History

Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art presents changing exhibitions of new work by artists from the UK and abroad, bringing new art to new audiences. It offers opportunities to emerging and established artists to present work at critical points in their careers, and audiences the chance to see key works of art of our time.

Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art opened in 1995 as part of the Sunderland City Library and Arts Centre. It has provided young artists with their first commissions and publications, including Sam Taylor-Wood in 1996, Adam Chodzko in 1999 and AK Dolven in 2001, and initiated international touring exhibitions, including 'Nothing', which was also presented in Malmo, Sweden and Vilnius, Lithuania. Five or six major exhibitions are presented each year.

Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art is one of the most flexible gallery spaces in the UK and changes character for each exhibition. Its generous 35x17m space contains a grid of ceiling-mounted screens, which are used to create suites of rooms, sequences of intimate spaces, or a spacious open-plan arena.

The gallery runs a programme of talks, tours, education activities, workshops and artists' residencies in the Education Room, Activity Space and Studio. The gallery team provides a range of different opportunities for people to engage with the visual arts in an imaginative and inspiring way. A selection of gallery publications is available from the Craft Shop on the ground floor.