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TALKS

TALKS

All talks and panel discussions are free to attend, but capacity is limited, make sure to grab your ticket while you can!

This year’s programme of talks and panel discussions opens up space for conversation, curiosity, and exchange. Across the festival, artists, curators, and collaborators come together to share the ideas, tensions, and inspirations shaping In All Possible Worlds — exploring how art can help us reflect on the present while imagining new futures.

From curatorial walkthroughs and lively open calls to deep dives into identity, heritage, and political histories, these sessions invite audiences to listen, question, and take part. Highlights include:

  • Location:1-7 Dundas Arcade (former B&M Store), Dundas House, Middlesbrough, TS1 1JA,

    Date/Time Fri 26 Sept 10am - 12pm 

    Access:Step Free

    Join North East Open Call Curator Penelope Payne as she walks and talks through this year's open call exhibition. Exhibiting artists will also be on hand to answer questions and give insights to their work. Audiences are invited to get stuck in with the conversation. Tea, coffees and light refreshments provided.

  • Location: 12 Captain Cook Square (TK Maxx Store), Middlesbrough, TS1 5UB

    Date/Time: Fri 26 Sept 2pm - 3 pm

    Access: Step Free


    Come and join us for a lively panel discussion with the programme collaborators of Middlesbrough Art Week 2025 as we explore this year’s festival theme In All Possible Worlds. Together we’ll share the ideas, themes and inspirations behind the programme, opening up conversations about how the festival reflects our world today while imagining new possibilities for the future.

  • Location: 12 Captain Cook Square (TK Maxx Store), Middlesbrough, TS1 5UB

    Date/Time: Sat 27 Sept 1pm - 3pm 

    Access:Step Free

    As part of '22 Carat Gold’, four British South Asian artists who form this exhibition will come together in a panel talk led by Raksha Patel; artist and founder of British South Asian Visual Arts Network. Raksha is joined by Alina Akbar, Azraa Motala, Zara Saghir and Hira Butt in conversation on the works they have presented in this showcase, whilst considering how their work has informed by their heritage, and the expectations and sometimes limitations, placed upon them as British South Asian artists working in the contemporary art field today.

  • Location: 12 Captain Cook Square (TK Maxx Store), Middlesbrough, TS1 5UB

    Date/time: Fri 3 Oct 7pm - 9pm 

    Access: Step Free

    Artist: Oksana Kazmina

    For Middlesbrough Art Week, Kazmina will present the 21st episode of CHU. CHU is a live

    montage of audiovisual materials from Kazmina's personal archives, including footage from

    Kyiv’s underground art and music scene of the past decade, film expeditions to Eastern Ukraine

    with cine-movement and NGO Freefilmers, maps, microscopic imaging of Kazmina’s biome, and

    more.

    Mature audience only, viewers discretion advised. Content: possible nudity, obscene language.


  • Location: 12 Captain Cook Square (TK Maxx Store), Middlesbrough, TS1 5UB

    Date/Time: Sat 4 Oct 12pm - 1pm

    Access: Step Free


    Join Mike Stubbs, programme collaborator for Middlesbrough Art Week 2025, for a curatorial walkthrough of his selected artists. With his distinctive perspective as an artist, curator, and cultural leader, Mike will share insights into the practices he has brought together, highlighting the ideas, tensions, and hopes shaping this year’s programme. This is a unique opportunity to experience the festival through the eyes of one of its key curators and to engage directly with the artworks in context.