The Festival will be a bit different too. We want to bring people back out on to our streets and into our shops, cafes, bars and other local businesses – celebrating our renaissance after Covid. So we will have:

· 5 smaller exhibition venues on The Headland and in and around Church Street.

· 35 monkey sculptures, decorated by the community, will form a trail around the town. They will be placed in businesses, in windows, as an invitation to come in!

· On-line talks and master-classes

All of this will take place between mid-September and the end of November when we will join forces with the Wintertide Festival and have a party for the monkeys!

We believe in supporting our local community and artists so:

· Monkeys are being made on Teesside

· Logistics and support by a local business

· Printing is being done locally

· We will create 18 paid opportunities for young local illustrators

· We will showcase the work of Class of 2020 and 2021 illustrators from The Northern School of Art – people denied a normal start to their careers by the pandemic.

The Northern Festival of Illustration was founded in 2015 by The Northern School of Art as a major showcase for the talent of illustrators across print, digital, product design and many other fields – aiming to open eyes to the rewarding and diverse careers open to young people. It is supported by Arts Council England with National Lottery funds.

Our thanks to Arts Council England for their generous ongoing financial support for the Festival through their Lottery Funded Project Grants. Our thanks also to the Tees Valley Combined Authority for their financial support from the Festival Recovery Fund.