Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art
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The Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art or mima is a flagship contemporary art gallery based in Middlesbrough, in the borough of Middlesbrough and the ceremonial county of North Yorkshire in the North East of England. The venue for modern art and craft from 1900 onwards, is due to open in early 2007, although it was originally planned to open at the end of 2006. It is one of three institutions run by the Middlesbrough Museums & Galleries Service along with the Dorman Museum and Captain Cook Birthplace Museum.
[edit] History and Estates
The Institute's opening marks the completion of an accumulative journey for the art collection of post-industrial Middlesbrough. The early artistic heritage of a town of Middlesbrough's youth rested largely on the success of the Linthorpe Art Pottery (1879-1889), co-launched by Christopher Dresser out of the Sun Brickworks that built the suburb of that name. An esteemed School of Art had 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, up until that competition's extinction in the 1990s.
A spot for the town's first ground-up art gallery was granted by father of the Mayor, Sir Arthur Dorman as early as 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 considerable collection of paintings. Any permanent provision for the pieces did not materialise, however, 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 other half of present-day mima, Cleveland Crafts Centre, based on Gilkes Street, displayed various non-precious jewelry and is now mima offices. Its sister institution that lasted until 1999, the Cleveland Gallery, resided nearby in the erstwhile 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 January 2003 closure of the two surviving galleries, construction of the present accommodation comprising the gallery, education suite, auditorium, cafe-bar, roof terrace and conservation studio commenced in 2004.
[edit] Collections
The sheer vintage attributable to the local constitution of artworks makes for a majestic line-up of featured artists, among which can be found such vaunted locals as William Tillyer and Len Tabner, joined by such others as Frank Auerbach, Ben Nicholson, Stanley Spencer, Elizabeth Blackadder, Ken Currie, Gwen John, Dame Elisabeth Frink, Eduardo Paolozzi, Peter Howson, David Bomberg, L.S. Lowry, Anne Redpath, Paula Rego, Sir Jacob Epstein, David Hockney, Jeremy Deller and Tracey Emin.
