Monkfish Productions

ALT A little bit of good in the world graphic

ALT A smiling woman wearing glasses and a green monkfish branded t-shirt

ALT Four women holding an embroidered banner

ALT Producing Place art exhibition in Saltwell Park

ALT A post-it note that reads It's where creativity and community collides!

ALT So long! Monkfish Productions is closing down

ALT Monkfish Productions has been in operation since 2007 as a CIC and more recently a charity (CIO). Since then, we have created spoken word and multimedia performances and installation and, more recently, focused on combining a range of artforms to support artists and communities to reimagine existing physical spaces. During Monkfish’s life span, we’ve held a funeral for dead fictional characters, measured the heartrate and blood pressure levels of performers in real time, reclaimed a former Department of Work and Pensions office as a place of Xmas anarchy, eaten more than one banana in recreating Beckett’s masterpiece Krapp’s Last Tape, and composed a soundscape with the residents of a former pit village featuring a cameo appearance from a local bee colony. All these endeavours are just a smattering of all the wonderful things we done and the people we have worked with – too many to mention here, sadly.

ALT We’ve co-made creative shenanigans with communities in Newcastle and Gateshead and have been inspired and moved by the resilience and ingenuity of all the communities and artists we have worked with. There are so many of you out there and we are in awe of what you do. A particularly proud moment for us was to have been part of Newcastle’s Holocaust Memorial Day Programme 2 years running with A Little Bit of Good in the World. And all of this, or much or it, would not be possible without all the funders, venues, and partners that we have worked with and been supported by along the way. Special thanks to Arts Council England, who have been an incredible support for much of Monkfish’s run.

ALT But the only thing in life that is truly constant is change. And after 17 years, our Artistic Director Claire Murphy-Morgan is starting a new life chapter. She’s been the mainstay of Monkfish throughout and, to be frank, no Claire, no Monkfish. So, it’s with a heavy heart that we announce the closure of Monkfish. There will be a final 1-hour online reflection on Thursday 28th September at 6pm. If you would like to join us, please email us at monkfishproductions@hotmail.co.uk and we’ll email you the link. So long, farewell and thanks for all the (Monk)fish.

ALT "A place-based approach sets up some really nice parameters in which you are able to really delve deep into the specifics of what interests you creatively, and what interests participants."

ALT Not just a sense of ownership and a sense of belonging - I hate that. But that participants really feel like they have the ability to direct a project.

ALT "Find inspiration from somewhere... it might be from the history, it might be from the architecture, it be from the people and what they do, it might be from something nearby - find the inspiration."

ALT Producing Place roadmap. A journey in making/working in place and space contexts.

ALT "Because all of these things only operate because of trust. Trust that you're going to look after somebody. You're going to look after a community. You're going to be respectful. You're going to do what you say you're going to do. So communication would be like my top thing of what's important to consider."

ALT "...the conceptual side to art sometimes can put people off engaging with art, and I think it should be universal and people should be able to take an experience from it for what it is. So even if people came to the work and they just enjoyed it, I think that's still worthwhile and you escape from your everyday life by going into a different space."

ALT "Really good space-based or place-based projects force you to re open that playful, exploratory approach - genuinely doing things that are led by the process."

ALT "I've been more interested in working outside of traditional theatre spaces, just because this extra texture, which is environment, adds so much - you know, gives me another layer to work with."

ALT "...thinking about the range of places where I've worked...when it's worked best, it hasn't been driven by the thing I as an artist find most interesting...it's been when we've created the right environment for participants to express and explore what they find most interesting about a space."

ALT "I'm really interested in space as creative stimulus and the space that stories tell, the space that empty stories tell, the stories that the repurposed space tells, which I think are unique - I think it's a unique way of working."

ALT "...it was quite hard to sell tickets when it was in an unconventional space and it's like, you will need to work a little bit harder to take audiences from a space they recognise into a space they don't."

ALT "Not just a sense of ownership and a sense of belonging - I hate that. But that participants really feel like they have the ability to direct a project."

ALT "thinking about the range of places where I've worked, when it's worked best, it hasn't been driven by the thing I as an artist find most interesting...it's been when we've created the right environment for participants to express and explore what they find most interesting about a space."

ALT "Because all of these things only operate because of trust. Trust that you're going to look after somebody. You're going to look after a community. You're going to be respectful. You're going to do what you say you're going to do. So communication would be like my top thing of what's important to consider."

ALT "...the conceptual side to art sometimes can put people off engaging with art, and I think it should be universal and people should be able to take an experience from it for what it is. So even if people came to the work they just enjoyed it, I think that's still worthwhile and you escape from your everyday life by going into a different space."

ALT "...conventional theatre space has been quite closed off and quite isolating and quite gatekeeper-y, I think there's definitely something about found space or new space or place or all of those words. They have a different ownership and they have a different permission as to who can work in them. And they have a different model and methodology of working...often you're making your own model each time and that has been a very interesting and exciting thing."

ALT Producing Place: a journey in making/working in place and space contexts Illustration features five floating heads with quote bubbles. "How do we really facilitate this concept that this things, this piece of structure is alive?" "Really good space-based or place-based projects force you to re-open that playful, exploratory approach - genuinely doing things that are led by the process." "Not just a 'sense' of ownership and a 'sense' of belonging - I hate that. But the participants really feel like they have the ability to direct a project." "I love the diversity of this community we have. I love all the people we meet. And so I would just want more of that. I would want people to feel more open, to share their lives with each other in creative means." "There's been projects where you're trying to bring a sense of creativity and anarchy to an environment that is not designed for that. Taking a building that's designed for one purpose and saying it's not going to be for that anymore."

ALT "Not just a sense of ownership and a sense of belonging - I hate that. But that participants really feel like they have the ability to direct a project."

ALT "I love the diversity of the community we have. I love all the people we meet and so I would just want more of that. I would want people to feel more open, to share their lives with each other in creative means."

ALT "Really good space-based or place-based projects force you to reopen that playful. Exploratory approach - genuinely doing things that are led by the process."

ALT "There's been projects where you're trying to bring a sense of creativity and anarchy to an environment that is not designed for that. Taking a building that's designed for one purpose and saying it's not going to be for that anymore."

ALT Producing Place: A Journey in the Making/Working in Place and Space Contexts

ALT An illustrated woman saying "Not just a 'sense' of ownership and a 'sense' of belonging - I hate that. But that participants really feel like they have the ability to direct a project."