A Cultural Feast
I took the opportunity of appearing on Any Questions last night in Gateshead to have a look around some of the fantastic cultural treats on offer in Newcastle and Gateshead. Given what’s there it’s no surprise to find a survey putting the city and town at the top of Britain’s cutural league in terms of the amount of cultural activity undertaken by the local population. It has a thriving local museum scene, epitomised by the lively Discovery Museum and the Laing Art Gallery, not to mention of course the world-class Sage Gateshead and the Baltic, which is turning itself around after initial problems. What all these organisations benefit from above all, it seems to me, is first-class leadership. You get the sense that arts organisations are, for the most part, now run by people who have a passion for what they do, but also a strong business sense and focus on the people who use their facilities. What is even more astonishing is that the Baltic and the Sage effectively exist thanks to a local council - Gateshead - with a population of no more than 300,000. Oddest fact learned on the trip - the windscreen wiper was invented in Tyneside.