Have a look at our current and recent work. Our archives will gradually be shared and we would love to receive anything you may have for that.
Transition Chronicles is a creative health project using cross artform approaches. This project is designed to support Year 5 and 6 pupils as they prepare for the transition to secondary school.
Helix Arts and George King Architects are proud winners of the Sycamore Gap wood commission.
The most Wuthering Heights day in Tynemouth!
Free Creative Care Day for Artists.
Make change happen on the Meadow Well Estate in North Shields.
Take a look at what we got up to during our Winter Wellbeing workshops.
Artists’ Agency Newcastle is an artist development programme in Creative Central: NCL
Better Connect: Young Carers is a pilot project working with young people from across the borough.
Take a look at our exhibition that showcased the legacy of Helix Arts’ work in Gateshead.
Plug into Family Time - create together, connect together - digital fun for all ages.
Check out our over 18's Better Connect workshops for men living in the North West of the borough.
A River to Freedom brought together community voices, art, and poetry to reflect on the meaning of freedom 80 years after WWII—culminating in a creative celebration across North Tyneside Libraries.
Young people from John Spence High School embarked on their Bronze Arts Award in 2025.
Check out our holiday offer for young people and see what they have previously got up to.
Check out some of our highlights from Better Connect in 2025_26.
Check out our over 18's Creative Wellbeing Workshops for Better Connect.
Check out some of our highlights from Better Connect in 2024_25.
Over the last 40 years we’ve worked with a variety of artists across numerous artforms – providing opportunities for employment, training, support and mentoring.
Check out some of the projects we are supporting in 2025 - 2026.
Imagine your future is a new resource celebrating North Shields for schools in North Tyneside.
#Never 2 is a drugs insight project in North Tyneside.
Young People from across Northumberland are creating their own music reflecting on who they are and their place.
North Shields schools had the opportunity to commemorate the NS800 through a series of artist in residences.
Safe is a youth action research project taking place on the Meadow Well Estate in North Shields.
The Queer Pleasure Archive is a socially engaged art project and DIY archive by Newcastle based artist Sarah Li.
A Disabled Artist Led Commission for Helix Arts. Part of our Re:Visits programme. Inspired by our past with the aim of informing our future.
On 1st December 2024, the community came together for a vibrant day of artistic exploration and archive sharing, alongside meaningful conversations.
'Home Thoughts' is an artist-led commission for our Creative Health programme Better Connect.
Make It Happen ran in Summer 2024.
The voice of teens in the North East.
Here to There workshops in North Tyneside.
Check out our Here to There Programme in Sunderland.
Check out our Here to There Programme in South Tyneside.
Make It Happen is a community development programme for residents in North Tyneside funded by UK SPF.
Young people from Longbenton have chosen a series of creative activities to give a go in 2025! Now throughout January, February and March 11-19 year olds can try something new and exciting.
Playful Pavements was a free community-led day for young people providing them the chance to play outside in a safe way.
Make It Happen is happening in Whitley Bay!
Culture Ambassadors is a school programme to allow young people the ability to access high-quality arts activities within schools.
Make It Happen took place in Westmoor in September 2024.
Take a look at what we got up to in Weetslade.
A creative health project led by Northumbria University to help create futures beyond homelessness, and tackle homelessness stigma.
Two‑year Heritage Lottery project celebrating 40 years of our story, reconnecting past and present through voices across the North East.
Do you want to get moving, dance and have the opportunity to meet new people?
Come and try Falling on Your Feet Segedunum.
It is 1836, Northumberland Square. Dolly has lost her friend, have you seen her? Meet the characters around Northumberland Square as the mystery unfolds...
Young people enjoyed a summer of creative workshops.
Young people from Blakelaw worked with local artists to put together an alternative panto for their local community.
Celebrating 40 years of Helix Arts working with artists and communities!
Share your story | Shape our future.
Artists’ Agency is an artist development programme in North Shields Cultural Quarter for creatives living and/ or working in North Tyneside.
