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It is now hard to imagine Gateshead without its 'Angel' and also easy to forget just how much the once unremarkable site by the A1 has been transformed by the vision of artist Antony Gormley. For seven years Gateshead Council navigated the proposal for the ‘Angel of the North’ through a hail of press, public and political apprehension to deliver the most popular piece of public sculpture in Britain.
The catalyst for the North East’s love of public art was probably the Gateshead Garden Festival in 1990. It promoted the ideas that the region could transform itself and that artists and contemporary art could be magic ingredients within that transformation.
Northern Arts backed the vision of local authorities and regional regeneration agencies through the 90’s to commission a collection of signature sculptures including the ‘Bottle of Notes’ in Middlesbrough in 93, ‘Train’ in Darlington in 97, ‘Angel of the North’ in Gateshead in 98, ‘Conversation Piece’ in South Shields in 99 and James Turrell’s ‘Skyspace’ in Kielder 2002 – these projects were achieved through a powerful mix of cultural planning, creative risk, political will and arts lottery funding.
In 1999 Commissions North was established and as Northern Arts became Arts Council England North East, the inhouse unit began working with non-arts partners to broker opportunities for artists’ commissions within new buildings and public spaces. Commissions North gave creative advice to clients and small design grants to artists whilst making a pursuasive case that all ambitious new developments should have an artist onboard to make something special. For 10 years developers, hospitals, regeneration agencies and even the Fire and Police services worked with Commissions North to involve artists in new projects with a value of over £13m - mostly ‘non-arts’ funding.
Although Commissions North closed as a project in 2010, world-class commissions like Anish Kapoor's giant 'Temenos' for Middlesbrough, demonstrate the North East's continuing vision and ambition to working with artists as a central part of the region's ongoing transformation.
Commissions North was supported within Arts Council England, North East and was also funded by European Regional Development Fund.
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