Ormeau Baths Gallery, Belfast, October 2010 (02)

The Ormeau Baths in

Belfast Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdo ...

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

, now a home to tech and digital businesses in a modern contemporary building, was one of

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

's premier

contemporary art Contemporary art is the art of today, produced in the second half of the 20th century or in the 21st century. Contemporary artists work in a globally influenced, culturally diverse, and technologically advancing world. Their art is a dynamic com ...

spaces. It curated exhibitions by prominent international artists including;

Yoko Ono Yoko Ono ( ; ja, 小野洋子, Ono Yōko, usually spelled in katakana ; born February 18, 1933) is a Japanese multimedia artist, singer, songwriter, and peace activist. Her work also encompasses performance art and filmmaking. Ono grew up i ...

Gilbert & George Gilbert Prousch, sometimes referred to as Gilbert Proesch (born 17 September 1943 in San Martin de Tor, Italy), and George Passmore (born 8 January 1942 in Plymouth, United Kingdom), are two artists who work together as the collaborative art du ...

Victor Sloan Victor Sloan Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, MBE (born 1945) is a Northern Irish photographer and artist. Life and work Sloan was born in 1945 in Dungannon, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. He studied at the Royal Sch ...

, Bill Viola,

Hans Peter Kuhn Hans may refer to: __NOTOC__ People * Hans (name), a masculine given name * Hans Raj Hans, Indian singer and politician ** Navraj Hans, Indian singer, actor, entrepreneur, cricket player and performer, son of Hans Raj Hans ** Yuvraj Hans, Punjabi a ...

Stan Douglas Stan Douglas (born October 11, 1960) is an artist based in Vancouver, British Columbia. Douglas' film and video installations, photography and work in television frequently touch on the history of literature, cinema and music, while examining t ...

David Byrne David Byrne (; born 14 May 1952) is a Scottish-American singer, songwriter, record producer, actor, writer, music theorist, visual artist and filmmaker. He was a founding member and the principal songwriter, lead singer, and guitarist of ...

Willie Doherty Willie Doherty (born 1959) is an artist from Northern Ireland, who has mainly worked in photography and video. He has twice been a Turner Prize nominee. Life and work Doherty was born in Derry, Northern Ireland, and from 1978 to 1981 studied a ...

and

Alastair MacLennan Alastair MacLennan (born 1943 in Blair Atholl, Perthshire, Scotland) is one of Britain's major practitioners of live art. Since 1975, he is based in Belfast, Northern Ireland. He is a founding member of Belfast's Bbeyond Performance Art Internati ...

. There were four main galleries with a total exhibition space of . It was located on the site of a Victorian Bath House. In 1995, its conversion to an art gallery once again restored the venue to the public realm. Hugh Mulholland, previously the founder and Director of Context Gallery in

Derry Derry, officially Londonderry (), is the second-largest city in Northern Ireland and the fifth-largest city on the island of Ireland. The name ''Derry'' is an anglicisation of the Old Irish name (modern Irish: ) meaning 'oak grove'. The ...

, was the Director of the Ormeau Baths Gallery from 1997 until the gallery's closure in 2006. The gallery programme included a mix of solo and group shows; national and international in all art disciplines.

2006 gallery closure

The gallery received its core funding from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland and Belfast City Council, but in a surprise move, the Arts Council suddenly announced at the end of February 2006 that it was not going to renew its funding, and that the gallery would close and all its staff be made redundant four days later. A silent protest

vigil A vigil, from the Latin ''vigilia'' meaning ''wakefulness'' (Greek: ''pannychis'', or ''agrypnia'' ), is a period of purposeful sleeplessness, an occasion for devotional watching, or an observance. The Italian word ''vigilia'' has become genera ...

of Irish artist and gallery supporters was held outside the locked gallery at 1pm on 1 March 2006. Over 100 people braved the snow showers to protest at the sudden closure. The Arts Council responded to a number of questions posed by gallery staff, but failed to substantiate allegations they had made prior to the closure. A public meeting was held on Saturday 4 March 2006 at 2pm at

Belfast Exposed Belfast Exposed is a photography gallery in Belfast, established in 1983. It was Northern Ireland's first dedicated photographic gallery and in 2018 Sean O'Hagan in ''The Guardian'' described it as "the key independent space for contemporary pho ...

photo gallery to allow interested parties to get more information on the circumstances relating to the closure.

Relaunch and final closure

The gallery was temporarily reopened to the public under Arts Council control on 9 June 2006, showing the ''Collectors' Collections'' of international art held in private and public collections across the island of Ireland. It closed again on 28 October 2011, but was relaunched in April 2007 under the leadership of a new independent board, led by Professor

Kerstin Mey Kerstin Mey (born 1963) is a German academic and president of the University of Limerick. She was the first woman to head a university in Ireland, on an acting basis, and having participated in an international competition, was appointed t ...

of the

University of Ulster sco, Ulstèr Universitie , image = Ulster University coat of arms.png , caption = , motto_lang = , mottoeng = , latin_name = Universitas Ulidiae , established = 1865 – Magee College 1953 - Magee Un ...

. The final closure of the gallery was announced in October 2011. In a statement, the board cited "the high operating costs of the gallery, a general rise in exhibition expenses and more recently, a reduction in income from sponsorship, and corporate events held in the gallery", and expressed its thanks to the Arts Council of Northern Ireland and Belfast City Council for their financial support over the years. Relaunch in 2017 as a modern contemporary workspace for digital and tech businesses in Belfast

External links

Baths Gallery home page

References

{{Museums and galleries in Northern Ireland, Ormeau baths relaunches 2017=Ormeau baths relaunches in 2017 as a co working space for tech and digital businesses to drive the local economy and act as a lightning rod for opportunity and connection. Buildings and structures in Belfast Art museums and galleries in Northern Ireland Tourist attractions in Belfast Grade B1 listed buildings