Working with National Trust Gibside and celebrating the Festival of Blossom
We worked with young people across North Tyneside to learn about their thoughts and experiences about drug use and abuse.
HeArt of Care took the conversations about care away from the hidden rooms of domestic settings and place them at the heart of our public spaces.
Get involved in one of our many artist development opportunities across the region.
Here To There is an exciting programme of cultural experiences and events for people aged 55+, including wellbeing walks, visits to museums, exhibitions, theatres, dance performances, and buildings and places with interesting histories.
A FREE six-week programme supporting artists living or working in North Tyneside to develop the skills required to co-produce & deliver community led arts projects inspired by the North Shields Heritage Action Zone.
Our Woven Voices is a public art installation near the magistrates court in North Shields.
The artwork was inspired by the creativity of more than 1,000 residents who worked with artist Laura Brenchley. International artist Aaron Li-Hill used this to create the finished sculpture.
Make It Happen inspired by North Shields Heritage Action Zone.
Young investigators explored the arts and cultural offer available in North Tyneside for children and young people.
Real Voice is an inclusive Youth Music project for young people across Northumberland.
Tell your stories and turn them into mini movies with professional filmmaker and Photographer Carl Joyce.
An artist consulted residents in North Tyneside about the local authority Equally Well Health and Inequalities plan with some member of the North Tyneside Leaders Together group.
Take a look at some of the amazing stories from North Tyneside community members generated from their experiences during the pandemic.
Our Story - a story gathering project with Longsight Children's Community in Manchester, which was commissioned by Save the Children UK.
Young people from John Spence Community High School took part in an eight week Make It Happen programme from April 2022.
A development programme for artists.
Kelsey worked with Helix Arts as part of her master's degree in Dance Science and Education at Edinburgh University. Kelsey guided various groups across North Tyneside to develop their arts practice as dancers.
This event was held to listen to personal stories of those living through a pandemic from a diverse cross-section of residents from North Tyneside.
By Your Side at North Tyneside Art Studio was a creative programme for North Tyneside carers.
The HeArt of Care is a global project with the aim of uniting carers from across the world and encourage them to share their experiences as carers through a creative medium. It forms part of our social prescribing programme, Better Connect.
A multi-arts project with young adults working to create a new wellbeing trail in Chopwell Wood.
Explore how stories and poems can offer comfort, escape, inspiration and laughter in difficult times.
Part of Better Connect
Don Macdonald- Slam Fresh was successful in achieving our 2021 Make It Happen Commission for Gateshead.
Sharing stories and experiences through creative sessions. Working with families who share a caring role in looking after loved ones who depend on them. Part of Better Connect
Falling On Your Feet North Tyneside allowed local carers who enjoyed dancing to meet new people and stay active.
Part of Better Connect.
A River is a community garden project at Pattinson House in Gateshead in which local people are co-creating a large-scale mural.
Summer of Fun was a great way for children and young people from Wallsend and Howden to spend their holidays.
We worked with artists to offer a wide variety of artforms at different sites around the area.
A creative programme for Parent Carers across North Tyneside.
A mindful space to make creative journals and explore lots of basic art, print, crafts, making and collage.
Story of Place supports Wallsend Children's Community mission to ensure the town's children enjoy the same opportunities as young people from more affluent areas.
Young people from Arts Centre Washington organised a day to raise awareness of the climate crisis.
Restoring the elegance of North Shields' historic town centre.
A social prescribing project aimed at connecting 350 young and adult carers with arts and culture to transform experiences after COVID-19.
Better Connect supports the wellbeing of residents living in North Tyneside, and encourages connection through creativity.
A programme featuring a range of artists and artforms for people aged over 55 in North Tyneside with the aim of reducing loneliness.
Together Again gave residents in North Shields and Wallsend the chance to explore, reconnect and shape the future of their town. The project builds on our 'Town Common Festival'.
A FREE mentoring course for artists who live or work in Darlington.
Members of the Sunderland Deaf Club took part in our training programme to gain project management skills.
Writers who care was a Make It Happen Commission project by artist Liv Hunt.
