 The BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art is a major international centre
for contemporary art located on the south bank of the river Tyne at the foot of
the Gateshead Millennium Bridge, in Gateshead in the north of England. It
presents a constantly changing, distinctive and ambitious programme of
exhibitions and events, and is a world leader in the presentation, commissioning
and communication of contemporary visual art.
Dominic Williams of Ellis
Williams Architects won an architectural competition in the mid 1990’s to
convert the 1950s flour mill into a centre for art. After 10 years in the
planning and a capital investment of £50m, including £33.4m from the Arts
Council Lottery Fund, BALTIC opened to the public at midnight on Saturday 13
July 2002. The inaugural exhibition, B.OPEN, featured work by Chris Burden, Carsten Holler,
Julian Opie, Juame Plensa and Jane
& Louise Wilson and attracted over 35,000 visitors in the first week.
Publicly BALTIC’s profile has been considered rocky and despite its youth it
has experienced three directorial changes and has fallen foul to much public
gossip and speculation. The original director, Sune Nordgren was appointed in
1997 and was integral in BALTIC’s pre-launch period, he oversaw the launch of
the gallery and witnessed the first one millionth visitor through the doors.
After close to 6 years, Nordgren left to take up a new post as founding Director
of the National Museum for Art, Architecture and Design, Oslo, Norway, where
controversy continued to dog him until his resignation after a short period. He
was briefly succeeded by Stephen Snoddy who was only with the organisation for
one year. The current Director Peter Doroshenko, who previously been the
director of SMAK – the Stedelijk Museum voor
Actuele Kunst, Ghent, Belgium has been with BALTIC since 2005. Doroshenko has,
for over fifteen years, held directorial and curatorial positions, written and
contributed to several books and numerous exhibition catalogues worldwide. In
addition to his role at BALTIC Doroshenko, who is of Ukrainian descent, will be
the commissioner for the Ukrainian Pavilion at the 52nd Venice Biennale and has
recently accepted an advisory role with the PinchukArtCentre in Ukraine.
Despite its sometimes controversial history, BALTIC has in only five years
welcomed more than 2.5 millions visitors in person from all over the world and
over 1 million virtually in the last year alone through its websites, webcasts,
podcasts and Library and Archive facility. BALTIC has exhibited nearly 200
artists from 24 countries, including Anish Kapoor, Sam Taylor-Wood, Antony
Gormley, Ed and Nancy Kienholz and Spencer Tunick. BALTIC remains has
commissioned over 30 new works, enabling it to support established and emerging
artists.
Later this summer BALTIC celebrates its 5th birthday with a Beryl Cook exhibition and the
opening of Quay, a new Learning and Community Centre within the gallery. This
new resource, created following a generous donation of half a million pounds by
Rootstein Hopkins Foundation will enable BALTIC to widen its education remit to
work both on and off site, encouraging more people, young and old, to interact
and experience contemporary art ‘up close and personal’. Each year BALTIC
provides formal education for over 10,000 school children, during nearly 400
sessions ranging from art clubs, photography courses, artist talks and
artist-led workshops.
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