Opening weekend (Neville Blaszk)

One of the finest art spaces in England opened last Friday in once-grimy Gateshead, a town just south of the Scottish border, previously known for its coal mines and rough dockyards. The new Baltic Gallery—now the country's largest center for contemporary arts outside London—was converted from a dilapidated 1950s flour mill and grain warehouse, a long-vacant eyesore on the south bank of the Tyne River.

Gateshead, pop. 197,000, is considered the poor relation of sister city Newcastle, just across the Tyne, but now both cities are working together to shed their rundown images and become a mecca for art and culture. After the river ceased to be an important industrial artery in the 1890s, the area had been stuck with derelict waterfront factories and graffiti-marked warehouses. A decade ago, the cities decided to do something about it. A group called Gateshead Council and its local partners are trying to redevelop 550 acres of unused industrial land along the river, and the Baltic Mill is the strongest example of their efforts to transform Tyneside, an area that locals avoid, into a place that attracts visitors from all over the world.

Visitors explore the new galleries (Neville Blaszk)

At midnight on July 13, more than 5,000 people streamed into Baltic Square for the museum's official opening, and 12,000 people wandered through the galleries last weekend.

Turning one of the riverside's biggest buildings into an art center was the city's dream long before a former power station on London's Thames River was remade into the Tate Modern two years ago. In 1994, 28-year-old architect Dominic Williams won a competition to redesign the silo of the Baltic Flour Mills, the only remnant of the five-building complex that wasn't demolished after the mill closed in 1982. Raising money for the $72 million project took time, and the Baltic received its largest boost in 1997, when it won a $52 million grant from the National Lottery through the Arts Council of England. Other funding came from private partners, and, after four years of construction, the silo has been transformed.

Williams tried to retain the style of the original industrial building, creating what director Sune Nordgren likes to call an "art factory." Nordgren says the Baltic is not just another public gallery but an artist's studio, a manufacturing plant where new ideas will be made. "There has definitely been a desire to link the artwork and the origin of the mill," says museum spokesperson Alex Robat.

"The original function of the building," Williams says, "was to collect, contain, and distribute flour through the unseen workings of the silos. [Now] works will come, be created, and travel on from the place. The function [is] less secret, though still housed between its sheer walls."

(Neville Blaszk)

The Baltic will have no permanent collection. Instead, art will be produced and stored in temporary exhibitions before moving on. Nordgren says that he intends to install something new every month and envisions Londoners traveling north for exhibitions that otherwise would be accessible only in New York or Barcelona.

Williams' design has hollowed out the internal factory structure; in place of a honeycomb of 192 concrete grain silos, he has built five vast galleries, stacked on top of each other—the largest gallery could hold 100 double-decker buses. White walls, lime-washed pine floors, and acres of plate glass provide a light-washed, spacious backdrop for art. To enable flexibility, flooring can be removed to accommodate exhibitions.

The Baltic also houses a cinema, theater, library, three restaurants, and studios with floor-to-ceiling windows where artists-in-residence can work. Occasionally the studios will be open to the public so visitors can watch artists in action. Timber-and-steel decks cling to the bulky sides of the building, offering views of the river and cityscape.

The Baltic is demonstrating that Gateshead's industrial backdrop can become an art scene. An adjacent 1,600-seat concert hall designed by Norman Foster is slated to open next year. Clusters of new apartments and family housing are rising, bringing new self-confidence to residents of East Gateshead, the area around the Baltic, who for years have suffered from post-industrial decline, crime, and unemployment. According to the Baltic's Web site, the Gateshead Council sees the Baltic as a way to "reverse this trend and create a sustainable environment in which people wish to live and work."

Nordgren expects, and wants, to lure visitors from across the country and around the world. But he believes the locals are the real audience. "They may not look at the art until the second visit; they may just want to go for a cup of tea," Nordgren told the Newcastle Chronicle & Journal. "But it's about getting them inside the building, and then making them want to come back. They've seen the work that's gone on here over the past few years. It still looks like the old building, but it's completely different inside. I'm certain they'll be intrigued."

Alita Byrd is a writer living in London.

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