Chris Wright

Think Institute of Modern Art, and I bet Middlesbrough wouldn't be the first place to spring to mind. But the town has recently acquired a fantastic new, award winning building to house and display it's art collection, the MIMA. Eldest daughter is taking Art and Design at college, so we made a special effort to get to see the first headline exhibition, DRAW, featuring Picasso (18 works), Matisse, Andy Warhol and Damien Hirst. There was some pretty good stuff, and some interesting stuff, and, well, some other things! I almost think that the building overshadowed the exhibitions. Perhaps I'll get used to it on future visits. Having said that, I still think 'wow' whenever I see The Sage in Gateshead. Now if I had to name my favourite artists, then it would have to be Andy Goldsworthy. He has a major, year-long exhibition at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park near Barnsley. We made a special Saturday-long visit last Bank Holiday to see it, particularly as middle daughter has ...

I've just spent the last 9 months organising the British Elite Orienteering Championships at Middle Distance in Mulgrave Woods near Whitby, on Sunday 15 April 2007. I would say that 99.5% of the organisation was fine. Unfortunately, the event will be remembered for the 0.5% which wasn't - the awarding of the junior Elite prizes to the wrong people. To compound matters, I wasn't actually at the race site for most of the event - I was running the Gisborough Moors Race (or it's F&M year replacement) for the 30th consecutive year. And dear Chris P told everyone in Assembly, so no chance of sneaking out and back without anyone noticing that I wasn't there! And there were those BOF Committee individuals who lambasted me as soon as I reappeared - presumably they considered this a severe dereliction of duty and that I should be made to suffer - the organiser should have done this, the organiser should have done that, the organiser should have consulted here, the organis...