Newcastle's Side Gallery has published an update on its future which includes confirmation that the gallery will not re-open. This has prompted a backlash on social media from those who had supported the gallery's appeal for support, previously noted on BPH (see here), and had expected the gallery space to return.
Managing Director, Laura Laffler, posted a statement on the gallery's website summarising its journey from 2023 when it closed the galery and looking ahead to a partner and community-base future: 'When Side closed its building in 2023, the response was overwhelming. #SaveSide grew faster than any of us expected. People shared memories, sent messages and stepped in to keep the organisation alive. Your support covered basic costs we could not avoid, ensured the AmberSide Collection continued to be cared for responsibly, and brought us the time we needed to secure grants from Arts Council England, the National Lottery Heritage Fund, The National Archives, Community Foundation and to commence the next phase of our education programme funded by Paul Hamlyn Foundation. Quite simply, Side would not still exist without you.
That time allowed us to deliver Transforming Amber, our National Lottery Heritage Fund programme. It rebuilt the organisation from the inside out. We catalogued the AmberSide collection into a new accessible digital content management system, launched a new website, opened up access for schools and communities, shared our work nationally, and supported people to make and show their own work. It was a year of consolidation, allowing Side to move forward with focus and purpose. This project has now come to an end and we move forward into 2026 stronger and more resilient.
What comes next is grounded in our renewed commitment to our region. The North East has always been our centre of gravity. Its communities, photographers, cultural life and irreplaceable heritage continue to shape who we are. From our home here, we are expanding our cross-region remit that lets us support more people while staying rooted in the place that made us. At the same time we remain committed to linking the North East to the rest of the world through documentary projects and sharing working class solidarity across borders.
After consultation and expert guidance from across the arts and heritage sector, from December 2025, Side will no longer be a solely gallery based model and will not be reopening our Quayside location. Instead we have become a vibrant and multi-faceted organisation: working with high-profile exhibition partners and local community and heritage centres, building digital access, continuing our established education programme, and supporting incredible creativity in lens-based documentary arts.'
What seems to have upset supporters who had donated to Side's appeal was the burying of news of the gallery's closure deep in the statement with one claiming 'a dirty trick' and others unimpressed with the decison. Many had expected their support would lead to the public gallery space being part of the future. Laffler notes, in repeated standard responses to individual comments, that 'Amber Film & Photography CIC has never owned the Side Gallery buildings' and the location was sold to a new landlord in 2024. Side was offered a longterm lease but 'the cost of the rent along with other operational costs meant that it was not a sustianable base for our future.'
The closure of Side Gallery highlights the lack of permanent gallery space for photography in the north east.
See: https://sidegallery.co.uk/blog/a-year-of-transformation and https://www.instagram.com/
Comments
Here are some observations in response to the article from ART NEWSPAPER, 27 December 2025, by Simon Bainbridge.
The original text has paragraph indents while my paragraphs are numbered:
Since 1977, Side gallery has held a singular position in the British art scene, exhibiting stories of working-class life through the lens of many of the greats of documentary photography and film, alongside projects made or commissioned by its founding collective.
1 - The stories and photographs of working-class people were central to the exhibitions that Side Gallery showed over decades, but it has to be stressed that the lives of the marginalised in society were also a major consideration. Wanting to bring the best photographers and their work to Newcastle, about underreported global issues or personal stories, led to many memorable talks and collaborations. This also led to photographers wanting to donate prints to the archive.
Now it has been announced that the storied gallery space will never reopen again at its historic warehouse location near Newcastle’s riverside waterfront, having been forced to close in 2023 following the loss of vital revenue funding from the Arts Council of England (ACE).
2 - The question must to be asked ‘why’ Amber Film & Photography Collective CIC (the organisation that ran Side Gallery) were unsuccessful in maintaining Amber’s NPO status from Arts Council England (the funding was NOT awarded to Side Gallery). Why was Amber’s 2023 application not good enough for ACE to support? ACE had previously identified and reported of weaknesses in Amber’s governance, finances (an over-reliance on ACE funding) and succession (the retirement of directors).
3 -In late 2019, Amber CIC were forewarned by gallery staff of the potential closure and loss of Side Gallery if they pursued the course of action that they seemed to be intent on, as a cliff edge in funds was approaching. This resulted in the loss of all Side Gallery & Cinema workers (decades of experience, knowledge, contacts & skills), and volunteers, because of the management and decision-making of Amber’s directors - then the involvement of solicitors. Matters that ACE were fully aware of. Shortly before Amber applied for its NPO in 2022, Side Gallery closed for two months because an exhibition on the climate crisis could not be delivered. None of this will have helped Amber’s NPO application. Nor its reputation.
“After consultation and expert guidance from across the arts and heritage sector, from December 2025, Side will no longer be a solely gallery-based model and will not be reopening our Quayside location,” says a statement from Laura Laffler, managing director of Amber Film & Photography, which took over the day-to-day running of the gallery after the remaining members of the Amber Side collective retired nearly a decade ago.
