AT LAST !!!
Introducing A Major Arts / Exhibition Centre Celebrating
THE REAL CULTURE
of Teesside, Cleveland & North Yorkshire
PRIORITISING
the very best of local art and artists
film, photography, fine art, performance, music, talks etc etc ...
Opening Spring 2010
at 29 Milton Street, Saltburn-By-The-Sea.
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In February this year, I was approached by Bryan Goodall a successful Middlesbrough businessman and owner of The Hambleton Group. He had just watched on Youtube Road To Popricani a film I made in 1991 about a Teesside aid convoy to Romania. By amazing coincidence, Bryan had been to the very same orphanage and had sent many aid convoys there himself during the 90s.
We met and got on a storm. He had a lot of likes and gripes about the area similar to mine. As a M'bro native, he told me how for sometime he wanted to do something about it . He liked 'A Century in Stone' and the more recent campaign films and very generously offered to back new projects. He encouraged me to expand into premises and I suggested a space to show films as well as make them; where artwork and photography from the area could hang on the walls and the space function also as a venue / meeting place. He was interested.
Almost as a long shot, I showed Bryan the empty bank on my street. He was dead keen and set up a meeting the very next day at 9am with the owner. Within days he had leased the building and wthin weeks had bought it!
We suddenly had 6,000 square feet, 4 floors and a vault in a stunning Victorian building and in a location to die for! A dream I had had for years was suddenly coming true... For weeks, we hardly slept as ideas raced around our heads. It soon became apparent that Bryan was a one off. He was a whirlwind of ideas, drive and obvious business savvy. But despite all his successes, he was remarkably unaffected by it all and a genuine and generous warm spirit. We were soon joined by the much-talented Paul Ingram, a Brotton native and fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. He brought a wealth of creative experience in writing and photography and music and had been recently working with me on the Coatham and Longridge projects.
So for the past 6 months, the 3 of us have been working hard behind the scenes developing our new epic venture.
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We have re-designed the building interior (with as many original features as possible kept of course!) and the building conversion is now well underway. We have been planning our first year of exhibs and events as well developing our philosophy...
And that is primarily of massive commitment to the local area, local talent, local audiences, local issues etc. It will be on a scale that the area has never seen before and has been deprived of for far too long. And before critics scream parochial phillistines (not that we care!) there will be space for interesting stuff across the board from beyond the Teesside / North Yorks area too.
ArtsBank has been set up as a registered CIC (Community Interest Company) because we are not strictly a commercial enterprise and nor are we dependent on grants. But we are 100% independent of the arts establishment. Elitist po-faced snobbery, "the kings new clothes" and ludicrous pricing you will not find at ArtsBank!
Think diversity, affordability, accessibility and communication. There will be extensive gallery space on 4 floors and down in the vault, studios for artists in residence, films being shown all day every day, classes of all kinds and a spacious ground floor for events, music, theatre, talks etc.
We want ArtsBank to become renowned as a premier place for genuine local culture and quality merch. We want as wide a range of people as possible to find something of interest. We will be selling original work, producing prints, photographs plus dvds and books as well as building an extensive website to export it all to the world.
If we can make art relevant and accessible to more people; put the area on the map a bit more and manage to break even then we will have cracked it. If we make a profit, we will invest it in more projects. Simple.
And with that comes
REGENERATION FOR REAL!
Craig Hornby, Oct 09.
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