Durham Riverside Renewal

Waddington Street Centre has been named as the official charity partner of Lumiere 2021 and will benefit from a significant donation to its 40^th anniversary appeal to raise funds for a new minibus.

The independent North East mental health charity, which offers a wide range of informal educational activities and support services based on individual needs and aspirations, will receive a donation of at least £5,000.

The donation will come from half of the proceeds of this year’s Lumiere Gala Dinner, which is being held at Ramside Hall on Wednesday 17 November, and will help the Waddington Street Centre take another step closer to its £40,000 fundraising target.

Throughout its 40^th anniversary year the centre has been running a series of fundraising activities, ranging from triathlons and pre-loved item sales to bake sales and quizzes. It also has the backing of a number of local businesses and organisations, including Milburngate on Durham’s riverside, which is being developed by Arlington Real Estate and Richardson.

The Waddington Street Centre is also contributing to Lumiere by producing lanterns that will form part of one of the light festival’s landmark installations.

Members of the Centre took part in a workshop to produce the lanterns that will be added to ‘City of Lights, City of Stories’, which will transform College Green into a glowing cityscape.

The Waddington Street Centre is among a number of community groups from across County Durham working with Artichoke and installation designers The Lantern Company to build an imaginary city of illuminated streets, houses and grand architectural wonders.

Ali Lee, centre manager at The Waddington Street Centre, said: “We are exceptionally proud to be the charity partner of Lumiere. It is such an important and highly anticipated event for our city, and we’re delighted to be part of it.

“The generous donation we’re receiving is amazing and will be a real help as we aim for our target to buy the minibus that will allow us to take our members on trips that will aid their mental health.

“Our staff and members really enjoyed the lantern making workshop and can’t wait to see their creations glowing on College Green.”

Created by Artichoke, the UK’s leading producers of art in the public realm and commissioned by Durham County Council with additional support from Arts Council England and a host of additional funders and supporters including Durham University, Lumiere will run from Thursday 18th - Sunday 21st November 2021.

Sarah Coop, Artichoke Development Director, said: “We’re delighted to be partnering with Waddington Street Centre as Lumiere’s chosen charity this year, and the opportunity to support the important work they do, as well as to have been able to offer their members the chance to take part in making one of the festival installations.”

ENDS

NEWS RELEASE: ISSUED ON BEHALF OF DURHAM RIVERSIDE

For further information contact Jamie Collis 01325 363436

Editors’ Notes:

Durham Riverside Renewal

The development consortium consists of Arlington Real Estate and Richardson.

The project includes the regeneration of Freemans Reach and the redevelopment of Milburngate House, which are on adjacent banks of the River Wear in the heart of Durham City.

According to the Sunday Times’ ‘Best Places to Live’:

“Durham is a lovely place to live. Beneath its glorious cathedral, you’ll find pretty cobbled streets stuffed with little independent shops and great watering holes, a beautiful river that carves its way through dramatic walls of rock and greenery, and some attractive house stock – along with a thriving buy-to-let market, thanks to all those students. One of the nicest places to live is South Street, which looks directly onto the cathedral and castle, and which inspired Sir Walter Scott. Many of its terraced houses are grade II listed; prices range from £400,000 to more than £1m.”

About Arlington Real Estate

Arlington Real Estate is also delivering another flagship County Durham development, DurhamGate. Located five miles south of Durham City, DurhamGate is on the site of Black & Decker’s former UK headquarters and, at almost 100 acres, it is among the largest regeneration projects in the North East of England

About Richardson

Richardson is a multi-generation family business with over half a century of real estate experience in the UK and overseas. Working across all sectors, they have developed well in excess of seven million square feet of property. Recent projects include Nickel, junction 28 off the M1, a new spec build 261,000 sq ft warehouse, Western 105, Avonmouth, a new spec build 105,500 sq ft warehouse, Freemans Reach, a 110,000 sq ft office development in Durham, Lincoln Gateway, a £28m, 519 bed student accommodation scheme. More recently the family has continued to expand its operations by building an international growth capital portfolio across a range of sectors through a direct and co-investment programme.

About Artichoke

Producers of extraordinary live events, Artichoke is one of the country’s leading creative companies and is a registered charity, funded by Arts Council England. Artichoke use art to undermine the mundane and disrupt the everyday to create a new kind of world that we’d all like to live in.

Their most recent project, PROCESSIONS, commissioned by 14-18 NOW, was a mass participation artwork that brought tens of thousands of women onto the streets in June 2018 to celebrate 100 years of votes for women.

Previous projects include Royal de Luxe’s The Sultan’s Elephant (London in 2006); La Machine’s 50-foot high mechanical spider for Liverpool’s Capital of Culture celebrations (2008); Antony Gormley’s One & Other commission for the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square (2009); Deborah Warner’s Peace Camp commission for the London 2012 Festival with Fiona Shaw; Temple by David Best in Derry~Londonderry (2015); and London’s Burning, a festival commissioned by the City of London Corporation to commemorate the 350th anniversary of the Great Fire of London (2016).

Artichoke creates and produces Lumiere, the UK’s largest light festival, which has been staged in Durham every two years since 2009; in Derry~Londonderry in Northern Ireland as part of the celebrations for City of Culture 2013, and in London 2016 and 2018.

artichoke.uk.com| Social Media: @artichoketrust | #LumiereDurham