Sawdust started with a simple idea: creative people should not have to leave Teesside to make ambitious work.
Building the infrastructure Teesside’s creative community needs
Artists and makers need access to good equipment, affordable workspace and technical support. Communities need practical ways to shape the places around them. Organisations need people who can turn creative ideas into things that can be built, used and seen.
Sawdust brings all of these things together.
Supporting artists to make more ambitious work
Our workshop gives artists and makers access to professional equipment, fabrication facilities and technical knowledge that can be difficult to find locally.
This means more artists can develop their practice here, take on bigger commissions and turn ideas into reality without having to work alone or travel outside the region.
Since opening, we have supported 30+ artists, built a growing membership and delivered 20+ workshops and skills sessions.
Our impact in numbers
50+ Local & National Artists Supported & up-skilled
£150k+
raised through workshops & partnerships
500+
Teessiders engaged through our public space improvements
Making better places in Teesside
The same skills and equipment that support artists can also be used to improve the places around us.
We work with communities, councils, cultural organisations and other partners to design and make practical interventions for streets, neighbourhoods and town centres.
From public seating and street signs to play structures, community furniture, outdoor games and temporary installations, we use making as a way to test ideas, bring people together and make places more welcoming.
People, tools and ideas in one place. A lab for imagining a more vibrant Teesside.
More than a workshop
Our impact goes beyond the things we make.
We help artists deliver work. We help organisations make projects happen. We give communities access to tools and practical skills. We create opportunities for people to learn and make together.
We also support the wider creative sector by providing fabrication, technical knowledge and a place to work that other organisations can draw on.
This means a small workshop in Middlesbrough can have an impact much further beyond its own walls.
Supporting artists to make more ambitious work
Our workshop gives artists and makers access to professional equipment, fabrication facilities and technical knowledge that can be difficult to find locally.
This means more artists can develop their practice here, take on bigger commissions and turn ideas into reality without having to work alone or travel outside the region.
Since opening, we have supported 30+ artists, built a growing membership and delivered 20+ workshops and skills sessions.
