The notion of BALTIC began in 1991 when Northern Arts (now Arts Council England North East) announced its ambition to achieve ‘major new capital facilities for the Contemporary Visual Arts in Central Tyneside’.
BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art opened on Saturday 13 July 2002. Since then BALTIC has presented over 226 exhibitions of work by 476 artists of 64 nationalities and welcomed more than 8 million visitors.
BALTIC was founded with funding from The National Lottery through Arts Council England, Gateshead Council, Northern Rock Foundation, the European Regional Development Fund and One NorthEast. BALTIC receives continued support from Arts Council England and Gateshead Council and is a registered charity.