A powerful new exhibition by artist Martha Ellis will open at Maltings at Hide Hill this week, marking the culmination of a pioneering year-long residency at Berwick Academy.

Heart and Soul brings together a new body of work created during Martha's time embedded within the school community, alongside artwork created by Berwick Academy students throughout the residency. Capturing moments, memories and observations gathered over the past academic year, the exhibition offers visitors a unique insight into a creative partnership that has connected art, education and community. The exhibition runs until 2 July.

The residency, delivered through Berwick Shines as part of the wider Living Barracks engagement programme, saw Martha work closely with pupils, teachers and the wider school community. Together they explored the heritage of Berwick-upon-Tweed, developed new creative skills and created artwork that will remain at the school as a lasting legacy.

Martha Ellis said: "Working with the students and staff at Berwick Academy has been a privilege. Over the past year I've had the opportunity to become part of the school community, learning from the people and stories that make it unique. Heart and Soul reflects those experiences and celebrates the creativity, curiosity and generosity I encountered throughout the residency."

As the exhibition opens, Martha's work with the town is set to continue. Building on the relationships developed during the residency, she is now collaborating with Berwick Academy students and Berwick Town Council on an ambitious project to reimagine the Quayside Huts. The initiative will explore how the huts can evolve from simple structures into vibrant, engaging market stalls that better reflect Berwick's creativity, heritage and community spirit.

Lucy Vaughan, Head of Creative Engagement at The Maltings (Berwick) Trust, said: "This residency marks an important milestone in the relationship between the Maltings (Berwick) Trust and Berwick Academy. As an arts organisation we are committed to providing the best artistic experiences possible for the town's young people and we are delighted to have forged such a positive relationship with the Academy this year. Heart and Soul celebrates a remarkable year of creativity, collaboration and connection at Berwick Academy. Martha's residency has had a lasting impact on students and staff, and it's exciting to see that work continue beyond the classroom through new projects that will further contribute to Berwick's cultural life."

Heart and Soul is free to visit and open from 11am–3pm at Maltings at Hide Hill, Berwick-upon-Tweed, until 2 July (check Maltings website for opening days).

For more information visit The Maltings

Something is coming ashore in Berwick and Spittal (May 2026)

A new piece of live performance will unfold across Berwick and Spittal at the end of May, as artist Lewis Hetherington presents The Visitors - a striking and unexpected work inspired by Berwick’s ecology and heritage, set in the public realm.

Audiences are invited to encounter The Visitors on Saturday 30 May in Berwick Town Centre from 12pm, and Sunday 31 May on Spittal Promenade from 12pm, where a procession will appear and move through the landscape, playfully interrupting the everyday.

Developed as part of the Living Barracks engagement programme, Berwick Shines, and produced by The Maltings (Berwick) Trust, The Visitors is rooted in research into Berwick’s heritage, landscape and natural environment. The programme invites artists to spend time in the town, responding to its stories, surroundings and ecological character through new work.

In the lead-up to the performance weekend, the commission has been developed in close collaboration with the local community, including the Maltings Youth Theatre, community groups at Maltings Hide Hill, and schools across Berwick, Spittal and Tweedmouth. Through these sessions, participants have played an active role in shaping the work, contributing ideas, materials and creative responses woven into the final piece.

Lewis Hetherington said: “The Visitors asks what happens when we think about all the other creatures who share this place with us - what might they be thinking or feeling as they watch us from the river or the sea? Berwick has this incredible location where you’re so often looking outwards. I’m excited by what happens when we shift that perspective - when we begin to imagine being looked back at - and gain a renewed sense of this extraordinary and beautiful world that we live in.”

Lucy Vaughan, Head of Creative Engagement at The Maltings (Berwick) Trust, said: “We are delighted to bring Lewis Hetherington to Berwick, along with his creative team, and the involvement of the Maltings Youth Theatre, local schools and members of the community who have collectively contributed to such an original and exciting project for everyone to enjoy. Berwick Shines is about creating opportunities for people to connect with artists and ideas in a way that feels meaningful and rooted in place. With The Visitors, our third major commission for Berwick Shines, local people have again enthusiastically joined in the opportunity to work with artists, as they did with our previous commissions: Berwick Parade and Litany for the Border. That sense of shared ownership is at the heart of our Creative Engagement programme at The Maltings.”

For this commission, Lewis Hetherington has been exploring ideas of observation, presence and the relationship between people and place, particularly Berwick’s extraordinary natural environment and the waters that shape it. From the River Tweed to the North Sea, these waters have carried generations of life, stories and industry, while remaining home to countless unseen creatures and delicate ecosystems.

The Visitors invites us to look again at these familiar landscapes, not just as backdrops to daily life, but as living, shifting environments that we are deeply connected to. Rooted in curiosity, wonder and care, the work encourages audiences to consider the many forms of life that share this place with us, and the importance of looking after the environments that sustain us all.

Known for creating bold, socially engaged performance, Lewis Hetherington’s work often brings together humour, spectacle and thoughtful provocation. His projects invite audiences into shared experiences that are as playful as they are reflective, often unfolding beyond traditional theatre spaces.

