Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art

Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art (BALTIC) is an international centre for contemporary art located on the south bank of the River Tyne alongside the Gateshead Millennium Bridge in Gateshead, Tyne and Wear, in North East England, United Kingdom. It presents a constantly changing programme of exhibitions and events. It opened in 2002 in a converted flour mill. The Director is Sarah Munro who joined Baltic in November 2015. Mrs Munro is the first woman to hold the position of Director in the history of the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art. BALTIC is a registered charity under English law.

Reception

Publicly BALTIC’s profile has been considered rocky and despite its youth it has experienced three directorial changes and has fallen foul to much public gossip and speculation. The founding director, Sune Nordgren was appointed in 1997 and was integral in BALTIC's pre-launch period, having overseen the building of the gallery and witnessed the first one million visitors through the doors. After almost six years, Nordgren left to take up a new post as founding Director of the National Museum for Art, Architecture and Design, Oslo, Norway. He was briefly succeeded by Stephen Snoddy who was only with the organisation for one year. Snoddy was succeeded as Director by Peter Doroshenko in 2005, who approached the challenge with plans to increase visitor numbers and resolve the financial situation. Doroshenko organized several exhibitions during his time at the BALTIC, including Spank the Monkey. In November 2007, Doroshenko left the gallery to head up the Pinchuk Art Centre in Kiev, Ukraine. Since 2008, the director has been Godfrey Worsdale, founding director of the Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art.

Baltic 21

Initiated by the Prime Ministers of the Baltic Sea countries in 1996, Baltic 21 is a regional expression of the global Agenda 21 adopted by the United Nations “Earth Summit.” Being a network for cooperation, Baltic 21 links together stakeholders in a common endeavour for regional sustainable development.

As a multinational team, members of Baltic 21 are government ministries and agencies from the 11 Baltic Sea states, the European Commission, numerous intergovernmental and non-governmental organisations, academic and financial institutions, as well as local, city and business networks. The Baltic 21 network brings together people who are active in sectors including agriculture, education, energy, fisheries, forests, industry, tourism, transport and spatial planning.

The mission of Baltic 21 is to contribute towards advancing sustainable development in the Baltic Sea Region by coordinating goals and activities, and by serving as a forum for cooperation across borders and between stakeholder groups.

HIStory: Past, Present and Future, Book I

HIStory: Past, Present and Future, Book I (usually shortened to HIStory) is the ninth overall studio album and his fifth under Epic Records by American recording artist Michael Jackson. It was released on June 16, 1995 by Epic Records. This is Jackson's first album on his own label, MJJ Productions, and consists of two discs: the first disc (HIStory Begins) is a compilation of some of his greatest hits from 1979 onward, while the second disc (HIStory Continues) is a studio album composed entirely of new material. The majority of the second disc's tracks were written and produced by Jackson, often in conjunction with collaborators.

HIStory was Jackson's return to releasing music following the accusation of child sexual abuse in August 1993. Many of the 15 songs pertain to the accusations and Jackson's mistreatment in the media, specifically the tabloids. The songs' themes include environmental awareness, isolation, greed, suicide and injustice.

HIStory is Jackson's most controversial album. Jackson was accused of using anti-Semitic lyrics in "They Don't Care About Us". Jackson stated that he did not mean any offense and on multiple occasions denied anti-Semitism. The dispute regarding the lyrics ended with Jackson re-recording them. R. Kelly was accused of plagiarizing one of the album's songs, "You Are Not Alone". In 2007 a judge ruled that the song was plagiarized and the song was subsequently banned from radio stations in Belgium.

History (Loudon Wainwright III album)

History is the twelfth studio album by American singer-songwriter Loudon Wainwright III, released on September 21, 1992 on Charisma Records. The album was recorded following the death of Wainwright's father, Loudon Wainwright Jr.. Regarding his father's death and its influence on History, Wainwright stated that:

The album featured deeply personal compositions, with a musical style that ranges from talking blues ("Talking New Bob Dylan") to almost pure country rock ("So Many Songs") and modern folk ("The Picture", "Men").

History is often regarded as a breakthrough in Wainwright's career. Allmusic call the album "his masterpiece", and both Bruce Springsteen and Bob Geldof cited it as their favourite album of the year.

Song information

The final track, "A Handful of Dust" is an adaptation of a song written by his father.

"Hitting You" is the fourth song of Wainwright's career dedicated to his daughter Martha Wainwright, and "A Father and a Son" is directed to his son Rufus Wainwright.

History (novel)

History: A Novel (Italian: La Storia) is a novel by Italian author Elsa Morante, generally regarded as her most famous and controversial work. Published in 1974, it narrates the story of a partly Jewish woman, Ida Ramundo, and her two sons Antonio (called "Nino") and Giuseppe ("Useppe") in Rome, during and immediately after the Second World War.

The Italian title "La Storia" can be translated as either "History" or "The Story"; the ambiguity is lost in translation.

La storia, a motion picture based on the novel, directed by Luigi Comencini and starring Claudia Cardinale, was produced in 1986.

References