre is a professional theatre company which tells original stories in unusual places and spaces across Northumberland, taking inspiration from the geography, landscape, industry and heritage of the region.

Their work often involves co-creation with local communities, including children and young people in partnership with Northumberland schools.

Home from Home

Home from Home was an R&D project co-created with pupils from Lowick & Holy Island CE First School and award-winning children’s author & theatre maker Lisette Auton.

Over the course of six months Lisette explored with the children ideas of friendship and feelings, which inspired her to write the script. Designer Amy Watts brought their vision to life in the school gym, creating an out of this world experience for the pupils, who discovered the alien spaceship crash-landed on their school yard!

This was an immersive theatre experience where small groups of children and families stepped into a multi-sensory adventure. With one actor, as the role of the alien, the group played games and explored big feelings – friendship, belonging, and the joy of helping others.

Josey, The Indignant Daughter

In 2022, Novo Theatre secured funding from The Space to create a 20-minute musical podcast, written and performed by Katie Doherty. The end result, ‘Josey, The Indignant Daughter’, was created in collaboration with young women and men at Dukes Secondary School, Ashington and Cramlington Learning Village and released on International Women’s Day in March 2023. Josey was inspired by 19th Century feminist and social reformer, Josephine Butler, who was born in Wooler, and the young people were asked “If Josey was alive today, what would she be campaigning for?”

Their voices feature heavily in the podcast as they navigate their way around life as a teenager in the current social climate of social media influencers– these discussions showed that some things have changed dramatically since the late 1800’s and others are still relevant today.

Novo Theatre are working behind the scenes on the next stage of Josey: The Musical and are hoping to produce a full stage show in 2026.

Novo Talent

When emerging from COVID and once again to creating live work for audiences, Novo Theatre struggled to recruit freelance stage managers and production managers. Not being the only theatre company experiencing this, Novo launched a workforce survey to better understand the barriers freelance theatre makers were experiencing, and the types of opportunities they felt would help support them. This led to the 2023 launch of Novo Talent, a three-strand talent development programme to grow new talent in the North East and to sustain creative freelancers in their careers.

The Ignite strand aims to offer paid assistant or trainee roles within Novo Theatre productions with the aim of supporting individuals to develop skills and confidence in the industry, while the Sustain strand recognises the difficulty in maintaining a freelance career in the North East and supports established freelancers.

Alongside ethically benchmarked freelance contracts, individuals receive personal development packages that include CPD budgets, external mentoring, and facilitated introductions to regional and national contacts. To-date the programme has supported 8 freelance beneficiaries including Producers, Designers, Directors and Stage Managers.

The Inspire strand partners with Primary and Secondary schools to provide careers assemblies and workshops which highlight the range of careers within theatre, from stage management to lighting design. These aim to show children and young people in Northumberland that there are more opportunities in theatre than performing on stage and signpost them to opportunities to get involved in theatre-making in Northumberland.

Since launching in 2023 Novo Theatre have engaged with over 3,000 children, regularly contributing to the careers programmes at Duke’s Secondary, Cramlington Learning Village and The King Edward VI High school in Morpeth, including providing 13 week-long work experience placements.

After initially focusing on opportunities for Keys Stage 3 & 4 pupils, this year Novo Theatre has created a KS2 workshop. By extending the programme to primary and first schools, their aim is to provide age-appropriate information and points of inspiration throughout children’s school journeys, from Year 3 through to Year 11 and beyond.

This Autumn, Novo Theatre also took part in Discover! Creative Careers ‘Next Generation Creatives’ Work Experience Programme, a national pilot funded by DCMS to provide meaningful hands-on work experience in creative industries. Five students from Dukes Secondary attended three days work experience with Novo Theatre and The Alnwick Playhouse, participating in a speed networking event with staff to find out about their roles, taking over the light and sound desks in the auditorium and working with box office and front of house staff before a performance.

The Novo Talent schools programme runs throughout the academic year and is offered at no cost to Northumberland schools.

To find out more, email Louise on louise@novotheatre.org.uk

MPN offers a range of packages to support music education in school. This includes whole class ensemble tuition, small group instrument tuition, workshop enrichment programmes, curriculum support packages and Early Years music sessions.

All packages directly support the NEW National Plan for Music Education in Schools, which states that  “Music should be planned, sequenced and taughtas robustly as any other foundation subject”.

MPN are here to support each school, providing resources, online support and a specialist music teacher delivering your curriculum music each week

Whole Class Ensemble Tuition (WCET) programme gives every child the chance to experience the joy of making music. Delivered weekly in school by a Music Partnership North tutor, alongside a member of school staff, these sessions introduce students to playing an instrument in a fun and engaging way. Beyond learning to play, children develop a wide range of valuable skills, including teamwork, confidence, and creativity. WCET projects also include exciting performance opportunities, either within the school or as part of a larger event with other schools in the area.

The School Service Level Agreement can be downloaded here:

MPN Service Level Agreement 2526-compressed

This mini workshop from Mortal Fools associate artists Danielle Slade & Sheryl Jenkins combines getting outdoors, exploring the natural world and/or familiar urban surroundings, collecting found objects and taking pictures of interesting things, surfaces, textures, having a go at animating them and using your animation to create a Haiku poem.

Underpinning this workshop is an opportunity to be creative, playfully explore animation and mindful writing, to be present and in the moment, to appreciate things we are often too busy day to day to notice and to practice good breathing and giving space for the imagination to run free.

Workshop is for children aged 5+years.