Stevie Ronnie is announced as Baltic|States Artist in Residence
14 Dec 2025
Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead is pleased to announce Stevie Ronnie as Baltic|States Artist in Residence. He will participate in a research residency at Narva Art Residency (NART) in November/December 2026.
The Baltic|States Residency Exchange Programme enables artist and curator research and professional development through a series of supported residencies, studio visits, curator study visits and commissions at Baltic, Gateshead and partner venues in the Baltic region. The programme builds relationships through cross-cultural exchange connecting artists, arts professionals and institutions. Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, named after the Baltic Sea, was a former flour mill housing grain from the Baltic region, and the North East has long established trading routes with Baltic countries.
Participants are invited to respond to the current shifting geopolitical landscape in Europe and develop work that explores borders, identity, citizenship and belonging. They are also encouraged to find points of connection between the Baltic region and the North East of England, building networks with the artistic communities and creating dialogue that transcends borders and geographies at a time of rapid social and political change. Artists and curators who have participated in residencies and study visits as part of the Baltic|States programme include: Andrius Arutiunian (2019), Susie Green (2020), Eglė Mikalajūnė and Asta Vaičiulytė (2022), Maria Kapajeva (2023), Jordan Edge (Kiik Amor), and Kristina Õllek (2024).
In 2025, Baltic has partnered with NART for a second year to support a North East-based emerging artist to spend a month in residence in Narva, Estonia. Narva is located on the Estonian-Russian international border and is Estonia’s third largest city.
About the Artist
Stevie Ronnie is an interdisciplinary artist based in Northumberland, UK. At the heart of his practice is an intrinsic enquiry into language: its intricacies and its material possibilities. He is interested in what cannot be said and what is lost in translation in the context of our changing world. During his residency at NART, Ronnie will collaborate with the local community in Narva to explore connections between the borderlands of North East England and Eastern Estonia. Drawing on the languages that are rooted in the rich industrial heritages of these regions, he will begin a new body of participatory installation works that seek to foster kinship in the context of the shared political and environmental challenges that we currently face.
Ronnie has exhibited across the UK, Europe, Japan and the USA, including group shows at: Urawa Art Museum, Tokyo; Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead; Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool; Centre for Book Arts, New York; and Centre for Literature, Münster. His works are held in public and private collections including the British Library, the Bodleian Library, Urawa Art Museum and UCA. He has twice received the MacDowell Fellowship in the US for his interdisciplinary works and has published several books of poetry, which have been recognised through a Northern Writers Award, a Jerwood/Arvon menteeship, and longlisted three times for the UK National Poetry competition. In 2023 Ronnie was selected for the John Moores Painting Prize and in 2024 he was shortlisted for the Alpine Fellowship Visual Arts Prize.
About the Partner Institution
Narva Art Residency (NART) is a cultural platform founded in 2015. It facilitates residencies, art exhibitions, talks and educational workshops. It is located in Narva city on the Estonian-Russian border on the historical Kreenholm site. The international artist-in-residency programme is open for artists operating across a wide range of disciplines, including visual arts, music, performance, architecture, design, film, literature, curatorial practices and more. It generates creative exchange between practitioners and strengthens links with the local community. NART is located at the historicist villa, which was originally built for the director of Kreenholm Textile Manufacture. In close proximity stand the vacant factory buildings that once formed the largest enterprise of its kind in Europe.
This residency opportunity has been developed in partnership with NART, the Embassy of Estonia in London and the Estonian Contemporary Art Development Center (ECADC).