'Northern Spirit: 'Tyne & Wear Archives and Museums (Laing Art Gallery) in partnership with the International Centre for Culture and Heritage Studies at Newcastle University. Delivered by Julie Milne, Curator of the Laing Art Gallery, at the Museums Association Conference October 2010.

1. Northern Spirit
Tyne & Wear Archives and Museums (Laing Art Gallery) in partnership with
the International Centre for Culture and Heritage Studies at Newcastle University
Julie Milne
Curator of the Laing Art Gallery

2. The Project
• The redevelopment of an important permanent
display - Art on Tyneside - at the Laing Art Gallery
and the study of how people construct identities in
reference to place (North-East of England) and its
visual representations.
• Funding: HLF 250,00
• DCMS capital 300,000
• Newcastle City Council 100,000
• DCMS Wolfson 225,00
• AHRC Museums 345,637

3. Laing Art Gallery
Newcastle Upon Tyne
• TWAM: 12 museums and galleries across
Tyne and Wear
• Laing opened in 1904, major art museum
of the North East
• Collection fine and decorative arts
designated as outstanding
• Exhibition programme of historic and
contemporary art
• Visitor figures 270,000 per year

4. Art on Tyneside
• Ground breaking in its time (1991 ) placing art in an
accessible and contextualised format that reached
new audiences
• Displays included mixed media, sound, interactive
puzzles, clear text and historical context
• 19 years old , still valued by visitors – display needed
updating and relevant for new audiences in a City
which has seen huge cultural change over the
intervening years

6. Northern Spirit
• Celebrates the art of the North East. It
includes works by internationally important
artists : John Martin, Victor Pasmore and
Thomas Bewick alongside glass, silver and
ceramics. The displays tell the stories of the
lives of the artists and makers, and their
relationship to the North East

9. Aims of Northern Spirit
• To build on the success of AOT and enable people
to experience the collections in new ways by
improving interpretation and the public space
• To reinstate and enhance the original gallery space
in terms of architectural integrity
• To foreground the quality of the collections that
are of and about the North East
• Ensure that users have a stake in the development
of the Laing offer and to participate in the
interpretation of the historic collections

10. Reasons for partnership working
• Provide additional resources, access to
research expertise and new perspectives.
• To specifically support the redevelopment
of a gallery at the Laing Art Gallery
• To develop staff (and the organisation)
through engagement with an academic team
• To further develop the relationship between
TWAM and ICCHS

11. Challenges faced in establishing or maintaining
partnership/how these were overcome
Distinct research and gallery aims
(research outcomes vs display
outcomes)
Construction of joint project
documentation with shared aims
Joint project board with shared
chairing etc
Practical issues re sorting out budgets
etc
Open discussion; strong trust
relationship between partners and
commitment to solving problems
Difference in timetables Open relationship, discussion of
issues, strong trust relationship
Different working methods/styles
between academic and practitioner
teams
Open relationship, discussion of
issues, strong trust relationship

12. How the experience of partnership working
compares to your expectations
• More collaborative
• More reflective
• More consultative
• Interpretation closely woven together

13. Benefits of the Partnership
• Complementary expertise
• Staff development - curatorial - concept tested
• Worked together to target particular audiences
and shared specific techniques that are appropriate
• Access academic research - whilst staff are engaged
in knowledge based activities all the time, we are
generally not resourced to carry out academic
research at this level
• Added richness and depth to interpretation with
new perspectives from participants