Peterlee Pilot: Place Lab
A Celebration of 75 Years of Peterlee
The Project & Zine
PlaceLab is a Durham Culture County supported project celebrating the people, culture and history of County Durham. Peterlee is one of the first towns to house this programme of activity. In 2023 a collective of artists came together to develop a varied series of works focusing on the heritage and community of the town.
Lizzie Lovejoy spoke to local people in East Durham Art's Community Cafe, The Dene and Peterlee Town Centre, collecting together their words and memories into a sketchbook. In honour of the 75th anniversary of the town, Lizzie wrote a series of Flash Fiction stories that have 75 words each.
The Stories...
The Collective Exhibition
The PlaceLab artists for Peterlee brought together their research, experiments and outcomes in a visual exhibition in the Community House space.
Lizzie's visual artwork focused on places that memories were strongest for the people that they spoke to over the course of the project. This included points along The Dene and The Apollo Pavillion.
Alongside the artwork, Lizzie presented two poems from the collection of writing developed over the course of this project, comparing the twin towns of Peterlee of Newton Aycliffe on their 75th anniversaries.
The Stories...
The Performances (Newton Aycliffe & Peterlee)
Peterlee and Newton Aycliffe celebrate their 75th anniversaries in 2023. As part of this, Lizzie developed a collection of poetry looking at their own memories of their home town and recent PlaceLab responces. Lizzie shared these at Newton Aycliffe's big town celebration and will be the compare at Peterlee's celebration later in the year.
Exhibition Opening
