News: Side @ Baltic

Side, the internationally recognised home of humanist documentary photography and film, will establish a curatorial office at Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art in Gateshead from February 2026. The move marks both a practical response to the pressures facing arts organisations and a step that opens up new creative possibilities.

Founded in 1977 by the Amber Film & Photography Collective, Side has spent nearly fifty years documenting working‑class lives, from shipyard workers to new communities arriving in the region. Its UNESCO‑recognised AmberSide Collection continues to grow, reflecting themes of migration, precarity, resilience and everyday solidarity.

With public funding shrinking and the cost of running independent venues rising, Side and Baltic have formed a mutually supportive partnership. As a cultural tenant within Baltic’s building, Side will retain its autonomy while collaborating on exhibitions that foreground photography and bring working‑class culture to wider, more diverse audiences.

From 2027, Side will work with Baltic across a range of exhibition and programmable spaces in the former flour mill. Crucially, the move also strengthens Side’s long‑standing commitment to education and community practice, enabling expanded work with schools, youth groups and neighbourhoods, and supporting hyper‑local displays that return documentary art to the communities where it’s made.

Laura Laffler, Managing Director of Side said, “Working-class culture is living culture — it doesn’t belong in the past. Our move to Baltic is about making sure the voices and experiences of ordinary people around the globe remain visible, urgent and valued in the present. Rooted in the North East, connected internationally, we will continue to commission, co-create and champion work that speaks to resilience, struggle and collective imagination.”

Sarah Munro, Director of Baltic adds: “We’re delighted to welcome Side as a cultural tenant in spring 2026. Photography is crucial to Baltic’s programme. Our audiences have been enthusiastic and visited in high numbers to exhibitions of photography by Chris Killip and Martin Parr to Franki Raffles, Joanne Coates and Phyllis Christopher. 

We want to represent the communities that live in the locale of the gallery and who visit Baltic frequently. Collaborating on these presentations will be exciting as we approach our twenty-fifth anniversary, and Side look to their 50th year. It is important that Side’s collection, its legacy and their future survive and thrive. In these challenging times it’s vital to find new ways of working together.”