Amber Home

On 9th April 2023, Side Gallery closed to the public due to critical funding cuts and the ‘cost of living crisis’.

For over 45 years, Side has been a dedicated home to documentary film and photography. Side’s mission is to be an agent for change through the commission, exhibition, and preservation of world-class visual stories that highlight social concerns and celebrate diverse lives & landscapes across the Northeast, UK, and the globe.

Now more than ever, we must protect this vital and freely accessible cultural resource so it can continue to provide an essential public platform for these important stories.

Our small team are doing everything possible to secure additional funding so that we can eventually re-open to the public. However, our future is uncertain, and we now face the possibility of permanent closure.

With the support of donors, we can continue working towards re-opening in September 2024 – but we can’t do it without you. You can help us #SAVESIDE!

Watch the campaign film

Amber came together as a film & photography collective in 1968 focussing on documenting working class and marginalised lives and landscapes in North East England. In 1977 we opened Side Gallery, which is committed to celebrating the best in the wider tradition of humanist documentary photography.

PHOTOGRAPHY

SIDE GALLERY

Side Gallery is dedicated to showing the best in documentary photography: rich, powerful and challenging work engaged with people’s lives and landscapes, telling stories that often get marginalised, whether they are from the North East of England or anywhere else in the world.

We’re not far from the Tyne Bridge on Newcastle’s Quayside.

As of 9th April 2023, Side Gallery is closed to the public due to critical funding cuts and the ‘cost of living crisis’.

AMBERSIDE

COLLECTIONS

Landscapes & lives of NE England, classic & contemporary documentary: a unique film & photographic collection growing from the work we’ve continued to produce, commission & collect since 1968.

Photographic exhibitions, videos, clips, trailers and each month’s Featured Film are free. For personal use Amber’s feature dramas, feature documentaries and film shorts are available as pay per view. 

CINEMA

Classic and contemporary international film seasons, often linked to exhibitions at Side Gallery or to the wider work of AmberSide.

We have closed our cinema for re-development but we can still share films together digitally with our Doc North East programme.

AMBERSIDE

EDUCATION

Delivering distinctive projects with schools, colleges and the community – we use the AmberSide Collection and other resources as inspiration to develop creative, participative projects teaching documentary skills in photography and filmmaking to engage with local history and cultural heritage.

SUPPORT

AMBERSIDE

Amber relies on donations from people like you now more than ever.

AMBERSIDE

ONLINE SHOP

The best, and in many cases the only, place for DVD & Video from 40 years of Amber Filmmaking. Photography books linked to Amber’s production and Side Gallery’s exhibitions. Side Gallery’s classic photography Posters & Postcards. Plus high quality digital Prints and special editions.