The Customs House Arts Development team

The Customs House Arts Development team work with professional artists to create innovative and exciting projects and events for the people of Tyneside. We reach out into the community and involve people of all ages in a multitude of creative and imaginative experiences.

Custombuilt is our Art in Education Agency, which works with schools across North and South Tyneside. We bring a range of creative, performance and visual art experiences to young people both in and out of school, to help support and add character to the school curriculum.

As well as an exciting number of events available in school time, Custombuilt offers a regular Youth Theatre and Youth Dance Group.

Bad Taste Cru

2007 will see another exciting collaboration between Custombuilt and UK Breakdancing Champions Bad Taste Cru, with a residency planned in North and South Tyneside schools.
The Bad Taste Cru was formed in Omagh, Northern Ireland, in 1995 as a collective of young people wishing to express themselves creatively through DJing, art forms such as graffiti and primarily Breakdance. The majority of the BTC now reside in Newcastle, where they are actively involved in running competitions, promoting social events, teaching workshops and performing.
See the website www.customshouse.co.uk for updates

Other workshops
This season The Customs House will be welcoming three exciting dance companies: X-Factor Dance, State of Emergency and Angali.
The Arts Development team is offering FREE workshops to accompany all three of these stunning and highly visual dance performances.
For more information on each dance company, see the What’s On Section of this brochure.

If you are interested in any of the above workshops, please contact Sandra on 0191 4278197.

MONSTER PRODUCTIONS

The Arts Development team has joined forces with innovative theatre company Monster Productions to present an exciting series of workshops based on theatre and storytelling:

Sad Socks, Happy Socks
The Arts Development team is inviting schools and nurseries to take part in a special workshop which will run alongside the performance of Sad Socks, Happy Socks on Friday 2 February.
It will allow young children to explore both characterisation and the creative environment. Working with one of our Early Years facilitators, children are encouraged to create and manipulate their own colourful sock characters. There will be four workshops per day, each running for 40 minutes.

Tree of Life
The Arts Development theme for this term is healthy eating and getting fit.
Tree of Life is a piece of theatre using storytelling and an education pack for teachers. The workshops will involve growing vegetable beds and storytelling.

A Handful of Sand
Get ready to be taken on another incredible Monster journey when a child’s game in the sandpit is magically transformed into a desert adventure. In the great Middle Eastern storytelling tradition, A Handful of Sand has stories within stories, puzzles to unravel and hidden truths to discover. As with all Monster’s plays, A Handful of Sands will engage, entertain and encourage young audiences to see the world through different eyes.

Schools in Harmony

Ten primary schools from the area are being given the chance to work with professional vocal coaches with the aim of creating their own school choir.

The project Vocalise is a collaboration between The Customs House and the Sage Music Centre in Gateshead.

The choirs will be encouraged to take part in schools music festivals arranged by South Tyneside Music Service, such as the Primary Schools Music Festival at the Customs House.

The project will culminate in special performances at The Customs House and The Sage.

(Dates to be confirmed – watch this space)

Teacher Training Activities

A number of specially designed workshops and training sessions have been developed in collaboration with Creative Partnerships North and South Tyneside. These have been devised to enhance and explore the creative teaching skills suitable for teachers and assistants. The activities are FREE to schools in North and South Tyneside. For More details contact Anna on 0191 4278188.


Book Now for cross curricular animation workshops, using drama to overcome behavioural issues in the class room and training on the use of creative thinking maps.

South Tyneside Young Filmmakers (STYFm)

South Tyneside Young Filmmakers is run by young people to develop the media production, story telling, design and drama abilities of young people by producing no-budget films. 

No experience is needed and membership is free! 

All you have to be is dedicated, aged between 13 and 19 and be able to come along on Thursdays from 5pm - 7pm.
For information contact Daniel Clifford on 07910 360 409 danielmiddlej@lycos.co.uk.

The Customs House Community Choir

The choir consists of around 30 people of all ages from the local community who meet on a weekly basis to sing and undertake workshops in a wide range of musical styles and genres.

New members are always welcome. No auditions, no pressure. Contact Margaret Cramman on 0191 456 0085.

If you would like information about any of the projects above, or would like to know more about the work of our Arts Development Department, the team would love to hear from you.

Contact them on 0191 454 5450.