THE new director of a North-East art gallery has unveiled plans for the building, including blockbuster shows and more involvement with the region's communities.

Chicago-born Peter Doroshenko said yesterday that the Baltic, on the banks of the River Tyne in Gateshead, was in good financial shape.

He said he planned to "turn the heat on the highs and place all our focus on the programme and our attitude towards visitors".

He added: "We plan to have blockbuster exhibitions of well-known artists at a later point, once we have the time and resources and capabilities to go big.

"We will explore historical work from the 1950s and 1940s - things that relate in a realistic way to what is contemporary.

"We are set up as a contemporary institute and have to fulfil that - that means different things to different people.

"Anyone coming into Baltic should have options, from the classic to the quirky, and to such things as video work."

An enormous skateboarding ramp is to be created inside the gallery.

The Baltic plans to include an exhibition of Sam Taylor-Wood's latest photographic and film work, including her video portrait of David Beckham and a show of the early drawing and sculptures by Keith Haring, which will be brought together for the first time.

Candice Breitz, from South Africa, will be an artist in residence and there will be exhibitions of the work of Yoko Ono and German painter Gerhard Richter.

The Baltic has been criticised for showing inaccessible contemporary art, but Mr Doroshenko said

he wanted to reach out to communities and plans an exhibition by local artists in February.