‘It’s really desperate’: cost of living crisis spells bleak times for British arts venues

Sarah Munro, director of the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art in Gateshead: ‘I don’t want to manage decline.’ Photograph: Mark Pinder/The Guardian

When Sarah Munro was first appointed director of one of Britain’s biggest art galleries, the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, she would joke about sticking a tidal mill on its side to make the most of its location on the river Tyne in Gateshead.

Seven years on, amid an escalating fuel price crisis, the cost of heating the cavernous building is no joke – and neither is the tidal energy plan.