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| Established | 27 January 2007 |
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| Location | Centre Square, Middlesbrough, England |
| Type | Art Museum |
| Director | Laura Sillars |
| Website | mima |
MIMA, or Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art, is a contemporary art gallery based in the centre of Middlesbrough, England. The gallery was formally launched on Sunday 27 January 2007; since 2014 it has been part of Teesside University. [1]
The gallery's opening marked the completion of an accumulative journey for the art collection of post-industrial Middlesbrough. The early artistic heritage of a town as young as Middlesbrough rested largely on the success of the Linthorpe Art Pottery (1879–1889), co-launched by Christopher Dresser out of the Sun Brickworks that also built the suburb of Linthorpe. A School of Art opened alongside the Mechanics' Institute in the old town's Durham Street, in 1870, and by the 1950s that, too, had relocated to Linthorpe. The region's cultural profile was further amply boosted by the Cleveland International Drawing Biennale, until that competition's extinction in the 1990s.
A site for the town's first art gallery was granted by the father of the Mayor, Sir Arthur Dorman, in 1904. This was on Linthorpe Road opposite, and conceived in the same spate of events as, what was to become the Dorman Museum outside Albert Park. Funding shortfalls amid the onset of war, however, ensured that only a rest garden was eventually sited there. In the meantime, from 1927, the Carnegie library and Grange Road Methodist Church housed the collection of paintings. No permanent provision for the pieces materialised until 1957, with the purchase by the Council of a former doctor's surgery on Linthorpe Road. It was not until 2003 that this building was vacated.
The former Cleveland Crafts Centre, on Gilkes Street, catered for a collection of twentieth-century British studio ceramics, and artist-made jewellery dating from the 1970s onwards. The Cleveland Crafts Centre was closed as an exhibition venue in January 2003, and thereafter operated as the mima offices whilst the new gallery was being constructed. Its sister institution that lasted until 1999, the Cleveland Gallery, resided nearby in the unused school buildings on Victoria Road. They are today home to the University of Teesside's graduate incubation studios in aid of new business start-ups.
Following the closure in January 2003 of the two surviving galleries, construction of the present accommodation comprising the gallery spaces, education suite, auditorium, café-bar, shop, roof terrace, collection stores and conservation studio commenced in 2004. The centre was designed by Erick van Egeraat Associated Architect. Whilst construction was underway, mima programmed a series of offsite exhibitions and events including such artists as John Harrison and Paul Wood, Susan Pietzsch, Yuka Oyama, Graham Dolphin, Chicks on Speed, Martin Creed, Oliver Zwink and Mah Rana.
MIMA's founding director was Godfrey Worsdale, who left in 2008 to become director of the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art. [2] He was succeeded by Kate Brindley, previously director of Museums and Galleries at Bristol City Council [3] She was briefly succeeded by Mark Robinson, who was acting director during the transition of ownership between the local authority and the university, [4] and managed the recruitment of Alistair Hudson, previously Deputy Director at Grizedale Arts, who took on the role in 2014 [5] and left in 2017 to become Director of the Manchester Art Gallery and the Whitworth. [6] The current director is Laura Sillars, who joined from Sheffield's Site Gallery. [7]
MIMA has participated in the Tate's programme Artist Rooms, featuring exhibitions by Gerhard Richter, Jannis Kounellis and Louise Bourgeois. [8] [9]
On 21 and 22 November 2009, the cast of the BBC motoring programme Top Gear – Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May – held an exhibition of automotive art at MIMA, which featured in the 5th episode of the 14th series of the show, [10] setting an all-time record for the gallery.[ citation needed ]
MIMA's Middlesbrough Collection comprises outstanding fine and applied art from 19th century to the present day, with many pieces acquired by mima's forerunners, Middlesbrough Art Gallery and the Cleveland Craft Centre.
Works include; Frank Auerbach, Elizabeth Blackadder, David Bomberg, Ken Currie, Jeremy Deller, Tracey Emin, Sir Jacob Epstein, Dame Elisabeth Frink, James Walter Gozzard, David Hockney, Peter Howson, Gwen John, Panayiotis Kalorkoti, L.S. Lowry, Ben Nicholson, Eduardo Paolozzi, Adrian Piper, Katherine Pleydell-Bouverie, Anne Redpath, Paula Rego, David Remfry, Lucie Rie, Stanley Spencer, Nancy Spero and Kara Walker.
In 2015, Tees Valley Arts donated a collection of significant artworks to the gallery as the Tees Valley Arts Collection, including works by artists Vivan Sundaram, Len Tabner and Adrian Wiszniewski. [11]
Middlesbrough is a town in the Middlesbrough unitary authority borough of North Yorkshire, England. The town lies near the mouth of the River Tees and north of the North York Moors National Park. The built-up area had a population of 148,215 at the 2021 UK census. It is the largest town of the wider Teesside area, which had a population of 376,633 in 2011.
