13 THE ART OBSERVER August 2009 they’ve had difficulty getting a quote. At 9.30am is a meeting for an internal audit on administrative procedures. Because The New Art Gallery is part of the local council, they have been chosen for this audit. In the meeting they will look at policies and procedures in place. After the meeting, at around 11.00am, he is off to Birmingham to hang an exhibi- tion for an event on 1 July. He has chosen all the work which is from twelve artists using the subject of ‘nature.’ This is in preparation for the debate he is participating in titled ‘the Art of Collecting.’ He will remain at the venue to oversee until 4pm when he catches a train to London. He will arrive in London around 6.00pm and will immediately head to Tate Britain for their annual summer party. The party is from 7.00pm to 10.00pm and is great for networking and meeting lots of artists, curators and directors. At the end of a hectic day, he turns in and prepares for Tuesday. The next morning, Tuesday, at 11.00am he has a meeting with the Contemporary Art Society. This meeting is to discuss a potential project to combine their 100th anniversary with The New Art Gallery, Walsall’s 10th anniversary in Feb 2010. Over the years Stephen has worked with the Contemporary Art By Molly Byrne Robinson STEPHEN SNODDY  is certainly one of the busiest art gallery directors these days. Between managing the New Art Gallery, Walsall, working on freelance projects, and sitting on the boards of several arts organisations and publications, he is always looking for the next big idea. He is very much vision-led with a dynamic career that has seen countless memorable exhibitions.   Born in Northern Ireland, Stephen Snoddy began his career running a small community arts centre outside Belfast after graduating with an MA from Belfast College of Art in 1983. In 1986 he moved to Manchester University to pursue postgradu- ate studies in Art Gallery and Museum studies. In 1987, after graduation, came a move to Bristol to become Exhibitions Organiser at the Arnolfini Gallery. There he organised exhi- bitions for many well-established artists including Jack B Yeats, brother of W B Yeats. In 1991 he returned to Manchester to take the position of Exhibitions Director of Cornerhouse where he was first responsible for bringing The British Art Show 4 to Manchester in 1995. At Cornerhouse he also had the opportunity to organise shows and pursue commissions. 1996 saw yet another move for Stephen Snoddy, this time to become Director of Southampton City Art Gallery where he organised the Chris Ofili solo exhibition which won Chris Ofili the 1998 Turner Prize. Following this success, in 1998 he moved to Milton Keynes to direct the construction of the brand new gallery as part of the Milton Keynes Gallery and Society beginning at Southampton City Art Gallery to whom they gifted artwork. He has developed a good relation- ship with the Contemporary Art Society over the years and continues to work with them. After this meeting, it is on to lunch with an artist who will have a show at The New Art Gallery, Walsall next year and at 3pm, he will then meet with Marc Quinn at White Cube about a potential exhibition next year. After the meetings, he attends the preview of an Artangel proj- ect, a charity auction at the ICA and then goes to a garden party to celebrate the new work of artists Langlands & Bell. He likes to pack in as much as possible when he’s in London! When asked if any artists or exhibitions were particularly memorable, he responded very definitely with Chris Ofili’s first solo show which he organised at the Southampton City Art Gallery. This was the Turner Prize winning show that went on to draw one of the biggest crowds ever when it travelled to the Whitworth Art Gallery. Another memorable exhibition was Jack B. Yeats at the Arnolfini Gallery. This was an unusual exhibition for a gallery that normally showed contemporary art as the artist was deceased. However, it was an amazing success and introduced a whole new audience to the gallery. The John Baldessari Retrospective at Cornerhouse in 1995 was another outstanding exhibition, especially since he has won the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at this year’s Venice Biennale. A retrospective at Tate Modern in London is planned for the autumn of this year. Finally, the Gilbert & George exhibition stands out. He describes them as very generous and extremely well-organised. He remembers this exhibition vividly as Gilbert & George were the natural choice for a gallery opening in Milton Keynes. He references the joke about moving the entire East End of London (including Gilbert & George) into Milton Keynes when it was built in the late 1960s. The town is also built on a grid, a con- struct that applies to their work. This show was also very impor- tant because, like a first impres- sion, a gallery only gets one chance at a memorable opening. This show was extremely suc- cessful and propelled Milton Keynes Gallery into prominence in the contemporary arts world. Stephen Snoddy still keeps in contact with Gilbert & George on a regular basis and lunches with them 2 to 3 times a year. The next ‘big’ idea will come to fruition next year with the 10th anniversary celebration of The New Art Gallery, Walsall. No doubt there will be many more wonderful exhibitions and projects instigated by the extraordinary Stephen Snoddy. Theatre complex, the first com- pletely new gallery to be built in the UK in over 20 years. Milton Keynes Gallery opened in October of 1999 with a hugely successful exhibition of 33 entirely new works by Gilbert & George. In 2003, Stephen returned to the north when he was appointed Director of the BALTIC Centre of Contemporary Art, Gateshead, where he had the opportunity to make organisa- tional and structural changes and refreshed the program. In 2005 he began to work on freelance projects and was appointed to his current position of Director of The New Art Gallery, Walsall.   With such an impressive CV, the current schedule of the director of The New Art Gallery, Walsall, is extremely hectic. There is never a typical day but when describing the following two days, ‘next Monday and Tuesday,’ he provides a small glimpse into the unstopping drive and persistence which has enabled his rich career. He leaves home (Stockport) at 6.00am Monday and he arrives at his office at The New Art Gallery, Walsall at 7.45am after being away since the previous Wednesday.  He quickly goes through his post - he feels quite strongly about handling his own correspondence - and bins any- thing that is in his opinion likely to slow up any creative process. Although he is constantly connected to his Blackberry, he also checks his emails and correspondence. Around 8.30am he takes a quick walk around the gallery and checks in with the technical team. Their current challenge is replacing a double-glazed win- dow that has been cracked and Stephen Snoddy Director of The New Art Gallery, Walsall 2 DAYS IN THE LIFE