The BALTIC reopened in May and I had a good chat with Vicky Sturrs, head of learning and civic engagement before hand.
From May – July the BALTIC will be open with covid safe measures in place. They involve things like booking online before your visit, tickets are free and can be got on the door but there might be a wait. For family sessions there are extra resources that are cleaned and quarantined after use. The amount of people allowed in one gallery at a time has been halved and then will be slowly increased up until July. This is interesting as it might change the way visitors view the art on display, imagine going to see the Mona Lisa with half the amount of people there! The increase in numbers won’t just happen, it will be based on watching the visitors and their behaviour around others. This is what interests me the most about my chat with Vicky, it’s all about the audience and they’re confidence and how they react to the space, not the government guidelines (of course being mindful of them) but actually how the audience are feeling. The BALTIC want to be the lead on this, the last 18 months have been hard, they’ve had to constantly react to the guidelines. Now with the roadmap in mind they want to start taking control of their own destiny with the visitors at the heart of it.
For families the learning space is open and separated into zones for bubbles of six. These are bookable sessions with seating, tables and play equipment. The sensory space is bookable too. Over the summer there will be a summer of play with a play library on the square outside of the gallery. There will be free tea, coffee and juice and lots of playful resources including hula hoops which I am a big fan of. I can not wait to see this come together.
On September 25th 2021 the BALTIC’s famous play exhibition will once again open with Albert Potrony, Equal Play. The exhibition will be on for a year, this is longer than usual as the date has had to change many times and their business plan has changed. Play is a strand of work they are really interested in.
Albert’s vision for the exhibition came pre-covid, they haven’t expected him to change the exhibition at all. Covid is included in all their conversations now, they are looking at how to make it possible in a Covid world. The BALTIC want artists to have visions that they are excited about. How to make it possible is a discussion.
Chatting with Vicky has been brilliant. I feel we are very much on the same page, it’s about making work that’s exciting and finding how to make sure the audience is comfortable with the work. I was really inspired by the BALTIC choosing their destiny. It feels impossible to plan for the future, with this approach you can plan, just do it safely and don’t rush. I’ll definitely be heading up-north to see Equal Play in the winter and taking my little superstar with me.
