Arts Institutions and the Future of Civic Learning

The Baltic emerged through an Arts Council England (ACE) strategy to create a Tate of the North East with a remit to reach out to communities in the region to introduce them to contemporary art and was part of a wider urban regeneration strategy. In Reach will rethink, in the current economic and political context of the North East how contemporary art and culture offers the location and its communities agency, opportunity and enjoyment. The research will examine how organisations like Baltic might revise the model from 'reaching out' to constituents to 'reaching in' to examine and reconfigure cultural institutional policies,
protocols and decision-making processes. This research will explore alternative models of cultural production in specific communities - to find ways in which communities can bring
their knowledge, creation and imagination to the table, creating more effective networks from the outside in, and bottom up.