Paint The Toon Gold: Children's Cancer Art Fills Tynemouth Station
A striking installation of gold-painted lab coats and recycled-plastic sculptures has taken over the Bridge Gallery at Tynemouth Station for Childhood Cancer Awareness Month.
The restored Victorian concourse at Tynemouth Station is home to a powerful piece of public art this autumn. Children's Cancer North has filled the station's Bridge Gallery with an installation called "Kinder Treatments", created for Childhood Cancer Awareness Month as part of the charity's wider Paint The Toon Gold campaign. It is open to the public through September and into early October, and it is free to see.
What you will find in the gallery
At the centre of the display hangs a connected chain of lab coats, painted gold and embellished by members of North Tyneside Art Studio. The linked coats are meant to stand for the individual scientists behind children's cancer research, their teamwork, and the careful, precise nature of the work. Written across the sleeves are short quotes from the Newcastle University research team about what matters most to them and the achievements they are proudest of.
Around the coats float chandelier-like sculptures made entirely from everyday plastic waste saved from the Children's Cancer North research labs at Newcastle University. By turning discarded lab materials into something beautiful, the pieces point to the campaign's central idea: the ongoing search for gentler, "kinder" treatments for children with cancer.
A station known for its art
Tynemouth's grand Grade II listed station has long doubled as an exhibition space through its Bridge Gallery, and this installation is the latest in a run of art projects to use the setting. It sits alongside the weekend market that draws crowds to the station each Saturday and Sunday, so passing footfall is high.
Best for: The "Kinder Treatments" installation is on show at the Bridge Gallery, Tynemouth Station, during Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. Entry is free.
Abigail Hewison, Head of Charity at Children's Cancer North, said the charity was delighted to be working with North Tyneside Art Studio again this year. The result is a quietly moving reminder, in one of the coast's most-visited spaces, of the research going on a few Metro stops away in Newcastle.
You can read more about the campaign on the Children's Cancer North website.
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