AN artistic adventure that began 21 years ago is celebrating its coming of age with an exciting weekend that focuses on the insatiable human desire to ‘boldly go where no man has gone before’.

Allenheads Contemporary Art (ACA) is launching an innovative programme of ‘arts and astro’ events, which will include installations, performances, music, lectures and walks.

Titled, As Above So Below, the work of a variety of contributors, including local schoolchildren, has been influenced by the features of the North Pennines landscape, from the labyrinths of the disused lead mines to its inky black skies.

The weekend will also preview the brand new North Pennines Observatory which is currently being built on ACA premises.

It was way back in 1995 that Helen Ratcliffe and her partner, Alan Smith, decided to set up this unique artistic hub in the Victorian Old School House overlooking Allenheads.

Helen recalls: “Both Alan and I are from Wales, but we lived in the States and were at the University of Massachussetts, where Alan was doing his MA in painting while I ran the student union’s gallery. “We came back fuelled with ideas about how we would like to do our own thing incorporating the interesting experience we had meeting so many people from all over the world.”

They discovered the Old School House at Allenheads and the rest is history. Over the last two decades they’ve hosted about 100 artists from Canada, America, Chile, Australia, South Korea and from all over Europe.

The venue has become a space for the research, production and presentation of new work by artists ranging from the region’s new graduates to the internationally recognised.

Over its lifetime, ACA has developed a series of residencies, projects, exhibitions and events that connect rural issues to global concerns.

“It’s been very rewarding,” says Helen. “Artists always surprise us with what they bring.

“We select artists from a broad career spectrum who reveal their potential to bring something fresh and new and to be brave and to push the boundaries of their work.

“I hope we give them the scope to work on their concepts and give them the confidence to bring new and interesting ideas.”

Pushing boundaries is exactly the theme of As Above So Below, the culmination of an 18-month project that has been funded by Arts Council England, North Pennines AONB Partnership, Northumberland Arts Development, Northumberland County Council and Newcastle University.

“We are interested in human kind’s search for the unknown, the insatiable desire to explore beyond known horizons,” Helen says.

Visitors will be able to listen to expert talks on The Universe and the History of Astronomy, presented by Dr Pete Edwards and Jürgen Schmoll from Durham University, as well as watch demonstrations and presentations by the newly- formed North Pennines Astronomical Society.

It will also allow a sneak preview of the new North Pennines Community Observatory which is set to open at the Old School House in December.

Alan Smith said: “The juxtaposition between art and science is a relationship that has long been at the heart of ACA’s work, and we enthusiastically welcome the building of the observatory on our premises to inspire our current and future arts programmes.”

Funding for the observatory is coming from the North Pennines AONB Partnership via a Heritage Lottery Fund grant.

The conservation organisation felt ACA would be the perfect home for its new venture which will become a focal point for astronomers, enthusiasts, schools, community groups and artists.

The AONB Partnership’s director Chris Woodley-Stewart said: ‘We are delighted to be able to support the As Above So Below arts programme and have been particularly pleased with the recent series of arts workshops for local residents, especially families, results from which will be exhibited as part of the weekend showcase.”

There’s sure to be something to suit all artistic tastes over the weekend.

On the Saturday, at 3pm on the village green, the Dale Singers will present a specially-commissioned choral performance based on traditional lead miners’ protest songs.

That evening, performance poet Mike Garry, who has toured with John Cooper Clarke and worked collaboratively with the likes of Iggy Pop, Philip Glass and New Order, is performing.

Tether is the title of a dark skies experience designed by Joel Hodges and Robbie Coleman who will take visitors on ‘a sensory journey into the dark’ – a 45-minute walk aimed at adjusting one’s mind and vision to the darkness.

There’ll be a sound installation in a wood and a floating sculpture on the reservoir next to the old schoolhouse by Newcastle University graduate Lucian Anderson.

Helen says: “Lucian is interested in alternative ways of living and has created a minimalist capsule in which a person could theoretically live.

“It has a space age feel and he will be relaying images looking out from the capsule to monitors so people can see what a person living in it would see.”

Various artists have worked with the local community, particularly school children, on the As Above So Below theme. “We have a show reel of images of the work the children have created.

“There was science fiction writing by children from Shaftoe First School in Haydon Bridge who worked with Tracy Warr; pin hole camera pictures from Aline Boma and the children she worked with and Bridget Kennedy’s cave painting work.

“Just last week we did a workshop with Linda Garrard called Webworld where youngsters transformed the gallery into huge spiders’ webs.”

Helen added: “We are excited by the imaginative, in-depth ways in which the artists have researched the local area, from its industrial heritage to the advent of the new observatory, to create new work. The weekend will include hugely diverse events for audiences.”

l For more information visit www.acart.org.uk/