Hills Are alive is the culmination of Norfolk Street Arts first heritage programme funded by the National lottery Heritage Fund.
Collectively NSA worked with Jay Sykes media and Art Matters now to produce our digital exhibition inspired by and involving the community to produce an audio album and a virtual tour. Throughout 2021 and the beginning of 2022 NSA was involved in regenerating the former Hills bookshop and as a response we have worked with a multigenerational group in order to collect stories and personal histories of the high street in its former glory and the hopes for the future of the high street and the new hills site;.
Featured in the exhibition and presented digitally are a selection of personal notes donated the course of the programme by participants and artistic interpretations in response to the former book shop.
Throughout the project, Norfolk Street Arts worked with multiple people, with many of those people attending multiple excursions along the high street and the local histories library at the ETR by the libraries service to access explore, engage and absorb the rich local culture, history and heritage on offer and learn about the high street.
Through the project Norfolk Street Arts had highlighted the future of what could be situated on the local community’s doorstep, supporting many small independent high street traders and start ups which are now based in Hills. as well as encouraging people to explore new retail spaces in the city and has promoted social and cultural interventions on the high-street and translated the voices of the community into digital audio pieces and a visual exhibition which will last as a legacy to the former bookshop as the space becomes renewed.
With thanks to our project partners - Jay Sykes Media, Art Matters Now, The Local Histories Library at the ETR and Sunderland Culture.
This project has been funded by the National lottery Heritage Fund
Words by
Caroline Comer
Kelly Dent
Hester Dowling
Jo Howell
Glenda Young
Risaria Langley
Anne Loadman
Ryan Ka-Pow
Mirabel Lavelle
Melanie Shee
Jay Sykes
James Whitman
and Roisin Zerhouni
Read by
Maryam Almhameed
Hester Dowling
Jo Howell
Daniel Richardson
Jay Sykes
and James Whitman
Produced by
Jay Sykes
Hills Are Alive is funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund and managed by Norfolk Street Arts CIC. Norfolk Street Arts is a not for profit aimed at developing artists and independent spaces in Sunderland using culture and heritage as a vehicle for change.