Northern Perspective @ Leigh

Wednesday 12 November 2025 / 6–8pm / Open Eye Hub Wigan&Leigh / book your free ticket

Northern Perspective is an evening dedicated to celebrating the visual artists and organisations who are reshaping how Northern stories are shared, seen, and experienced.

The North has always been rich with voices that speak of resilience, creativity, and community, and Northern Perspective celebrates this by creating space for visual artists and organisations who are telling northern stories on their own terms, rooted in lived experience and shared culture.

This gathering will shine a light on the power of visual art to capture identity and challenge perceptions, and celebrate the strength of the Northern voice. From photography and film to socially engaged practice, northern artists are amplifying perspectives that matter: stories of place, belonging, and what it means to live and create in the North today.

Speakers

Mario Popham (host). Mario Popham is a photographic artist, curator and educator based in Manchester. Since graduating from Manchester School of Art in 2007 he has continued to work on his own projects and commissions, recently from his studio based at Spinners Mill, Leigh. He is currently developing long-term projects in both the UK and Italy that explore place in the context of industrial legacy, nature and community and held the position of lead-artist in residence in with Open Eye Gallery for his work in Wigan and Leigh (2023-24). His work has been exhibited and published widely, including exhibitions at Open Eye Gallery, Centre for British Photography, Royal Photographic Society.

As a freelance curator, he has led and curated a number of exhibition, working in partnership with several arts and cultural organisations in region in the Northwest.

Sam Batley. Sam Batley is a socially engaged photographer, filmmaker and writer based in Liverpool. He responds to life’s dualities – fear and faith, isolation and loss of purpose to the joys and interconnectedness of community. Navigating the eternal dance that unites them. Leaning into his lived experience through creative process, engaging in a call and response between the internal and external, nursing the seeds of ideas that come through this conversation into their fruiting bodies.

Paula Keenan. Paula Keenan is a documentary photographer and community arts facilitator who for thirty five years has specialised in portraiture and delivering community projects around the Northwest. The work she creates involves working with groups and people who want to share their experiences, using the photograph as a medium of communication. Working with Imperial War Museum North, the Lowry, Open Eye Gallery and other Northwest galleries she has had the opportunity to engage with a variety of groups and  produce work tackling issues of gun crime, homelessness, loneliness, domestic violence and community regeneration. Paula is interested in the history of the family album and how taking photographs has changed over time especially with the advent of the mobile phone and social media.  

Northern Heart Films  (Scott & Natasha). Northern Heart are award-winning storytellers and documentary filmmakers, championing aspirational stories and authentic voices.  They celebrate people and places of the North and champion emerging talent. Their storytelling is built on working class heritage and a belief in the power of genuine human experience.

Scott is an independent documentary and factual producer/director with a passion for authentic Northern stories. Proud Lancastrian and collaborator with Creative Lancashire, dedicated to helping shape the county’s creative industry.

Natasha is an award-winning director, producer and creative consultant with over 10 years professional experience. In 2024 Natasha was recognised as a ‘Future Leader’ at the ‘Northern Power Women Awards,’ is a mentor for ‘Creative UK’ and is regularly invited as an industry speaker at events including BFI Future Film Festival and Production Futures.

Grace Dyke (Yellow Jigsaw). In 2014 Grace co-founded PR social enterprise Yellow Jigsaw, an award-winning social enterprise that delivers media and journalism community programmes to children, young people and older people: equipping them with the skills and confidence to create, debate and navigate the media with confidence.

STAT magazine. STAT is an anti-profit arts and culture zine made for the North West of England. Publishing print issues every quarter, STAT aims to redistribute cultural focus to smaller towns in the North West, showcasing left-field, radical culture outside of Manchester. Content tends toward the hopefully melancholic, darkly funny, and compassionate fringes of a modern North. STAT is currently made up of Pete Mercer, George Francis Lee, Connor Seed and Phoebe Verity.

More than just a showcase, the event is a chance to reflect on why these voices are vital. Northern culture is not a single story,  it’s personal experience, shaped by history, industry, migration, and community. By celebrating authentic voices, we not only safeguard our cultural identity but also open doors for new ways of seeing and understanding each other.

Northern Perspective invites audiences, artists, and cultural partners to come together in conversation and celebration to recognise the work already happening and to spark ideas for the future.