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AS Durham County Council approves plans to bring the UK’s largest light festival back to Durham in 2019 and 2021, PETER BARRON reflects on how a diverse cultural offer is playing an increasingly important part in the county’s economic future.

NEXT year, one of England’s most beautiful cities will again become the open-air canvas for a magical masterpiece, as Durham celebrates a decade of Lumiere.

Highlights from the installations of the past ten years will be brought back as part of the celebration of a creative event that has quickly become synonymous with Durham.

Durham Cathedral, established as a World Heritage Site, has been around for more than 900 years, so Lumiere is a mere blink of an eye in comparison. And yet the UK’s largest light festival is already symbolic of how Durham, as a city and a county, has used culture to bring a proud heritage together with a vibrant future.

“The festival’s continued success shows what is possible when the local authority, local businesses, and local people come together behind a project, allowing us as producers to push the boundaries and do really exciting things,” says Artistic Director Helen Marriage, chief executive of Artichoke, the arts charity that produces Lumiere.

Durham County Council leader Simon Henig represents the political will that has enabled those boundaries to be pushed and, having grown from 75,000 visitors in 2009 to nearly a quarter of a million in 2017, he is clearly thrilled by Lumiere’s impact.

But, perhaps more importantly, he is excited by the breadth of Durham’s cultural appeal – from coast to dale, and city to vale – and how it is taking root in communities in so many surprising ways.

“It’s fantastic that Durham should be home to the UK’s largest light festival every two years, and tremendous for the whole of the North-East,” says Councillor Henig. “We need these signature events to bring people in to see what an amazing place Durham is. But the sustainability of our ambitions as a visitor destination is in the rich diversity that has developed across the whole of the county, from the grass roots upwards.”

Asked to share his first memory from Lumiere’ s kaleidoscope of artworks, and Councillor Henig’s mind immediately returns to the initial year of the festival in 2009 and the “Wow moment” when he saw the Cathedral illuminated for the very first time. “There have been so many memorable creations I couldn’t possibly pick out a favourite from that first festival through to 2017 but seeing our stunning cathedral light up is hard to top,” he says. “It was that coming together of unique heritage and a bold vision for the future.”

Indeed, the past and the future are being embraced in the 300 very different communities that make up the county of Durham, each with its own sense of identity. Coal-mining, lead-mining, railways, steel, agriculture, and fishing are just some of the traditional industries playing a part in a cultural revolution which has seen tourism become Durham’s second biggest employer.

The regeneration of the East Durham coastal resort of Seaham, home of Tommy – Ray Lonsdale’s magnificent statue of a World War One soldier – is an awe-inspiring example of the progress.

Ushaw, a visually stunning former seminary on the outskirts of Durham, is another relative newcomer, balancing a fascinating history with a future as a visitor attraction, events venue, and conference centre. Having closed as a college four years ago, it is destined to play an increasingly important part in Durham’s cultural journey.

Councillor Henig is quick to mention many more such examples: Kynren at Bishop Auckland; Locomotion at Shildon; Bowes and Beamish museums; the Durham Book Festival; the Miners’ Gala; Durham Brass Festival; and Killhope, the North of England Lead Mining Museum in Weardale. Attractions are evolving all the time. Indeed, Killhope has just been used as the venue for Trapped, a thrilling piece of theatre and film work inspired by the rescue of 33 miners following the collapse of the San Jose Mine in Chile eight years ago.

Councillor Henig recognises the danger of omitting attractions from the list he reels off, but Durham has so many jewels in its crown, oversights can surely be forgiven.

“Put all the cultural attractions we have into one city and it would be the envy of Europe,” he says. “It’s just that we have them spread across the county.”

And yet he knows there’s still work to be done. Visitor numbers are up for individual attractions and the county as a whole, but more hotel rooms are needed to cope with demand. Durham’s new Hotel Indigo, in the historic setting of the Old Shire Hall, is a welcome addition but further increases in visitor accommodation are required to make tourism growth sustainable.

“I also find it amazing how many people still think of Durham as smoke stacks and collieries, only to discover that it’s incredibly green and beautiful,” says the council leader. “The way to change that perception, and to lengthen time visitors stay, is to work together to create a collaborative package of cultural attractions.

“The evidence is clear that we are on the right path. We just have to maintain the momentum because tourism is no longer an add-on – it’s fundamental to our future.”

Roger Kelly, who chairs the County Durham Culture Partnership, agrees: “Something like Lumiere is a clear sign of how heritage can be used in contemporary ways,” he says.

