We’re delighted to announce our two MIMA poets-in-residence for 2025 will be Ann Cuthbert and Eithne Longstaff, with a collaboration inspired by the Bottle of Notes sculpture.

MIMA are hosting a whole exhibition of work by the Bottle’s creators. The Secret Lives of Bottle of Notes: Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen considers the role of art in relation to formation of identity, public place and civic agendas. Over the course of 30+ years, Bottle of Notes has become firmly engrained in the cultural fabric of Middlesbrough and the wider Tees Valley area. MIMA’s 2025 exhibition asks how
this important sculpture came into being, what it means to the people who live alongside it, and how it has informed the region’s artistic and cultural identity.

Ann and Eithne will work together to create a poem that will appear in the gallery space printed on bunting, which the public can add to over the course of the exhibition. The artists say “The presentation of the poem on flags is in keeping with the maritime theme encapsulated in the Bottle of Notes and also, in urban settings bunting is often used as advertising, celebration or to communicate a message. Claes Oldenburg worked with visual artist Hannah Weiner who used flags, banners and semaphore in her work.”

As well as this organically growing participatory installation, they will make further small poems in a variety of media, and a piece that will be performed at an Art+Social translated into a semaphore presentation with recorded audio!

We hope you can join their journey by visiting the exhibition, adding your words to the flag message, and coming to the final performance!