Teesside is a built-up area around the River Tees in North East England, split between County Durham and North Yorkshire. The area contains the towns of Middlesbrough, Stockton-on-Tees, Billingham, Redcar, Thornaby-on-Tees, and Ingleby Barwick. Teesside's economy was once dominated by heavy manufacturing until deindustrialisation in the latter half of the 20th century. Chemical production continues to contribute significantly to Teesside's economy.
Teesside University is a public university with its main campus in Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire in North East England. It was officially opened as Constantine Technical College in 1930, before becoming a polytechnic in 1969, and finally granted university status in 1992 by the Privy Council.
The Whitworth is an art gallery in Manchester, England, containing over 60,000 items in its collection. The gallery is located in Whitworth Park and is part of the University of Manchester.
The Tees Valley is a combined authority area in Northern England, around the lower River Tees. The area is not a geographical valley; the local term for the valley is Teesdale. The combined authority covers five council areas: Darlington, Hartlepool, Middlesbrough, Redcar and Cleveland and Stockton-on-Tees.
Dorman Long & Co was a UK steel producer, later diversifying into bridge building. The company was once listed on the London Stock Exchange.
Mackenzie Thorpe is a British artist. In 2019 he celebrated 30 years of artistic practice with a world tour, From the Heart, which included the UK in July; he was also appointed as the official artist to 2019 Tour de Yorkshire; was appointed as the 2019 "Welcome to Yorkshire, Official Chelsea Flower show artist”; and unveiled a new temporary public sculpture in his home town of Middlesbrough. His bronze sculpture called 'Waiting for me Dad' was placed next to the Middlesbrough Transporter Bridge. He considers it a tribute to the men and women who have made Middlesbrough great.
Middlesbrough College, located on one campus at Middlehaven, Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire, England, is the largest college on Teesside.
Eileen Cooper is a British artist, known primarily as a painter and printmaker.
Dorman Museum is a local and social history museum on the town centre side of Albert Park, Linthorpe in Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire, England. It is one of two museums operated by the local borough council, along with the Captain Cook birthplace in Stewart Park.
Rita Donagh is a British artist, known for her realistic paintings and painstaking draughtsmanship.
Julian Francis Stair is an English potter, academic and writer. He makes groups of work using a variety of materials, from fine glazed porcelain to coarse engineering brick clays. His work ranges in scale from hand-sized cups and teapots to monumental jars at over 6 feet tall and weighing half a ton.
Linthorpe is a suburb of Middlesbrough in the Borough of Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire, England. It contains two wards: Linthorpe with a population of 9,711 and Park with a population of 5,919.
Smoggie is a colloquial term used to refer to people from the Teesside area of North East England. The term is also used to describe the local accent and dialect spoken in the area. The origin of the term dates back to the 1960s, when the area was known for its high levels of pollution from local industry, which resulted in a thick smog that often blanketed the region. Visiting football supporters from other areas of the country began to refer to the locals as "smog monsters", which was later shortened to "smoggies". Despite its origins as a term of derision, "Smoggie" has since been adopted as a term of pride by many residents of Teesside.
Tom Wall was a British landscape painter and educator.
Elizabeth Fritsch CBE is a British studio potter and ceramic artist born into a Welsh family in Whitchurch on the Shropshire border. Her innovative hand built and painted pots are often influenced by ideas from music, painting, literature, landscape and architecture.
Maria Jane Balshaw CBE is director of the Tate art museums and galleries. The appointment was confirmed by Theresa May, the UK Prime Minister at the time, on 16 January 2017, making Balshaw the first female director of the Tate.
David Watson is an artist and former shipyard worker born in 1944 at Albion Street, South Bank near Middlesbrough, UK. He attended Middlesbrough College where he studied art along with fellow South Bank artists Len Tabner and David Mulholland. At the age of nineteen earning a living became a priority and Watson went to work at Smiths Dock shipyard on the River Tees as a "red leader" painting the hulls of ships. Watson continued with his art for decades although remained largely unknown until the Kirkleatham Museum in Redcar submitted images of his work to the BBC's "Your Painting" website. In 2012 they were noticed by Mark Parham who now acts as Watson's curator. In 2014 the National Football Museum in Manchester acquired Watson's "Matchday at Ayresome Park".
Linthorpe Art Pottery was a British pottery that operated between 1878 and 1890 in Linthorpe, Middlesbrough. It produced art pottery, and is especially known for the early collaboration of the designer Christopher Dresser; many of the early wares have his impressed signature.
Kenneth Gribble was an English artist and educator, known for his post-war landscape paintings of British towns and cities.
54°34′28″N1°13′58″W / 54.5745°N 1.2327°W
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