JUDITH King first came to prominence as the English Heritage arts curator responsible for some of the most wonderful exhibitions at Belsay.

The myriad of recliners in Sitooteries, the gladrags of Zandra Rhodes, Alexander McQueen and Jean Muir in Fashion at Belsay, and the sparkling Lucky Spot, the horse fashioned out of 9000 Swarovski crystals by Stella McCartney, each caught the public imagination in turn.

When the money ran out at Belsay though – “All the attention was on Stonehenge and Chiswick,” said Judith – she formed Arts&Heritage instead as a vehicle for continuing her work presenting contemporary art and installations in heritage settings.

Her comrade-in-arms is Timandra Nichols, the former Northumberland County Council arts officer now based in Winchester, and between them they breathe life into high-profile projects across the North-East, the South-East and London.

Their two biggest grants to date bear witness to the thriving, vibrant nature of the Hexham arts scene.

Besides sharing in the £187,000 Arts Council England grant for The Mansio project, they have been awarded another £187,000 by the ACE Museum Resilience Fund.

Judith said: “I must stress this was for a developmental programme working with museums in the North-East and Yorkshire, to commission artists to respond to historic collections, and not for our wages!”

The museums concerned include Bede’s World, Durham Castle, Fountains Abbey and Auckland Castle.

Another big project on the go is their latest mobile exhibition doing a tour of the region’s agricultural shows.

While she can’t reveal exactly what’s inside The Gallery of Wonder, as the spirit of mystery and surprise is part of it, she can say it houses new work produced by seven nationally and internationally-renowned artists who have fulfilled their remit – to enthrall their audiences.

While the Arts&Heritage team is working at a national level, Judith is firmly rooted in Hexham and has been for the past 20-odd years.

“There are a lot of us who have decided to stay here professionally,” she said.

“Originally, many of us came because it was a good place to bring up our children, but now there is a very good network of people in Hexham who are very aware of what’s going on nationally and internationally and we bounce off each other.”

Fiona Crisp, head of the master of arts programme at Northumbria University, Alessandro Vincentelli, curator at the Baltic and his wife, who is a Tate picture restorer, and artist Claudia Sacher are just some of the very many prominent arts people living and/or working in the town.

Judith, Susie Troup and Clymene Christoforou were good friends as much as anything else and while they worked in different fields, their frequent and lively debates – generally over a bottle of wine – proved fertile grounds.

“We work in very different worlds,” said Judith. “Susie is in literature, while I’m in history, heritage and museums and Clymene works with international contemporary artists.

“But we connect; we’re very good friends, but professionally we also work very well together and that’s rare, I think.”

Further information about the current touring exhibition can be found at: www.artsandheritage.org.uk/projects/GalleryOfWonder.