Discover Turner on Tees: Exciting events, exhibitions and workshops as Turner Prize 2026 comes to the region
As the Turner Prize comes to Middlesbrough this autumn, an exciting programme of exhibitions, performances and events across the Tees Valley is putting the region’s creativity in the spotlight.
Turner on Tees will run across the Tees Valley throughout 2026 and into early 2027, as the region welcomes the prestigious Turner Prize at Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art (MIMA).
Bringing together artists, venues and communities from across the area, it offers even more reasons to discover the Tees Valley during this landmark year for culture.
The programme stretches across Middlesbrough, Hartlepool, Redcar, Stockton-on-Tees and Darlington, showcasing established, emerging and young artists and exploring everything from disability and identity to wellbeing, international collaboration and the nature of truth.
While the Turner Prize can be ‘Marmite’ for many people who either love or hate it, the Turner on Tees programme will offer opportunities for everyone to get involved with events on their doorstep.
At Redcar Palace, photographer Kev Howard’s From the Transitory opens on September 18, exploring disability, documentary photography and lived experience. Then in January, the venue will host a solo exhibition by Errol Theunissen, coinciding with related work at Darlington Library Art Gallery.
In Darlington, Are You Alright? opens on 3 October. Curated by Angela Thomas, the group exhibition from Alchemy of Minds features Black artists and creatives exploring emotional wellbeing, identity, spirituality, community and healing.
At ARC Stockton, Balance, a live art work by Adam York Gregory and Gillian Jane Lees, takes place on September 25, exploring disability, labour, the body and endurance.
Skatepark: Music, live art and drag
There’s plenty happening beyond traditional gallery spaces too. On September 25, Sideshow by SIDEQUEST takes over Trying HQ, an indoor skatepark in Hartlepool, with an evening of live art, music, drag, spoken word, burlesque and unexpected performances from young and emerging artists.
In Middlesbrough, Verisimilitude: The appearance of being true or real, curated by Penelope Payne and Will Hughes, opens at 2 Centre Square on September 17. Featuring materially and conceptually diverse work, the exhibition examines perception, constructed realities and the ways artists layer and frame truth. An artist mixer and development weekend will accompany the exhibition.
Saturday Club of young people
Elsewhere, MIMA’s Moxie, curated by its Saturday Club of young people aged 13-16, draws on the Middlesbrough Collection, while The Auxiliary is developing Creative Arc: Teesside / Fukuoka, bringing together Japanese and Teesside-based artists.
Further exhibitions and activities are also being developed at Preston Park Museum & Grounds and the Dorman Museum.
Find out what’s on
Together, Turner Prize 2026 and Turner on Tees offer a chance to experience a region alive with ideas – and to discover the artists, places and communities shaping culture across the Tees Valley.
To find out what’s on in Turner on Tees visit: www.mima.art/project/turner-on-tees
For more about the Turner Prize 2026 in Middlesbrough visit: www./mima.art/exhibition/mima-will-host-the-2026-turner-prize