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Find out about changes to our services and Christmas opening times on our Festive information page. To find out when your bin will be collected over the festive period, visit Changes to County Durham bin collections at Christmas.

Due to maintenance, the following systems will be unavailable from 11.45am on Tuesday 24 December until 8.00am on Thursday 2 January: our online Council Tax, business rates and housing benefit services, and our welfare assistance form. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.

Visual arts


We want to make and show great visual arts in County Durham that is enjoyed by an increasing number of people.

Ps in a Pod

The same and different is a cast iron sculptural installation currently touring different locations across County Durham. The P sculptures appear similar in form but each one is unique and differs slightly to all others - just like people. Like humans, the sculptures have a sense of adventure and energy. The sculptures respond to their environment and their location alters the personality of the artworks so the diverse landscapes of County Durham create very different settings for the sculptures.

They are now installed in their permanent home at Wharton Park, Durham. 

McGuiness Gallery

The McGuiness Gallery is located within Bishop Auckland Town Hall in the centre of Bishop Auckland. 

Our aims

We aim to:

  • provide high quality visual arts events and exhibitions that promote County Durham as a destination and attract visitors from beyond the region
  • offer opportunities for employment and development of professional artists from County Durham and the North East
  • engage high quality artists create work in County Durham making connections to the national and international visual arts scene
  • create visual arts programmes that challenge, provoke and inspire audiences
  • embed education and learning opportunities within all visual arts activity in order to expand knowledge, understand and raise aspirations
  • provide high quality, interactive community engagement linked to and promoting wellbeing and enjoyment


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