The Baltic was the first place which we visited on our recent jaunt to the north-east of England. I think it’s great that they’ve been able to convert what was an old flour mill into great gallery space and they’ve made a really good job of revamping the space.

I was quite disappointed by the exhibitions which they have on at the moment. I must admit that I’m not that struck on a lot of contemporary art but I’ve visited the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art in Edinburgh a good few times now and it strikes me that Edinburgh has better contents.

At the moment the Baltic is showing a John Cage art exhibition and there is also a wee room where you can hear some of his music – or maybe not!

I have to say that John Cage was an absolute genius because he managed to ‘take the piss’ in the fields of both music and art, which is quite a feat.

The majority of his paintings seemed to feature circles of paint which were obviously just the outlines of glasses or mugs. I heard one girl commenting that they were just coffee mug stains – and she was correct.

Going by this exhibition I’ve wiped up an awful lot of art work in my time.

I thought that the best exhibition was the one by Cornelia Parker featuring musical instruments which she had flattened. With careful lighting and hanging the result is a circle of instruments and their shadows, and it looks really effective.

It’s worth a visit if you are at all interested in contemporary art.