4 - The Amber Partners formally retired in 2024 and sold the buildings the following year. Ellin Hare and Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen stepped down from Amber CIC in 2022 and Peter Roberts four years earlier.
Laffler tells The Art Newspaper that she and her small team had been working towards reopening, having received grants and support to keep going in the interim. However, by July, it became obvious that all avenues for continued revenue funding had been exhausted, and they had to refocus in order to save Side’s legacy and its world-important archive and collection.
5 - Although often described as Side’s archive, it is legally administered by the AmberSide Trust and is called the AmberSide Collection. It had previously been privately owned by the Amber Partners. Laffler is both a trustee of the Trust, and a director of Amber CIC.
The announcement was met with messages of support, but also some criticism from a number of the 1,933 people who had supported its #SaveSide crowdfund in 2023, which raised £67,278 to help stay afloat. A contributor commented on Instagram: “I donated money under the assumption that it was for The Side to remain and continue in its current location. That is what was implied. The whole thing feels… disingenuous.”
6 - Since raising £67,278 from the public, Amber CIC/Amberside Trust have been awarded: £71,000 for Transition Funding from ACE; £236,615 from Heritage Fund for 'Transforming Amber: Building a Resilient Future’; £50,000 for 'Unlocking Collections’ from ACE; £35,000 for 'Archives Revealed’ from the National Archives/Pilgrim Trust. A three-year grant of £259,000 from Paul Hamlyn Foundation, for Amber Education, was awarded in 2022. A further fundraiser selling donated images from photographers began at the end of 2025.
Laffler says that the fundraiser was a lifesaver, allowing it to keep going during a period of soaring energy costs while it applied for new funding. There have been updates to supporters, she says, but many people opted out of being contacted when they gave donations.
“We wrote a large grant application to the National Lottery Heritage Fund for £1.3 million. We heard in December 2024 that it had been turned down. The feedback was that they didn’t necessarily see a future in medium-sized independent venues and were more interested in us developing partnerships and a new business model. They advised us to apply for a Transformation Year instead. We sent out an update in March 2024 saying we’d been unsuccessful but were continuing to work towards other funding.”
7 - If there isn’t a future in medium-sized independent venues then why has POST opened in Hove, and Signal Film & Media launched in Barrow-in-Furness?
Meanwhile, Side secured other grants, including £50,000 from ACE’s Unlocking Collections fund, and money from its Archives Revealed programme for cataloguing the collection. “When the big bid failed, those grants were moved into the Transforming Amber programme. None of that funding was ever for reopening the gallery. We were still actively working to reopen the gallery until July 2025. Everything hinged on the Arts Council NPO [National Portfolio Organisation] round.”
8 - It was the AmberSide Trust that secured the Unlocking Collections grants, not Side. It’s ironic that the Archive suddenly began to receive funding at this point, as it had received almost no direct funding over decades.
9 - There appears to have been a lot of (publicly funded) time and effort made in raising money for the archive and education, and less emphasis in directly supporting and securing the future of Side Gallery. Were Amber placing all their bets on the next round of ACE NPO awards? Wouldn’t that have been foolhardy?
It was a perfect storm for Side, with the soaring cost of living accentuating the squeeze on funding and a further delay on the next NPO funding round until 2028. Then, in July, ACE’s Grantium funding platform collapsed leaving Side and many other arts organisations and freelancers in limbo, unable to apply for rolling project funding. It was the coup de grâce for an organisation that has faced many hurdles over the years; briefly closing in 1991, after losing nearly all its funding from Northern Arts, and losing its NPO status in 2011 before regaining it in 2018.
10 - Side Gallery lost its funding in 1989 and briefly closed in 1991 - an annual £120K grant was reduced to £25K. Photographers Mark Pinder and Steve Conlan became involved in trying to formulate a future for the gallery as the Amber Partners concentrated on film production apparently.
11 - Ironically, when the NPO was awarded to Amber CIC in 2018, it was £120K per annum (considerably less than comparable galleries in England). Amber allocated this funding across various activities and not solely to Side Gallery. In the years before regaining NPO status in 2018, all gallery staff had taken a 25% cut in day rate from £100 to £75 to keep the gallery running.
12 - It was the hard work, dedication and aptitude of the gallery workers & volunteers, at times drawing creatively on photographs from the archive, that meant we delivered on time and within budget despite limitations, and in a manner in which photographers and their work were appreciated, championed and celebrated.
“We’ve been funding place first, then programming, then people — and that’s backwards. Most of our money was going into rent, utilities, and a building we [no longer] own. It wasn’t going to photographers or audiences… In the 1990s, when funding was lost, the people running Side owned the building. They didn’t pay rent and they didn’t pay themselves. That’s not possible now,” says Laffler.
13 - To claim “we’ve been funding place first, then programming, then people” was not the case when I left in 2021. The largest outlay by far in its annual budget was on staffing. Rent for Side Gallery and the archive was under £30K in 2021 (It had been £20K when Amber CIC took out the 25-year lease on the buildings in 2015).
