Established in 1995 by Alan Smith and Helen Ratcliffe, Allenheads Contemporary Arts is based in an old Victorian schoolhouse overlooking the village of Allenheads in Northumberland.

Since 1995, Allenheads Contemporary Arts has delivered an extensive archive of projects and residencies for creative practitioners that brings together myriad combinations of themes in contemporary art and contemporary living in both the local and global context. Projects are often interdisciplinary and in the past have paired art with science, human geography, astronomy, the environment and philosophy. The creative outcomes present a wealth of ideas and practices.