By Jo Howell
Will folk culture and grassroots organisations survive the rapid gentrification of Sunderland?
This article was produced for Test Space: Speak Up Grassroots! event developed and hosted by Sue Loughlin and Corinne Kilvington of Theatre Space North East.
Introduction
A quick overview of who I am, where I come from and my motivation as an artist.
- Working class – first professional creative in the family
- Disabled – life long chronic pain condition.
- Proper Mackem – at least 6 generations of us in my memory. Miners, ship builders, glassblowers, grafters, footy peeps, pie makers, inventors and super strong women.
- Gobshite – I speak my mind which is not always welcome but well behaved women rarely make history so I see that as an external issue.
- Activist – I’m in the artists union, I try to speak out against injustice and I help run the Save the National Glass Centre campaign.
When I started working professionally our education system was angled towards subjects that come under the word STEAM.
Science Technology English Arts Maths.
Unfortunately austerity, Brexit, a nutty political class and covid stole the A from STEAM.
It became STEM subjects without any imagination.
As the great John Ruskin famously said:
Industry without art is brutality.
Without the arts we become docile workers no longer able to critically think or advocate for ourselves.
Before the A was stolen the local cultural landscape was rich with energy, hope and artists of all kinds. There was renewed pride in folk being Mackem.
Sunderland has a cultural identity that is specific enough that it can be characterised as folk culture.
The definition is as follows (Google):
Folk culture is the traditional practices and products of a small group of people. It’s often associated with a sense of place, belonging, and historical continuity.
What’s included in folk culture?
- Oral traditions: Stories, myths, legends, proverbs, poems, and jokes
- Material culture: Traditional building styles, clothing, and everyday artifacts
- Customary lore: Folk religion, celebrations, and rituals
- Work practices: Farming, craft production, and other work practices
- Importance: Folk culture can provide a sense of identity and belonging.
Throwing stones at glass ceilings is a grand local tradition here.
The Keelman were the first ever recorded to formally strike for better working conditions. Our trains brought standardised time and fast tracked us into the Industrial Revolution. Our connection to the river and the sea brought us trade from across the world. We hewed coal, we shipped it, and we used the ballast sand from the empty returning ships to blow glass.
We made ropes, pottery, ships, ceramics and glass. We invented lightbulbs, railways, steam turbines, dry photographic plates and even GPS shoes.
This City and the wider area has produced a lot of talent. I think that on the whole we are warm and caring people. In the most lovely way, I know that many of us feel that if one of us does good then we have all done good.
A love for the folk identity of Sunderland is part of the City’s charm. This is why the new developments are cashing in on our culture. Appropriating it for profit.
This is not a performance.
It is our lives, our reputation and our future. I believe that in order to thrive in a global cultural landscape that Sunderland folk have got to take back some agency. Our cultural organisations need to be independent to ensure true freedom of expression and authenticity.
Jo Howell photographic artist 2025
What I mean is that our cultural organisations need to be separate from education so that we can have more control to protect the parts of our culture that are vital to who we are. I’m sure a lot of us are aware of our vulnerability as freelancers or organisations that rely on partnerships or funding.
It’s really easy to be pressured into toeing the line even when you feel your ethics are compromised because your whole career depends on it.
Under the bracket of education the arts have become luxuries. Art has been co-opted and used as political spin.
Art washing has become commonplace. The artists have been gagged by funding policies. Afraid to speak up lest never be funded again.
Education itself has changed radically to ensure profitability. By proxy, the arts have been sanitised and forced to conform to the political agenda of the day. Or else face being defunded and blacklisted.
Art and creativity is what makes us US.
It is our power.
It is our voice when they don’t want us to speak out.
Here is the place where the STEAM vs STEM argument becomes vital to the conversation about who we are and what we want our future to be.
Our strength is that we all deeply care on a personal level about Sunderland – this is because we see it as an extension of ourselves.
It’s important to ensure our future by considering the benefits of the ARTS ecosystem having more autonomy away from the obvious restrictions of STEM. Having separation from the education system will reduce the risk of us losing the arts entirely.
We need grassroots organisations that can analyse the artwashing tactics and advocate against it without the burden of political risk.
Property developers who inadvertently or deliberately seek to appropriate who we are for their own commercial gain need to be questioned to encourage oversight.
By taking care of and respecting the innovators already here we will naturally create a more attractive stable economic environment for everyone. Cooperation instead of competition.
How do we feel about Sunderland the brand or Sunderland the intellectual property?
As Sunderland folk do we feel included? Do we feel that we are central in the current ‘cultural renaissance’ of Sunderland?
Or,
Do we feel othered? Exploited? At risk? Isolated?
Do we TRUST the policymakers? Gatekeepers? Middle management?
I think the current funding model is broken. That we are on course for a catastrophe.
I think that we risk the grassroots heart of Sunderland being stomped out by commercial STEM focussed policymakers. People who happen to know the price of everything and the value of nothing
I also think that it is not too late for us to unanimously shout: we deserve authentic change.
So, I think STEM mentality is killing the arts and I want to put that ‘A’ back where it should be.
The grassroots of Sunderland should have agency and a voice in their own City.
STEAM powered renaissance ❤️