The port is sponsoring exhibitions at the newly opened National Centre for the Written Word, the centrepiece of a £100m ($123m) regeneration scheme by the local South Tyneside Council. Separately, the port’s director of corporate affairs, Susan Wear, has had her second play staged at the Customs House theatre in South Shields.

One of the cuddly stars of The Word’s Ridley Scott exhibition (Photograph: National Centre for the Written Word)

The first exhibition at the centre focuses on film director Sir Ridley Scott, a local lad who was born in South Shields and studied at Hartlepool art college in the 1950s before going on to direct Hollywood blockbusters Alien, Blade Runner, Thelma and Louise, Gladiator, Robin Hood and The Martian.

Artefacts