Origins
The centre occupies a curved glass and stainless steel building designed by Foster and Partners, Buro Happold (structural engineering), Mott MacDonald (building services) and Arup (acoustics), with views of Newcastle and Gateshead Quaysides, the Tyne Bridge, and the Gateshead Millennium Bridge. Foster and Partners were selected following an architectural design competition managed by RIBA Competitions.
Planning for the centre began in the early 1990s, when the Northern Sinfonia orchestra, with encouragement from Northern Arts, began working on plans for a new concert hall. They were soon joined by regional folk music development agency Folkworks, which ensured that the needs of the region's traditional music were taken into consideration; folk music is well represented in the Sage's programme of events, alongside classical, jazz, acoustic, indie, country, world, electronic and dance. Practice spaces for professional musicians, students and amateurs were an important part of the provision.
The planning and construction process cost over £70 million, which was raised primarily through National Lottery grants. The contractor was Laing O'Rourke. The centre has a range of patrons, notably Sage Group which contributed a large sum of money to have the building named after it. Sage plc has helped support the charitable activities of The Sage Gateshead since its conception. The venue opened over the weekend 17 – 19 December 2004.
The Sage Gateshead is also available as a conference venue: for example it hosted the Labour Party's Spring conference in February 2005. It will also be hosting the Liberal Democrat Party conference in March 2012. In August 2009, the National Union of Students announced that their 2010 and 2011 National Conferences would be held at the Sage Gateshead.
Read more about this topic: The Sage Gateshead
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