Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards.
Please improve this article if you can. (May 2007)
The neutrality of this article is disputed.
Please see the discussion on the talk page.(December 2007)
Please do not remove this message until the dispute is resolved.
The Baltic Centre as viewed from the Millennium Bridge
The Baltic Centre as viewed from the Millennium Bridge
A View of the Baltic Arts Centre
A View of the Baltic Arts Centre

The Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art (BALTIC) is an international centre for contemporary art located on the south bank of the River Tyne alongside the Gateshead Millennium Bridge in Gateshead, North East England. It presents a constantly changing 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 1990s to convert the 1950s Baltic Flour Mill into a centre for art. After ten 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.[1] The inaugural exhibition, B.OPEN, featured work by Chris Burden, Carsten Holler, Julian Opie, Jaume Plensa and Jane & Louise Wilson and attracted over 35,000 visitors in the first week.[2]

Publicly BALTICS’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.[3] The founding director, Sune Nordgren was appointed in 1997 and was integral in Baltic’s pre-launch period, he oversaw the building of the gallery and witnessed the first one millionth visitor through the doors. After almost six years, Nordgren left to take up a new post as founding Director of the National Museum for Art, Architecture and Design, Oslo, Norway.[4] He was briefly succeeded by Stephen Snoddy who was only with the organisation for one year. Snoddy was succeeded as Director by Peter Doroshenko in 2005, who approached the challenge with plans to increase visitor numbers and resolve the financial situation. [5] Doroshenko organized several exhibitions during his time at the BALTIC, including 'Spank the Monkey.' [6] Following conflicts with staff, it was announced that Doroshenko would be leaving in November 2007[7].

BALTIC has in only five years welcomed more than 2.5 millions visitors, with an additional 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.

In the summer of 2007 BALTIC celebrated its fifth 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 donation of £500,000 by Rootstein Hopkins Foundation enables 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.[citation needed]

On 20 September 2007 BALTIC management contacted Northumbria Police for advice regarding whether or not a photograph should be displayed as part of the Thanksgiving installation, a forthcoming exhibition by American photographer Nan Goldin.[8] The photograph entitled Klara and Edda belly-dancing (which, along with the rest of the installation, is part of the Sir Elton John Photograhy Collection) features two naked young girls and had previously been exhibited around the world without objections.[9] The installation, which had been scheduled for a four-month exhibition, opened with the remaining photographs but closed after just nine days at the request of the owner.[10]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Baltic Blunders - the New Statesman
  2. ^ Baltic Website
  3. ^ Trouble at t'Mill - Meltdown at Newcastle's Baltic?
  4. ^ Baltic Website
  5. ^ Baltic's new director unveils a vision of skateboards, football and art in the lavatories
  6. ^ Spank the Monkey-BALTIC
  7. ^ Baltic boss quits
  8. ^ "Boss defends gallery 'porn probe'", BBC News, bbc.co.uk, 2007-09-27. Retrieved on 2008-05-28. "Mr Wrigglesworth said: "We had an exhibition of 139 photographs and the management of Baltic thought this particular one was possibly beyond the pale. So the management took advice from the police as to whether it should be put on display or not. That led to a police investigation, which is ongoing."" 
  9. ^ "Sir Elton owns 'porn probe' photo", BBC News, bbc.co.uk, 2007-09-26. Retrieved on 2008-05-28. "A spokesman for the singer said the photograph had been exhibited around the world without objections. The statement added: "Elton John is known as one of the world's foremost collectors of photographic art and has several thousand photographs in his collection, including works by Man Ray, Richard Avedon, Irving Penn, Diane Arbus and Ansel Adams."" 
  10. ^ "Baltic porn probe photos removed", BBC News, bbc.co.uk, 2007-10-01. Retrieved on 2008-05-28. "Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, at the request of the Sir Elton John Photography Collection, has closed the exhibition. After the removal of one image from the series it was no longer possible for Baltic to exhibit the collection of works as the artist intended. Therefore Baltic is sympathetic to Sir Elton John's request and supportive of the decision." 

[edit] External links