A SHOWPIECE arts centre, being created with National Lottery funding in a landmark North-East building, is to open in time for Easter next year.

The £46m Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, developed from the disused Joseph Rank grain warehouse on the quayside at Gateshead, is expected to be ready for opening by March 2001.

It was originally expected to open later this year, but the target date has been put back by about six months to allow time to train staff and install the initial exhibitions, once building work is completed.

Sune Lundgren, founding project director, who said the delayed launch will allow "more breathing space", welcomed having a positive date to work towards, as she lines up "top line international artists" for the first exhibitions.

The centre will feature a cinema, lecture theatre, five art galleries, workshops, and a caf and shop.

Funded mainly by a £33.4m National Lottery award, the project is part of the redevelopment of a 52-acre stretch of the south bank of the Tyne, including the Gateshead Music Centre and Baltic Square, and linked to Newcastle Quayside by the Gateshead Millennium "blinking eye" Bridge.

It forms a major plank in the joint bid to win European Capital of Culture status for Newcastle and Gateshead in 2008.