Winners of North East Emerging Artist Award announced after Seaton Delaval Hall exhibition

Rachel Blackwell, Jacob Goof, and Wambui Hardcastle have taken the top honours in the North East Emerging Artist Award in the second year the competition has been hosted at the historic Northumberland venue.

The Newcastle-based trio have won funding to develop their proposals into full art installations that will be exhibited at the baroque hall during next year’s competition, alongside the 2024 shortlisted proposals.

Rachel’s work, Flight of the Pipistrelles, will be a sculpture of cast pewter bats suspended by a steel ring, representing the bats that have made Seaton Delaval Hall their home since it caught fire in 1822.

She said: “It has been absolutely fascinating learning about the history of Seaton Delaval Hall.

“It is a unique opportunity to be able to respond to such a historic site and I am so grateful to receive the funding and support to realise a project of this scale in such an amazing location.”

Jacob Goff’s work, Many Hands, will celebrate volunteer efforts to maintain the hall, creating textile quilts with items from the lost property box.

He said: "I feel very lucky to be able to engage with Seaton Delaval Hall and its inner workings to expand on my work.

“I aim to celebrate the team of volunteers who work at the hall as an essential part of its operations using materials that have been left and found on site, ultimately demonstrating that the space is shaped, moulded and ushered into the future by the people who contribute their time and effort."

Wambui Hardcastle will create Time Flies in a Blink of an Eye, an audio installation imagining the future of Seaton Delaval Hall.

She said: “I am honoured to have been chosen as one of the North East Emerging Artists, and to be trusted in to realise my performance proposal at Seaton Delaval Hall in Spring 2024. This recognition means more than words can properly describe.”

The historic property has historical associations with patronage of the arts, after various residents supported artists, writers, and the ballet during the building’s history.