Appearing in various locations across Berwick Town Centre on 30 May and Spittal Promenade on 31 May, The Visitors invites audiences to pause, look again, and experience something just out of the ordinary, reconnecting with the landscapes, waters and hidden lives that surround us.

• Saturday 30 May – Berwick Town Centre – from 12pm
• Sunday 31 May – Spittal Promenade – from 12pm
• Free outdoor performance

Our Wic - celebrating Berwick-upon-Tweed’s everyday royalty (July 2026)

New art installation to crown everyday royalty of Berwick-upon-Tweed

Brenda Collins from The Free Trade Pub in Berwick, photographed wearing an ornate stained-glass crown by David Purvis of Condotierri Glass. Photo Credit: Charlotte Summers.

Roz Haddrill (centre) from eco-friendly store The Green Shop, wearing a crown created by Jen How from Jennie’s Wool Studio.
Photo Credit: Charlotte Summers.

Visitors to Berwick-upon-Tweed this summer will be able to crown themselves king or queen for the day as part of a new interactive art installation inspired by the town’s tradition of crowning the Tweed Salmon Queen. Taking place from Saturday 11 to Thursday 16 July 2026, Our Wic - which takes its name from the Anglo Saxon word for ‘dwelling’ - invites people to perform their own coronation and lay claim to their territory by donning the Our Wic crown. 

Created by artist Lucy Wright and produced by contemporary arts agency Arts&Heritage, Our Wic celebrates the long tradition of crowning kings and queens of industry across the North of England. It also coincides with the 80th anniversary of the Tweed Salmon Queen celebrations in the town - an annual tradition first established to celebrate the town’s rich salmon fishing heritage and to herald good catches for the year ahead.

Running alongside the installation is an exhibition of photography depicting six new ‘kings and queens’ of industry from the town; local residents who help make the town what it is today.

Artist Lucy Wright said: "I've always had an interest in the northern British tradition of crowning kings and queens of industry, like the Tweedmouth Salmon Queen, which has a long history in the town. 
“For me, these ‘community crownings’ are examples of how we celebrate each other and claim our own heroes and heroines in the places where we live. Our Wic is about the people of Berwick paying tribute to their own kings and queens, from all sections of society; the people who make the town what it is today.”

The Straw Yard in Berwick will be transformed into an elaborate throne room where visitors can don a bronze Our Wic crown created by Lucy Wright, sculpted using textures and symbols from Berwick’s buildings and landscapes. An official photograph will be taken to mark each coronation and the name of the newly created territory will be displayed on digital screens inside the throne room - a nod to the town’s unique position in the Debatable Lands, an area historically disputed and subject to multiple changes of identity across time.
Next door in Holy Trinity Church, an exhibition of photography will showcase Berwickers who have been nominated by members of the community as everyday royalty of the town. Each one is photographed wearing one of six bespoke crowns created by local artists. 

Some of the everyday royalty of Berwick include: Eva Simpson from malt manufacturer Simpsons Malt, who is pictured wearing a crown by basket maker, Anna Corbett; Brenda Collins, who has worked at The Free Trade Pub in the town since 1971, is photographed in an ornate stained-glass crown created by David Purvis of Condotierri Glass; Roz Haddrill from The Green Shop, an independent eco-friendly store that has traded in Berwick for more than 30 years, wears a crown created by Jen How from Jennie’s Wool Studio; Lyndsey Morris from Pith Papers, a new business established in 2020 that represents Berwick’s hundreds year-old print industry, is pictured wearing a crown created by Lucy Baxandall of Tidekettle Paper; Annaluisa Wood from Berwick Infirmary wears a crown by Deborah Boyd Whyte; and John Skelly from butchers W.R. Skelly & Son, which at 266 years old holds the title of the longest-running family business in Berwick-upon-Tweed, is photographed wearing a crown by Suzanne Wright. 

Other everyday royalty of the town will be featured in a special publication and on the official Our Wic instagram page (www.instagram.com/ourwicproject). 

Andrea Oliver, Create Berwick Manager, said: “Our Wic is the second of three annual art commissions funded by Create Berwick that demonstrates why our small border town is one of the most distinctive cultural destinations in the country. 
“As well as attracting visitors to Berwick-upon-Tweed and raising the town’s profile as a thriving hub for arts and culture, Our Wic has also created opportunities for local artists and creatives, further strengthening the cultural industries in the town. 

“Our Wic has helped grow the skills of our creative economy, inspire more people to pursue careers in the arts, and galvanise our cultural and creative businesses to deliver more cultural experiences in the town that demonstrate why Berwick-upon-Tweed is a cultural and creative powerhouse.”

Our Wic takes place at The Straw Yard and Holy Trinity Church in Berwick-upon-Tweed from Saturday 11 to Thursday 16 July 2026.
The exhibition and interactive installation are both open from 11am-6pm daily. The event is free (booking required).
For more information, visit createberwick.co.uk
Our Wic is commissioned and funded by Create Berwick, Northumberland County Council, and the North East Mayoral Strategic Authority.
For more information about Arts&Heritage, www.artsandheritage.org.uk 

Lucy Wright  For more information visit www.lucywright.art or @lucy_j_wright  Photo Credit: Felicity Crawshaw.