Preview: Friday 14th November // 6pm – 8pm

Exhibition: 18th November – 11th December 2025

Exhibition extended until Tuesday 16th December 2025

Opening times: Tuesday – Thursday // 11am – 4.30pm, extended evening openings (11am-7pm) on Tuesday 18th November and Tuesday 2nd December 2025.

SAW Reflects: Thursday 4th December // 5.30pm -7pm

Songs of Solidarity and Strength is an exhibition of original songs and animations about life in the community of Shieldfield, co-created by a group of adults who live, work or play in Shieldfield, and children from Christ Church CE Primary school’s Wednesday after school club. 

Participants worked with songwriters Gareth Davies-Jones and Bronwen Davies-Jones to explore their experience of life in Shieldfield through song, forging observations and responses into lyrics, songs and creative soundscapes. Artist Lily Mae Kroese then joined the project to guide participants in creating animations to play alongside the songs – the result is a collection of powerful songs with a stunning visual backdrop.

The group took walks in the area to capture and record Shieldfield sights and sounds, and discussed the history and heritage of this small corner of Newcastle. Over numerous workshops, stories of those who live, work or play in Shieldfield were transformed into rhythm and pictures, resulting in the exhibition you see here today.

Helen Lunn, one of the participants, said “being part of Songs of Solidarity and Strength has been joyful, from the first scribbling of ideas on big sheets of paper to working with Bronwen and Gareth to turn them into lyrics. Through their brilliant musical skill we listened to them turning into songs, that give a picture of the highs and lows, and the rhythm of days in Shieldfield. Then came the animation with Lily, where we put pictures to the music.”

The children from Christ Church CE Primary school said: “I love this lesson because it teaches me how to write my own song.” and “I enjoyed EVERYTHING”

CDs and Prints

Fancy getting your hands on a Songs of Solidarity and Strength CD, or an art print of the animations?

We’ve launched a fundraising appeal to keep our creative projects going. It costs around £150,000 a year to run SAW, with most of our income coming from one-off grants. Our long-term financial future isn’t certain – but our commitment to creativity and community is.

By donating to our Crowdfunder, you will be directly supporting our work, as well as getting some perks from us to say thank you! You can order a specially made CD and a limited edition art print, AND we’ll get them to you before Christmas. Be quick – the Crowdfunder closes December 19th!

Donate now at by visiting our Crowdfunder page.

How we made Songs of Solidarity & Strength

Part one

Early in 2025, SAW and local community members began a songwriting and music project with songwriters Gareth Davies-Jones and Bronwen Davies-Jones. The project was open to anyone who lives, works or plays in Shieldfield – whether musical or not – who wanted to share their story of Shieldfield.

Gareth and Bronwen worked with participants to forge observations and responses into lyrics, songs and creative soundscapes. The group took walks in the area to capture and record Shieldfield sights and sounds, and discussed the history and heritage of this small corner of Newcastle. Over six workshops, stories were transformed into rhythm and melody; four songs were written and then, with the guidance of Dee Dowling from Ginger Music, were professionally recorded. Gareth and Bronwen also visited our local primary school, Christ Church CE Primary to write a song with children as part of the after school ‘Wednesday Club’.

Participants expressed that the song writing process was deeply meaningful, satisfying and powerful for them, and they said ‘we want people to hear this’, desiring that others may be able to listen and better understand the issues those in Shieldfield are facing. This led to the development of part two of the project.

Shieldfield Art Works is very grateful to Community Foundation, Tyne & Wear and Northumberland for funding part one of the project with a grant from the Newcastle Cultural Investment Fund.

Part two

Thanks to additional funding from a further two trusts and our local ward, a second part of this project was able to take place.

In October 2025, Gareth & Bronwen returned to Christ Church CE Primary school to write an additional song with the children. This primary school reflects the diversity of Shieldfield, with 25 different languages spoken amongst the school’s pupils. The children enthusiastically embarked on writing a song about their future hopes for their lives and Shieldfield itself. Children’s drawings based on the song Fifty Years from Now were then transformed into animations through workshops with artist Lily Mae Kroese. 

Meanwhile, a group of adults comprising the songwriters from the earlier workshops, and some new participants, started developing animations based on the songs written in February. Participants made drawings, paintings and shadow puppets for different elements of the song, eventually combining all their effects into the final collaboratively-produced animation.

Part two of Songs of solidarity & strength was made possible thanks to funding from:

Community Foundation Tyne & Wear and Northumberland

Newcastle City Council Ouseburn Ward Funding

Hadrian Trust