Behind the scenes at Baltic

For my first blog entry I thought I'd talk about Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art in Gateshead. There are two reasons why Baltic came to mind. Firstly because they have been in the news recently and secondly because yesterday I attended their second business breakfast and hugely enjoyed it.

On the news front Baltic will shortly be welcoming Godfrey Worsdale as the new Director (Journal story here.) The bad news is there's a court case looming (Chronicle story here.)

I won't dwell on the news other than to say I think Godfrey is an excellent choice and I look forward to continuing to work with him in his new role. What I wanted to talk about was yesterday's business breakfast.

At 8.30am a group of North East business people - and I - were given tea, coffee, bacon butties and a rare behind the scenes look round Baltic prior to new exhibitions opening next week. We were welcomed by Interim Director Ivor Stolliday before being given some background to the exhibitions and artists by Alessandro Vincentelli, Acting Head of Programme. He also gave us some highlights of future exhibitions.

Allessandro then handed us over to Exhibitions Manager Chris Osborne who really brought the reality of gallery life to life. We heard the intricate nature of exhibitions and the hard work that went into getting them ready for the public. We heard how artists may only finish a work hours before an exhibition opens, or that customs can hold up works of art. We saw for ourselves how each exhibition needs dividing walls added or taken down. We learnt about sound proofing spaces and the challenges of bringing in 56 6ft by 4ft mirrored panels to the 3rd floor when the lift is broken. I particularly liked the story of Chris going to a local carpet store to buy carpet when the only instruction from the artist was it had to be 'office grey'. It was all fascinating stuff and made Baltic really come alive. It was the kind of stuff people love to hear about and see and Chris was an excellent host. To help people engage you have to make things real for them, help them understand.

At this point Louise Hunter, Corporate Responsibility Manager at Northumbrian Water said she hadn't realised how much work went into an exhibition, we just turned up and it was all done. I pointed out that the same could be said for Northumbrian Water, when we turn the tap on water comes out and we don't think about where it's come from, how it got there, how it was cleaned and ultimately how lucky we are to have such a service, many people aren't so lucky (http://www.wateraid.org/uk).

Turning it back again the same could be said of Baltic, we are very lucky to have such an institution here in the North East and we should embrace it, learn about it and be welcomed by it. Lets dwell on all the positive stories be they about Baltic or business and how they shape our region and try to avoid the bad ones (and don't mention the football).

If you fancy giving it a go I recommend trying out the Baltic behind the scenes tour as part of the Heritage Open Days next week (11-14 September) more details here. You might just learn something.

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