Member Article

10 years of success: Great North Run culture celebrates with Laing Art Gallery Exhibition

As the stardust settles on Tyneside after the colossal Bupa Great North Run 2014, the celebrated regional art movement Great North Run Culture is toasting 10 years at the top with one of its most popular commissions returning to the Laing Art Gallery opening this weekend.

Gone With The Wind by Claire Morgan, first shown in 2008 to critical acclaim, is a delicate and dramatic work featuring a dense mass of thousands of seeds and a lone Kittiwake Gull - all native to the route of the world’s largest half-marathon - suspended in the air in a geometric form. Falling and swooping, the bird makes its way through the enormous mass and is set to dazzle and amaze the people of the region once more.

Great North Run Culture Director, Beth Bate, said: “We’re thrilled to be back at the Laing Gallery, a wonderful venue and a perfect setting for Claire’s commission.

“We’ve also worked very closely with Tyne and Wear Musuems over the last ten years, particularly around our on going celebrations for the Great North Run Million. Partnerships are incredibly important to our success and this is a great example of two organisations working together to bring outstanding culture to a wide audience.”

Since its inaugural programme in 2005, Great North Run Culture has commissioned some of the most exciting and engaging arts projects in the North East.

Working with artists across art forms including film, photography, theatre, dance, literature and public installations, Great North Run Culture’s projects have inspired and delighted audiences in the region, the UK, and recently internationally.

Great North Run Culture works in partnership with some of the regions’s leading arts venues and organisations, including Sage Gateshead and Locus+, and 2014 also marks the tenth anniversary of working with Tyne and Wear Archives and Museums.

Great North Run Culture is an Arts Council England National Portfolio Organisation and also receives regular funding from the organiser of the Bupa Great North Run – over £1,000,000 since that first programme back in 2005.

Since its formation, the organisation has hosted first class commissions and its highlights include The Running Line, Julian Germain’s record-breaking photography installation in Saltwell Park in 2006; Runners, the display of Beat Streuli’s photographs across the windows of Sage Gateshead in 2007 and Tornado by Fiona Banner, a huge bell crafted from the aluminium from a fighter plane and installed on the Quayside for people to ring.

Camera Running, Mark Wallinger’s single shot film of the run which was shown at Baltic in 2012; and, of course, the spectacular Great North Run Million Opening Ceremony, scripted by David Almond and featuring a world-class creative team, was the jewel in Great North Run Culture’s Crown, which lit up Newcastle and Gateshead in front of a 15,000 strong audience.

Supported by ACE, Gone With The Wind is on show at the Laing Art Gallery from 20 September 2014 until 11 January 2015 and admission is free.

Claire Morgan is a visual artist who creates contemporary sculpture and installation art. Born in Belfast, she attended the University of Ulster and graduated from the University of Northumbria in 2003 with a first class degree in Sculpture. She now lives and works in London. She has developed a strong interest in the organic, in natural processes, and in the bodily connotations of natural materials.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Jon Corbett .