Gallery opens with student art exhibition

The Maker Meanwhile Gallery has opened in Sunderland

Student artists have become the first to exhibit their work at a new gallery in the centre of a city's redevelopment.

The Maker Meanwhile Gallery has opened in the new Riverside Maker Building, within Sunderland's Riverside regeneration area.

Its inaugural exhibition, Emerging, showcases work from University of Sunderland's recent Fine Art graduates and postgraduates, who have described it as a "fantastic opportunity".

The building on Plater Way is part of the new Maker & Faber development in the city, which was completed in March.

James Silver, managing director of Landid, the development manager behind Maker & Faber, said Sunderland had a heritage as a city of makers, and the buildings had been named to honour that.

Dean Gooch said the exhibition was a "fantastic opportunity"

Among the 16 artists showcasing their work is postgraduate student Dean Gooch, who said: "Taking part in the Emerging exhibition in the Maker building has been a fantastic opportunity to engage with a public audience right in the heart of Sunderland's riverside development."

Fine Art academic and lecturer in Digital Arts and Enterprise at the university, Suzy O'Hara, said the gallery "enriches the development site with the city's emerging creative talent".

The Riverside Sunderland Masterplan includes the new Keel Crossing footbridge and the creation of connections between the new residential development sites at Sheepfolds, Vaux and Farringdon Row.