Kitty Mckay is a contemporary artist known for her playful, innovative use of Plasticine to explore nostalgia, community, and storytelling. By The Lido Wall, her most ambitious project to date, pays tribute to William Harbutt, the North Shields–born inventor of Plasticine.

The centrepiece is a large-scale collaborative installation recreating the long-lost Hawkeys Lane pool in Plasticine, built with local residents' memories and stories to celebrate a once-cherished community hub. The exhibition also features three newly commissioned paintings drawing on local archive footage and family recordings, blending Plasticine's sculptural quality with painterly collage to capture memories of play, water, and togetherness.

Originally from Leicestershire and now based in the North East, Mckay's work blurs painting and sculpture, using childlike play to explore the "third places" — pools, clubs, and communal grounds — that shape social connection.

Part of Globe Gallery's Threads of Time programme, supported by Historic England, as part of the North Shields 800 celebrations.