A performing arts project for young people exploring exploitation and abuse within relationships, particularly during Covid-19.
A pilot programme of arts activities designed to promote wellbeing and resilience for residents in North Tyneside suffering from poor mental health.
Supporting young people of different ages and abilities in Northumberland to co-create music during the Coronavirus pandemic lockdown.
Education and arts organisations working together, enriching access to cultural opportunities for young people.
Transforming a patch of astroturf in the main atrium of The Beacon Shopping Centre, North Shields into a new ‘town common’ for the residents of North Shields and surrounding areas.
A ground-breaking artistic programme in prisons and the community led by the National Criminal Justice Arts Alliance.
Celebrate Different was a Make it Happen project for young people in Sunderland in partnership with Sunderland Culture.
Artsmark award is an award for schools and education establishments that is accredited by Arts Council England. The aim of the award is to make a commitment and ensure that children and young people have access to a high-quality arts and culture education.
A digital music collaboration with Cramlington Voluntary Youth Project in partnership with Inclusion north, Music Partnership North and Cramlington Learning Village.
Bringing geocaching to Evenwood, County Durham alongside opportunities to explore the area's rich cultural history.
An innovative and interactive digital dance project, where the audience provide data and decide what happens to ‘David’ at the end of the piece.
A geocache art-trail in Stamfordham, Northumberland bringing communities together to share stories and experiences.
A flexible, participant-centred programme that provides training and support to encourage and enable people to design, manage and deliver their own activities with their own communities and with experts in the field.
An arts programme for young people from military families living in Albemarle Barracks.
Partnering with Perigrini Landscape Partnership, Make Art Happen participants developed a project to help raise awareness, take part in conservation and celebrate Lindisfarne island.
A toolkit of arts activities created to help dads in prison reflect on the impacts their offending has on their children.
Exploring the role that the arts can play in creating an argument for Universal Basic Income.
Using creative approaches designed by women to help women.
Working with groups of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic Refugee women facing spatial violence.
The Tyneside and Northumberland Mind team worked to provide a programme of high quality participatory arts activities to promote wellbeing and resilience in residents of South Tyneside aged 18 or over.
"Re-Wild Yourself" - a collaborative project between members of WHIST and SANGINI who took part in the Make Art Happen training programme.
Exploring the history of civil rights in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Students from Josephine Butler College took part in two Make Art Happen cohorts between 2017 and 2018.
Bensham and Teams Make Art Happen project created a visual and sound artwork made up of multiple components created by a local people that enhanced a community space for local residents to enjoy and feel a sense of pride in.
A result of a Make Arts Happen, “Create, Stay and Play” was open to all ages and encouraged the development of social skills, an interest in the arts, health and wellbeing and community spirit.
A network for creative professionals who are aligned to the work of Helix Arts, across different fields and settings.
A digital music-making programme with young people in South East Northumberland.
A co-production with the international artist and film-maker Jordan Baseman and residents at Earsdon Grange Care Home in North Tyneside.
A new piece of music created by Johanna Linsley and Rebecca Collins together with community groups and local residents from Seaham, County Durham and composer Mariam Rezaei celebrating how sound makes a place unique and examines the boundaries between the private and the public.
Dancing your way to new friendships in your neighbourhood and beyond.
A dance and health programme, co-curated with people aged 65+ who are living independently.
Our work in support of Arts Council England's Creative Case for Diversity North.
Falling On Your feet is a dance programme targeting people aged 55+ aiming to encourage staying active and meeting new people
Telling Tales was developed by a volunteer project team which was born from a capacity building programme “Make Art Happen.”
Participants of Make Art Happen from Bill Quay Farm aimed to create a visual arts project for the local community.
A new approach to the redesign of public services.
Local residents and volunteers took part in Make Art Happen in 2015 to develop their own participatory project, the Sea of Lost Souls.
Since 2015, Residents from Newbiggin by the Sea have been working with Northumberland based visual artists to design and make a range of creative products.
A training programme for community and voluntary organisations who want to produce their own arts residencies or festivals.