A space to think at New Art Gallery Walsall
Ten years after New Art Gallery Walsall opened its doors, Graham Young sees how the people’s gallery is faring.
Walsall probably wasn’t the most obvious place to build a £21 million art gallery in celebration of the New Millennium.
But, since it’s at the heart of such a heavily populated region, why not?
Her Majesty The Queen clearly recognised as much herself by agreeing to open the 37m tall building on May 5, 2000.
Almost ten years later, I can see two swans slipping and sliding their way across the neighbouring frozen canal... almost if they’d been invited by royal appointment.
Inside, as measured by an automatic counter at the door, attendances have been steadily increasing since Stephen Snoddy became its director in May 2005.
They were just shy of 201,000 last year – important figures when your budget is £2.3 million and there are 35 employees involved.
The building is owned by Walsall Council and, like the Middlesborough Institute of Modern Art, supported through The Arts Council.
There are more than 1,500 exhibits in space that’s equivalent to the area of a football field.
Star attractions includes the renowned Garman Ryan exhibition, donated to the borough in 1972 by Lady Kathleen Garman, and the Epstein Archive, acquired in 2006.
Two key factors keep Belfast-born Stephen’s feet firmly on the ground.
The chill wind of recession blowing through the corridors of arts establishments nationwide means that “at times it’s tough, you have to make decisions”.
The other key factor is that he’s a leader who found his way to the top by mucking in at the bottom.
Now aged 50 and also a rugby union referee, Stephen (and his twin brother Paul) is the youngest of five children who were all born within six years to an art historian father.
Although the Troubles generally passed them by, Stephen admits “there were two bombs I wasn’t far away from and my sister, Sheila, saw a policeman get shot... but you kind of got used the situation”.
One near-neighbour pupil from his school died when a bomb being carried into town by an IRA member unexpectedly went off on a train he might have been on himself if he’d also just been playing rugby.
In a stark contrast of fortunes, Stephen’s eldest brother, Alan, became a football referee at the World Cups of 1986 (Morocco v Portugal) and 1990 (Colombia v West Germany) and now tours the world monitoring standards.
A huge fan of JMW Turner, whom he ranks alongside Shakespeare in terms of quality and influence, Stephen trained as a fine artist at Belfast College of Art, graduating in 1983 with an MA in Fine Art.
By selling his works to private collectors, he was just beginning to make his way at a community arts centre in Lisburn, just outside Belfast, when the person running it was asked to leave.
Three weeks after joining on a £50-a-week lift-you-off-the-dole scheme, Stephen switched from painting in the attic to running the centre himself.
Unwittingly sowing the seeds for his downfall as an artist while still only being paid £50 per week, he began an 18-month stint managing the gallery himself in a large, six-bedroom, late-Victorian house where the only other employees were a secretary, a gardener for the ten-acre site and the mandatory security officer.
Stephen took up some carpets, sandblasted the floors, painted the walls and created a darkroom and pottery workshop. Exhibitions were developed featuring works by people he knew, while children were encouraged to attend holiday classes.
“There’s no way you can be an artist and a director,” he says. “I realised that (being a director) was what I wanted to do, though, of course, I’d give it all up if I could paint like Turner. . . or play football like George Best.”
Slaving away at the grass roots end of the arts world paid dividends.
