Our History

How it all began

Baltic was founded with funding from The National Lottery through Arts Council England, Gateshead Council, Northern Rock Foundation, the European Regional Development Fund and One NorthEast. We gratefully acknowledge continued support from Arts Council England, Gateshead Council and Northumbria University. 

Since opening we have presented the work of over 877 artists of 78 nationalities in 266 exhibitions to date including Joy Labinjo, Hew Locke, Heather Phillipson, Antony Gormley, Cornelia Parker, Daniel Buren, Lubaina Himid, Steve McQueen, Jenny Holzer, Judy Chicago, Lorna Simpson, Imran Perretta, Huma Bhabha and John Akomfrah.

The notion of BALTIC began in 1991 when Northern Arts (now Arts Council England North East) announced its ambition to achieve ‘major new capital facilities for the Contemporary Visual Arts in Central Tyneside’.

Under the auspicious guidance of Baltic’s inaugural Director Sune Nordgren, appointed in 1996, construction began in 1998: only the south and north facades of the original 1950s building were retained. Dominic Williams of Ellis Williams Architects, London oversaw the redevelopment of Baltic from a flour mill into the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art.

A new structure consisting of six main floors and three mezzanines was secured between the facades which contained 3000sqm of arts space (four galleries and a flexible performance space), artists' studios, cinema/lecture space, shop, a library and archive for the study of contemporary art and the Rooftop Restaurant on Level 6. An additional two-storey structure: The Riverside Building, was constructed to the west of the main building, providing the main entrance into Baltic, which looks out across Baltic Square and the Gateshead Millennium Bridge.

Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art opened on Saturday 13 July 2002. 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.

The founding director, Sune Nordgren was appointed in 1996 and after close to 6 years, left to take up a new post as founding Director of the National Museum for Art, Architecture and Design, Oslo, Norway.  Baltic's Director Sarah Munro was appointed in August 2015 with 20 years experience of cultural leadership. Munro joined following a distinguished career in Glasgow as both Artistic Director of Tramway and Head of Arts for the city, where she led the bid to bring Turner Prize 2015 to Scotland for the first time.