Nancy Durrant, arts commissioning editor for The Times, picks her favourite galleries outside the capital. Read her assesment of the state of art in the British regions here

PUBLIC GALLERIES

Arnolfini, Bristol

Baltic, Gateshead

Hepworth Wakefield…

For years Britain has lagged behind Europe in arts funding outside the capital, but is now forging ahead with shows by the world’s biggest artists in the UK’s smallest galleries. But will it stay that way? Nancy Durrant, arts commissioning editor at The Times, finds out.

As visual arts editor at a national newspaper, one of the pet peeves I’ve heard from readers over the years is that sometimes, reading it, they’d be forgiven for thinking that there was no art going on anywhere in Britain except in London. And that possibly only at Tate. This is, of course, entirely wrong. This may be a small island, but Britain punches well above its weight in artistic matters, everywhere…