Troubled Waygood Gallery gets a fresh start

Jul 5 2010 by David Whetstone, The Journal

Yesterday Dee Shaw, who specialises in film, video and installation work, said: “It has been a long, emotional haul and long overdue.

“It has been nearly five years and it was meant to be two. I actually moved into the Harkers Building but it has been too cold to work there the past two winters and my work has suffered.

“The new building will be pure luxury. I’ll have heating and a window.”

Dee, from Cullercoats, will share a studio at High Bridge with fellow artist Ginnie Reed.

At least some of the artists will move into High Bridge Studios with mixed feelings because Newcastle City Council recently severed its links with Waygood and founder Helen Smith.

The Newcastle University art graduate was the first to see the potential of the former Wards Building as a site for artists’ studios and named it Waygood after the manufacturer of the lifts in the 1920s warehouse.

Newcastle City Council bought the Wards Building site nearly 10 years ago for £1.7m with money from development agency One North East.

With Waygood running the studio and gallery complex, elaborate plans were then set in place to turn the building into a major city centre attraction.

In 2002 The Journal reported that the refurbishment was estimated to cost £3m. It was hoped work could begin in July 2003 with a view to opening in 2005, in time for European Capital of Culture 2008 which Newcastle and Gateshead were bidding to host.

Following an independent report, Newcastle City Council decided earlier this year Waygood should not run the refurbished building and the organisation also lost its Arts Council funding.

Dee Shaw said: “We were gutted about that because we are not getting everything we thought we were going to get.

“The education programme has gone and that would have provided work for the artists.

“Waygood also built up an international profile for the artists who exhibited in the gallery. Now we will have nothing to do with the gallery.”

Mr Durcan said the running of the building would be put out to tender but a freelance artist supervisor was to be appointed in the meantime.

“I think there’s a lot of disappointment for Waygood and disappointment over how long it has taken,” he said.

“But we have made huge progress in the last few months and we’ve now got a fantastic building. The artists have been very good. I know they’ve been unsettled and don’t know who the long-term operator will be. But overall I think they’re pleased with the building.”