The Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art opened on 27 January 2007, marking the culmination of a decades-long journey for the town's art collection. The £20 million building on Centre Square was designed by Rotterdam-based architect Erick van Egeraat and houses more than 3,000 works spanning from the 19th century to the present day.
From Linthorpe Road to Centre Square
Middlesbrough's artistic heritage stretches back to 1870, when a School of Art opened alongside the Mechanics' Institute on Durham Street. The town's collection was housed in various locations over the decades, including the Carnegie library from 1927 and, from 1957, a converted doctor's surgery on Linthorpe Road. That arrangement persisted until January 2003, when the two surviving galleries closed to make way for the new purpose-built institution.
Construction began in 2004 on a site in Centre Square, with landscape architects West 8 designing the expanded public square around the building. A grant for the town's first art gallery had been awarded as far back as 1904 by Sir Arthur Dorman, though funding shortfalls meant only a rest garden was eventually established.
An Open Book of a Building
Van Egeraat's design eschews the "Bilbao effect" of eye-catching architectural spectacle in favour of accessibility. The gleaming white structure features a giant glass box forming the front of the gallery, allowing visitors standing in the square to see directly inside. A full-height public lobby contains no ticket offices or barriers. A limestone wall runs through the building with a diagonal crack "like lightning" from bottom left to top right.
The ground floor houses a cafe designed by Gijs Bakker of Holland's Droog design collective, plus a shop featuring a black Corian shelving installation by Andy Miller. The upper levels contain five gallery rooms, whilst underground facilities include a workshop, conference room, offices, and conservation and storage spaces. Outside stands "Bottle of Notes," the only large-scale sculpture in the United Kingdom by artists Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen.
The Collection and Exhibitions
The Middlesbrough Collection comprises outstanding fine and applied art from the 19th century to the present. Holdings include works by Frank Auerbach, David Bomberg, L.S. Lowry, Stanley Spencer, Dame Elisabeth Frink, David Hockney, and Tracey Emin. The inaugural exhibition, "Draw: Conversations Around the Legacy of Drawing," featured sketches by Damien Hirst, Gavin Turk, and Chris Ofili alongside pieces by Pablo Picasso, Jackson Pollock, Henri Matisse, and Andy Warhol.
In 2014, MIMA opened its first permanent exhibition space devoted to contemporary jewellery, displaying the largest international public collection of contemporary jewellery outside London. The gallery has also participated in Tate's Artist Rooms programme, hosting exhibitions by Gerhard Richter, Jannis Kounellis, and Louise Bourgeois.
University Partnership and Civic Role
MIMA became part of Teesside University in 2014, an arrangement the institution said provided "a wide breadth of cultural opportunities for students, staff and the wider community." Under director Alistair Hudson, who served from 2014 to 2017, the gallery developed a philosophy that "art should be useful in all aspects of life" and should "serve and shape society." Hudson left in 2017 to become director of Manchester Art Gallery and the Whitworth.
Laura Sillars was appointed director in March 2018, joining from Sheffield's Site Gallery where she had served as artistic director for seven years. The university noted at the time of her appointment that MIMA had "grown its national, local and international reputation and has seen an increase in both visitor numbers and dwell time."
Community Connections
The gallery runs learning activities, projects, and community-focused initiatives both on-site and out in Middlesbrough, involving artists and the public directly. The collection display now includes recent acquisitions by artists from diverse backgrounds who address important global issues. MIMA's permanent display traces British and international art from the mid-1800s to the present day.
Notable moments in the gallery's public life have included a November 2009 exhibition by the cast of BBC's Top Gear; Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and James May displayed automotive art in an event that reportedly set an all-time attendance record for the venue.