14 - Before closing Side Gallery, the funding was being spent on audiences by having the gallery open its doors, show exhibitions and stage events. Photographers and contributors were paid for their involvement in line with ACE guidelines. Doesn’t running a gallery involve paying rent, staffing and utilities? Wasn’t that what the NPO was meant for?
“We’re an employer. I’ve gone part-time while working full-time, but I won’t ask the staff to do that…. The choice was either to close completely or safeguard the collection and Side’s curatorial voice long-term,” she adds. The gallery’s holdings incorporate the AmberSide collection comprising more than 20,000 photographs and 100 films.
15 - Laura Laffler was paid £34,800 (according to Amber’s latest Unaudited Financial Statement - 31 March 2025 - at Companies House) The previous year Amber’s Directors were paid £57,169.
16 - Again, the AmberSide Collection (Archive) are not the ‘gallery’s holdings’.
17 - ‘Side’s curatorial voice long-term’ - Which Side Gallery exhibitions did the current staff curate or produce?
18 - The names of the trustees of the charity, The Amberside Trust, seem to absent from the Side Gallery website, as are the current directors of Amber Film & Photography Collective CIC.
19 - Only three people are listed as working at the organisation; Laura Laffler - Managing Director, Bryan Dixon - AmberEducation Director, Ellen Stone - Creative Director.
An announcement in the new year will provide news and details about new partnerships that Laffler says will be “the silver lining” to the loss of its permanent gallery space, and the years of stress chasing short-term funding solutions. “This summer has been the toughest fundraising climate I’ve ever experienced,” says Laffler. “We set July [2025] as a deadline. If we couldn’t secure revenue funding to reopen on site by then, we would take one of the partnership options that actually allows more people to see Side’s work.”
20 - Side Gallery has closed. It is now a pilates & well-being studio. The Amberside Trust has announced that SIDE (a new organisation) will have a ‘curatorial office’ at Baltic, Gateshead.
I worked for Amber at and for Side Gallery, in various capacities, from 1998 to 2021, and have exhibited and curated exhibitions at Side Gallery on a number of occasions. For clarity, I think it is essential that readers understand the organisations involved. Amber Film and Photography Collective CIC is the organisation that runs/ran all the activities at the premises on Newcastle's Quayside, since it was incorporated in 2010. Side Gallery is the venue that a former Amber organisation opened in 1977 and has never been a separate, stand-alone, independent organisation. Side Gallery has always been managed by Amber. Amber CIC is the organisation that lost its National Portfolio Organisation status in 2023, which led to the closure of the gallery.
I would question the clarity of the claim by Laura Laffler that 'Amber Film & Photography CIC has never owned the Side Gallery buildings'. I was led to believe that Peter Roberts, Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen (Roberts) and Ellin Hare were the owners of the premises including Side Gallery. As can be seen on Amber CIC's submissions to Companies House, all three were Directors when Amber CIC was incorporated in 2010. Peter Roberts ceased being an Amber Director on 25 September 2018. Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen and Ellin Hare ceased being Amber Directors on 13 April 2022. All Amber Directors, including the owners of the premises, were involved in the management of all company activities including Side Gallery. Yes, Amber CIC, as an organisation, didn't own the buildings (it rented the gallery and archive spaces on a 25-year lease that had started at £20,000 per annum and was around £27,000 in 2020), but previous members of Amber CIC had owned the buildings.
At a briefing held in Side Cinema on August Bank Holiday, Monday 25th August 2025, Amber CIC's Managing Director, Laura Laffler, and Side's Creative Director, Ellen Stone, announced to a public audience that Side Gallery would not reopen. They also announced that the AmberSide Archive would be relocated to Newcastle University's Special Collections Department for three to five years. Amber CIC were working with Beamish Museum in County Durham regarding the building of a new facility for photographic collections, implying that Beamish is where the AmberSide Archive will ultimately be housed. Amber CIC will cease to exist and a new organisation will be created called 'Side' that will be managed by the AmberSide Trust, a charity. The new organisation will operate from Baltic Mill in Gateshead. Amber's Managing Director stated that it would be an autonomous organisation that will curate a six-month exhibition of documentary photography in one of the main galleries, every other year. In the intervening years, smaller shows will be held in the shop gallery and along a corridor to Baltic's library. These plans will be formally announced in the New Year apparently.
According to Amber CIC's Unaudited Financial Statement, 31 March 2024, the crowdfunding campaign #SaveSide raised £67,278 from 1,900 donors. They received £71,000 for Transition Funding from Arts Council England. £236,615 was a grant awarded by Heritage Fund for 'Transforming Amber: Building a Resilient Future' which included the aim of, "Re-opening Side Gallery & Cinema". Arts Council England also awarded £50,000 project funding for 'Unlocking Collections'. The National Archives/Pilgrim Trust awarded £35,000 for 'Archives Revealed'. Amber was also awarded a three-year grant of £259,000 from Paul Hamlyn Foundation for its education programme.
When Amber CIC lost its NPO Arts Council England funding in 2023, its annual grant had been £120,000 and a proportion of that funded the running of Side Gallery.