Since Lumiere began in 2009, community engagement has been a prominent focus for its organisers Artichoke, with over 15,000 people engaged in the biennial’s 16-year history.
The lights may have gone out for Lumiere, but we’d like to reflect on the huge achievements our L&P team have accomplished in bringing art, creativity and opportunities to Northeast communities.
Working with a diverse range of ages, communities, and backgrounds, the Learning & Participation (L&P) programme has witnessed a multitude of creative and educational explorations through its projects.
Celebrating Lumiere’s Brightest Moments: A Photography Competition and Exhibition
A major achievement this edition of the light art biennial was a six-month long collaboration between Durham Sixth Form Centre and Artichoke’s L&P team, resulting in Celebrating Lumiere’s Brightest Moments, a photo competition and exhibition curated by the students themselves.
The aim of the project was to teach students how to organise an exhibition, from inception to delivery. During workshops, they developed practical skills such as design, social media marketing, photography curation, sponsor communications and delivery of the exhibition launch event.
The open call competition saw 240 individuals submit images for consideration and following a panel process, 24 images were selected for the final exhibition.
The final event was hosted at Durham Sixth Form’s Dead Dog Gallery, where over its’ three-day run, the event drew around 5,000 visitors.
Celebrating Lumiere’s Brightest Moments was supported by Durham Sixth Form Centre, The Gillian Dickinson Trust, The Hays Travel Foundation and Henry Smith’s Charity Durham.
It was an incredible experience to be part of, and I was able to work with amazing people to produce a brilliant result
Durham Sixth Form Student
Creative Engineering Career Talks
Bright Ideas Career Talk with John Atkins at Durham Academy, June 2025. Photo by Beth King.
Thanks to the Royal Academy of Engineering Ingenious trust, L&P helped empower future engineers at Durham University.
Students took part in a practical session given by the Artichoke Communications team, which explored how to create a professional digital presence for their work and study.
They also heard from Jon Voss, the artist behind Lumiere‘s Heron, who explained how creative engineering is central to his work and how it may affect their own studies and professions.
Thank you to the Royal Academy of Engineering for supporting our work with expert engineers as part of Lumiere.
Lumiere at Locomotion: Spotlight on Shildon
Iron Horse Junction, Hannah Fox. Lumiere Durham 2025, produced by Artichoke. Spotlight on Shildon. Photo by Matthew Andrews
Three unique artworks were showcased at the Locomotion Museum as part of Lumiere’s Spotlight on Shildon.
To mark 200 years of railway history, the L&P programme explored the engineering behind railways, with 90 Durham Academy students attending an immersive day of inspirational study at the renowned museum.
Artist Hannah Fox led creative workshops with Durham University’s Science Team and Locomotion’s learning team, delivering interactive activities in civil engineering and specialised physics. Hannah then collaborated with 60 of the students, developing Iron Horse Junction, an immersive installation which recreated signal boxes, exploring the memories and sounds of railways throughout history.
Across six practical workshops, the students delved into railway history by recording soundscapes, writing stories and creating silhouettes and illustrations that were key to the final product.
Supported by Royal Academy of Engineering Ingenious, The Ogden Trust, and Darlington Building Society.
Glimmer: A Glance into the Lives of Durham Residents
Glimmer, Laura Brenchley. Crook Hall. Lumiere Durham 2025, produced by Artichoke. Photo by Matthew Andrews
Glimmer was a mass participation project that engaged 400 community members across County Durham to create lanterns inscribed with meaningful messages.
An accessible and impactful activity, this project uplifted and brought together voices of all ages, abilities and backgrounds: from primary schools to professional quilt makers, mental health charities to individuals from community coffee and craft mornings.
The result was an impactful and luminous artwork that adorned Crook Hall Gardens and Shildon’s Locomotion Museum during Lumiere.
Glimmer at Crook Hall was supported by National Trust.
Workshops supported by Karbon Homes and The Leonard Curtis Foundation.
Lighting Up the Community with New College Durham Filmmakers
The L&P team has had a longstanding relationship with New College Durham, so for the latest iteration of Lumiere, students created a short film celebrating the impact the light art biennial had on the community.
25 media and production students aged 16-25 got the opportunity to utilise their film production skills within a professional context whilst engaging with members of the local community. With guidance from the Artichoke team, students set up interviews, organised filming locations and managed pre- and post-production roles, culminating in a 2-minute film that was used within the wider Lumiere 2025 promotional campaign.
The final film premiered at a Lumiere event in October 2025, and Artichoke were so impressed by the student’s work that it resulted in them being hired as videographers to capture some of the live event.
This project was supported by New College Durham, The Gillian Dickinson Trust and The Hays Travel Foundation.
Training Up the Northeast: Lumiere’s Traineeships for young people
Comms trainees, Hollie and Becky. Lumiere Durham 2025, produced by Artichoke. Photo by Matthew Andrews
Eight traineeships were created as part of the Lumiere 2025, providing experience across facilitation, production, development and communications.
The Facilitation trainees spent several months supporting the development of the lantern project Glimmer and Iron Horse Junction with their roles focusing on supporting leaders in workshop environments as well as developing their own facilitation skills.
Production trainees provided essential practical support during install and de-rig periods, assisting volunteers and conducting tours throughout the light art biennial.
Trainees for Communications contributed to the delivery of social media content during the live event alongside supporting our film crew and assisting at the Arriva Visitor Hub.
Development trainees assisted with sponsor events and worked closely with the team to engage key stakeholders.
Trainee programme supported by Point North.
Marketing & Communications and Production Trainees supported by Avison Young.
Development Trainees supported by Savoy Educational Trust.
The skills I learnt on this project have allowed me to gain an extended contract with an arts festival in Middlesbrough working on developing their programming.
Beth, Facilitation Trainee
My highlights were being able to work with such a broad variety of people, from primary schools to 95 year olds. I got to listen to stories from them, understand really personal things relating to what they had chosen to write on their lantern. It was an absolute joy to meet so many amazing people, from people at Artichoke, to the facilitators, other trainees and community members.
Hana, Facilitation Trainee