CURTIS MAYFIELD HOUSE INDEPENDENT MULTIRACIAL ARTS VENUE
What’s in a name..?
Curtis Mayfield House on Carliol Square, East Pilgrim Street, is a 6-storey Arts venue in central Newcastle. It is now the permanent home of World Headquarters Music Club. WHQ relocated here from its original home on Marlborough Crescent, which was demolished in 2003 after 10 magical years as the City’s smallest club. The story of that is a bit deeper in the site (see History & Culture).
When we first found what is now Curtis Mayfield House, it was a derelict warehouse built on the site of the old City Gaol, which dated back to medieval times. The building was then called ‘India House’ & around the corner in the same block is another building called ‘British India House’. It had been left there, standing vacant for years.
We believe there was some kind of connection between these buildings & the rubber trade, from back when India was ruled by Queen Victoria & sickening racism & exploitation were apparently really, really cool things & considered to be ‘All the rage…’
Rather than help perpetuate any kind of outdated colonial bullshit, we decided to rename the building. Originally our ideas were David Attenborough House, or Aretha Franklin House, but as we wanted to directly challenge the buildings shady history & to mark the fact he had sadly recently passed away, we settled on Curtis Mayfield House.
Curtis Mayfield (1942 - 1999)
Curtis Mayfield was the lead singer of 60s vocal group the Impressions whose hits include ‘People get ready’ ‘Choice of colours’, ‘Keep on pushing’ & ‘We’re a winner’. He then went on to record as a solo artist throughout the 70s & was a pivotal figure in the struggle against segregation & the oppression of black people & other marginalised groups worldwide. Curtis made a real big difference, to millions of lives.
It was around this period that he recorded ‘Move on up’, which is probably his best known tune. Curtis embodied the concept of improving people’s lives & self image through art. He also encouraged positivity, was consistently uplifting & never sold out… That’s why we chose to call our fantastic new home here, Curtis Mayfield House.
Public Funding..?
In 2003 after extensive refurbishment, hassle, sleepless nights, near strangulation of builders, Houdini type negotiation with developers & the type of debt that would bankrupt a small nation, we finally opened World Headquarters Club in Curtis Mayfield House, ensuring its survival against all odds. The project had taken 19 years to evolve to reach this key point. Later that year Globe City Art Gallery launched on our 4th floor & it was all good.
Now 7 years later, as time moves on & we lower our debts & reinvest in the building, more & more quality artistic activities, exhibitions & events are taking place right here.
To retain our independence we’ve never spun a ‘media darlings’ game, so this had to take time to develop. Unlike other, larger well known artistic venues in the area, i.e. The Sage & The Baltic etc, Curtis Mayfield House was not built on free, public money from the National Lottery or big business sponsorships. We didn’t just arrive like that.
This unique building is the equal & opposite of places like that, as every penny spent reinventing it came simply & over time, from inside the pockets of the switched on people in the heart of the City, partying on the dancefloor at World Headquarters Club. It reflects our history, its origins & it’s all about truly good times & togetherness.
At World Headquarters our ’sponsors’ have only ever been & still are, the people of Newcastle & beyond. They support all our activites every weekend & believe in helping to move forward, this kind of cosompolitan & independent, grassroots, positive scene.
Curtis Mayfield House is fully disabled accessible & all nationalities are welcomed here.
The Floor Four Project
We were recently pitched a great idea for one of our vacant, upper floors which we have decided to go with & agree to.
Floor Four is the space we used to rent to Globe Gallery (see below). Now a new team of people are taking over & below this plan is some text, lifted from their facebook group page, which explains what they will be doing…
Floor Four
Is the exciting new network for creative people of all skills and talents in the North East.
Frustrated by the lack of opportunities in the region for Artists we think it is long overdue that a supportive network was in place to unite all Artists and give them the space, facilities and resources to collaborate with others and see a birth of new local productions.
We have secured a fantastic venue in Newcastle City Centre to make all of our dreams come true. The venue plays host to some very spacious rehearsal rooms for Dancers, Actors and Musicians.
Other services include:
An in-house photographer/film maker.
An editing suite.
A public tea room -open to all to come and enjoy cake and tea whilst thrashing out ideas, seeking audition advice, browsing through our collection of plays for a suitable monologue…
A monthly performance night showcasing our members work.
All members of our hub will be added to our website and database -complete with C.V, headshot and skills, giving you the chance to display your skills to prospective employers.
The space will also be host to workshops so you can develop your skills and flex that creative muscle!
Floor Four is run by a group of qualified professionals who will always be on hand to offer advice, support and promote your ideas and talent.
If you have a passion for this region and do not want to move to the likes of London to find work…
If you have a skill that you would like to share or pass on to others…
If you are a struggling Artist swamped down with the costs of travelling, Agency Fees, Rehearsal room fees, Headshot expenses etc…
If you have been working on something you would really like to showcase to others or find the people that can bring it to life…
If you would just like to give something back to the community….
THEN FLOOR FOUR NEEDS YOU!
Find Floor Four on Facebook @
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/group.php?gid=275127079649&ref=ts
Or check out the Floor Four website here.. http://floorfour.webs.com/
We look forward to working with them to move artistic opportunity in Newcastle forward.
The Globe City Art Gallery (2003-2010)
Prior to the Floor Four gang hooking up with us, over the past seven years on the upper floors of Curtis Mayfield House, was the independently operated Globe City Art Gallery which was open 11.30am - 5pm Wednesday to Saturday. We worked with Globe from since we opened, until Spring 2010 & here cutting edge visuals were the order of the day. We happily provided some heavily susidised space for the gallery & they were able to successfully establish, fund & run their own show here because of this.
As of September 2010 Floor Four have the benefit of this space, as Curtis Mayfield House continues to evolve.
It’s important to us that the building represents all kinds of mad art & during the period of our long hook up with Globe they helped us to provide that.
Exhibitions changed regularly & for more information on what the Globe mob are up to these days, please click here www.globegallery.org to go to their website. You can also see a load of past exhibitions here & get a really good feel for what got shown.
We are now hearing pitches for our other upper floor space, to sit alongside the Floor Four project, to move the artistic side of the building forward with new ideas for the coming years.
Feel free to contact us if you feel your ideas may work here on one of our vacant floors.
Here are some images from stuff that was on in Globe’s final year…
