Troubled gallery gets extra £1m

By Mark Westall • 20 December 2008
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A further £1m is to be given to a £50m art gallery which opened two years late and nearly £12m over budget.
The Public in West Bromwich, which opened in June, has yet to take paying customers as an interactive gallery, its main feature, is not ready.

It went into administration in 2006 and was effectively saved by a government grant of £1.6m.
Sandwell Council is providing the funding to cover the gallery’s annual operating costs, a spokesman said.
The gallery is seen as integral to the regeneration of West Bromwich and the rest of Sandwell by the local council.
The interactive gallery is currently free to the public while the finishing touches are applied. However, managers have been criticised for eventually charging a £6.95 entry fee.
An estimated 40,000 people have visited the building since it opened, a council spokesman said.

Author

Mark Westall

Mark Westall has spent over thirty years creating platforms for culture. Since founding FAD Magazine in 2006, he's dedicated his career to documenting, championing and questioning contemporary art through publishing, criticism and conversation. As founder and editorial director of one of the UK's leading independent contemporary art publications, he has interviewed artists, reviewed exhibitions and covered the ideas shaping contemporary visual culture for more than two decades. He also founded Art of Conversation, Despoke and FAD Bazaar, and regularly serves as a judge for international art and photography awards.