Like Simon Henig, Mr Kelly has been particularly impressed by the “stunning transformation” on the Durham coast, suggesting that a touring work of art called Ps in a Pod “epitomises how Durham has moved forward and emerged from the cultural shadow of Tyne and Wear”. Featuring three flexible cast iron sculptures by Louise Plant, Ps in a Pod began its journey at Noses Point, at Seaham.

“A touring work of art, starting out on a cliff-top at Seaham, struck me as a real sign of Durham’s appetite for something different; bringing a freshness to its approach to culture,”

As managing director of Visit County Durham, the county council-funded “destination management organisation”, Michelle Gorman is charged with keeping the tourists coming to experience that fresh approach. She is keen to stress the importance of communities being engaged in the cultural offer, even when it sometimes gets in the way of everyday life.

“We know that visitors are attracted by a thriving cultural offer and Durham is becoming better known as a destination,” she says.

“Events such as Lumiere and Kynren add so much value and yet they are seen as a disruption by some. If we really want long-term success as a destination, we have to take communities with us and make them part of giving visitors a quality, authentic experience.

“We all have a role to play because it’s people with a strong sense of place who make the difference, whether it’s those working in our hotels, or shops, or local residents that visitors might talk to in the street. Inclusivity has to be at the heart of everything we do.”

Michelle immediately points to “the amazing” TIN Arts, a Durham-based dance organisation as an exemplar of inclusivity.

TIN Arts, which celebrates its 20th anniversary next year, was formed by Martin Wilson and Tess Chaytor, who met at the Northern School of Contemporary Dance in Leeds.

After graduating, they began delivering workshops and, having been lucky enough to have their training subsidised, realised there were deep inequalities in access to the arts.

Tess was born in Peterlee, so Martin, a Welshman, followed her to County Durham, and TIN Arts emerged from their determination to tackling those inequalities. They are now married with a son, Bryn, 15, and daughter Megan, 11, sharing their love of dance.

Over two decades, TIN Arts has developed a national reputation, with 16 staff delivering activities across the North, and 10,000 people taking part annually. More than 50 per cent of them are disabled.

“It’s about ensuring that all members of a community are engaged and given the opportunity to be involved,” says Martin. “If everyone is committed to that ethos, we’ll reap the benefits.”

Richard Evans, Director of Beamish Museum, also sees the engagement of local people as the priority: “I’ve lived here for 10 years and there’s an authentic friendliness about the place that is hugely important,” he says. “When people come here, they’re genuinely encouraged by the welcome.

“At Beamish, we’re experiencing tremendous growth in visitors from overseas and the UK, and we know they want to come back because of the people and the tremendous diversity the county offers.”

Beamish has a well-deserved place as one of the icons of Durham tourism, but previously overlooked locations are now being integrated into plans to bring cultural change to every corner of the county.

Towns such as Willington, Crook, and Tow Law may not immediately spring to mind in the context of tourism, but they are important to Northern Heartlands, one of 16 “Great Place Schemes” funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund and Arts Council England. The project encompasses the catchment area of the Tees and the Wear, and also includes Barnard Castle, Shildon, and Bishop Auckland. In addition, Northern Heartlands ensures that communities in part of the Durham Coalfield, as well as isolated hill farms and villages in the Upper Dales are no longer an after-thought.

And those communities are responding positively. When “The Man Engine” – the largest mechanical puppet ever constructed in Britain – came to Willington at the end of June, it received a rock star reception from 6,000 spectators.

For Jill Cole, director of Northern Heartlands, it was towering evidence that the strategy of diversity and inclusivity is working: “The comments we’d heard were that stuff always happens in Durham, not places like Willington, but there was this community, with a population of 6,500, turning out in incredible numbers and it was wonderful to see,” she says.

“I passionately believe that engaging in culture can be life-changing,” she adds. “It’s important in terms of regenerating cities but it matters in small places just as much, if not more.”

In 2020, an exciting collaboration will see Opera North working with the community on a production to be staged in the engine sheds at Locomotion, in Shildon.

Meanwhile, Northern Heartlands is bringing Katie Doherty’s award-winning touring musical theatre show, Beyond the End of the Road, to a variety of community venues this month, including Evenwood Workingmen’s Club on July 18.

From the breath-taking magnificence of Durham Cathedral’s World Heritage Site, to the proud yet inauspicious workingmen’s clubs at the county’s grass roots, Durham’s cultural revolution is lighting the way to the future.