Jan/Feb Newsletter
gently emerging from hibernation
Hello, I’ve written this month’s newsletter in between weekend errands and slurping coffees from a couple of Liverpool’s cafes. It’s wet and cold. The season’s weather and early evenings can make January and February feel like a tedious hangover. Perhaps the rhythm of the New Year still needs a little more time to get into gear. So let’s keep cosy and allow ourselves a little more time for slowness and reflection.
Thinking about the past in order to understand our present is a mode very much in keeping with our latest Subsack offering from Kate Lisson From the Moving view Point Of A Major Road , which reflects on the legacy of The Angel of The North. A beautiful piece that shares her dad’s photos of the sculpture’s 1998 installation to connect personal experience with public art’s broader civic effects.
We’ve been running our Substack for just over two years now and, thanks to you, our subscribers, we’ve been able to support over twenty writers from across the North and Midlands. From Roy Claire Potter debating the best ways to nurture arts writing practices on Fine Art degree courses - a topic which sparked Pil and Galia Kollectiv to write their own response - to a beautifully rendered meander through the archive of the Natural History Society of Northumbria by Peter Mitchel, our Substack allows us to commission exciting independent writing across a range of topics.
We’re currently offering an annual subscription for just £30. So if you’re reading this and haven’t subscribed yet, now’s the time!
£30 annual subscription offer!
Access our catalogue and support independent art writing in the North and Midlands for a special one-off annual price of £30. This not only pays our writers here, but also goes towards independent commissions on the site, like this one, so we can cover more artist-led and grassroots activity.
Round up of our reviews, features and interviews:
The Manchester Contemporary; A Diary by Will Marshall.
Unquiet Landscapes, Yorkshire Artspace, Sheffield by Hanna Dhaimish
OUR TURN: The Art of Becoming, Various Locations, Bradford by Martin Scott.
Coventry Biennial , The Herbert Art Gallery and Museum, Coventry by Cathy Wade.
Sport Art and Politics, a reflection on the politics of access in and between institutions, Newcastle by Kel Pereira.
News
Potato’s forthcoming edition of JAWS 12.2 ‘A Potato Codex: An illuminated book of experimental and collaborative writing’ currently has a call for papers!!
Potato Press have been invited to guest edit JAWS - journal for art writing. Potato Press is an experimental art press based at Northumbria University and run by our Northeast editor Lesley Guy along with Kate Lisson and Tom O’Sullivan. Submit your ideas by 30 March 2026.
Keep on keeping things mulling, safe and cosy. With love and solidarity from Nat and the Corridor8 team x.