Artistic Director

Liam Slevin is a creative instigator, sound artist, and artistic director. He is interested in artist communities and ecologies, DIY/T cultures, and building physical and digital spaces for culture and artists to thrive. Alongside Anna Byrne, he co-founded The Auxiliary Project Space C.I.C. (2016) and Middlesbrough Art Week (2017). In addition to devising and managing the artistic programs for both, he has co-led The Auxiliary Project Space through a period of rapid growth, becoming a National Portfolio Organisation in 2023 and undergoing a £1.4 million redevelopment with funding secured from DCMS and TVCA. 

He also founded and co-directs Sonic Arts Week, represents visual artists on the Creative Place Advisor Group for TVCA, is a founding member of Middlesbrough Cultural Partnership, as well as an active member of Tees Valley Festival Network. 

Curator

Alex Zawadzki is a curator and gallerist whose work explores contemporary social phenomena through the lens of cultural identity, transient rituals, and future folklore. Her global exploration - from the North Pole to North Borneo - has shaped her return to contemporary art, where she supports artists in building sustainable careers. She is Director & Curator of The Second Act, a gallery championing Northern and working-class artists, and co-founder of Uncultured Creatives.

Curator

Encompassing a broad range of arts and media practice, Mike Stubbs’ arts leadership, curating and advocacy has been internationally acknowledged. Mike has also been the Creative Director for Doncaster Creates and now ArtBomb,  which started when he worked as CEO of FACT, Liverpool, jointly appointed as Professor of Art, Media and Curating, at Liverpool John Moores University, moving from Melbourne, as Head of Program for ACMI, Australian Centre for Moving Image.

NEOC Curator

Penny Payne was born in Singapore and grew up in Lincolnshire. She graduated from Newcastle University in 1992 with a degree in Fine Art. From her studio in Cullercoats, on the North East Coast, Payne, creates sculptural, site-specific installation pieces and performative work. She is thematically concerned with female narratives, with a focus on unrecorded histories within the lives of working women. She has regularly shown work at Middlesbrough Art Week, Cheeseburn Sculpture Garden, and Collateral Venice 2019.

Timothy Maxymenko - Curator of Ukrainian Programme

Timothy is a Ukrainian artist based in London. He studied Audio Art at the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow. His practice explores the city as a site of research and interaction. Timothy works with sound, movement, and space to create shared experiences that hover between the political and the poetic. His own work treats the city as a score - something to be decoded, felt, and disrupted. He was shortlisted for the PinchukArtCentre Prize in 2020.

Curator - Motherother

Sue Loughlin is an artist working across sculpture, painting, and installation, with a practice that includes education, social engagement, curation, and project production. Based in the North East, she collaborates widely with art organisations and Cultural Learning Partnerships. She is the founder of MOTHEROTHER, a support network for artist parents and carers, and has over 15 years’ experience in art education regionally and internationally.

Curator - Industrial Coast

Steve Kirby is the founder of Industrial Coast, a fiercely independent cassette and vinyl label launched in December 2018. Based in Thirsk, North Yorkshire, with roots in the post-industrial landscapes of Stockton, Peterlee, and Easington, Kirby channels the raw spirit of the Northeast’s industrial heritage into a prolific, genre-defying output.

Steve started the label as a side project while working a corporate job. By 2022, the label’s rapid growth, over 250 tape releases spanning noise, techno, free jazz, drone, ambient, spoken word, and more; led him to leave the corporate job and run Industrial Coast full-time, expanding further in 2025 with the opening of The Labels first physical space Unit 41.