I established Commissions North in 1999 within Arts Council England North East as their inhouse commissioning agency and worked with a great team including Rebecca Farley, Emma Keating, Sally Lockey and Denise Gladstone. The project coincided with an exciting period of arts led regeneration in the North East stimulated by projects such as Anthony Gormley's Angel of the North and the launch of major Arts Lottery funded buildings across the region which, inturn, had been brokered by Northern Arts in the 1990s.

Commissions North attracted European ERDF funding and we brokered over 100 arts commissions in 10 years. Commissions North's role was to champion the role of artists within public realm and new build projects, we spoke at numerous events, published advocacy books and educational guides to promote the region as a creative place. Our work with clients was often to make an early case for artists to be involved in public and private sector developments, we would then develop artists shortlists, develop artists briefs and provide design funding for artists proposals which inturn levered millions of pounds of new investment into artists commissions. Commissions North concluded its work in 2010 following our work on the successful development and installation of Anish Kapoor's Temenos sculpture in Middlesbrough.

The arts projects featured in this section were all either brokered or managed by Commissions North or received design funding from Commissions North.