aphorisms and slogans – were projected onto the side of the building. Kapoor and Holtzer's works were intended to engage casual passers-by in an artistic dialogue. The identity of Baltic was also solidified by the publication of 16 newsletters between October 1998 and July 2002 when the centre opened to the public. A significant part of this branding was the use of the now registered typeface BALTIC Affisch, designed by Swedish designers Ulf Greger Nilsson and Henrik Nygren and based on the BALTIC FLOUR MILLS lettering on the building's brick façade. Opening After ten years in the planning and a capital investment of £50m, including £33.4m from the Arts Council Lottery Fund, Baltic opened to the public at midnight on Saturday 13 July 2002. The novelty of opening the new building at midnight was intentional: founding director Sune Nordgren sought a dramatic gesture to herald the beginning of the new centre for arts. The inaugural exhibition, B.OPEN, had work by Chris Burden, Carsten Höller, Julian Opie, Jaume Plensa and Jane and Louise Wilson. Opie, who had previously assisted Dominic Williams with aspects of the building's conversion design, contributed an installation consisting of nude outlines on the walls of floor of the gallery. Plensa's installation featured a room filled with gongs which were available for the audience to play. Plensa also contributed Blake in Gateshead – a beam of light which stretched around into the sky. The installation was placed through the glass doorway of the ground floor. Burden constructed a 1/20th scale replica of the Tyne Bridge out of Meccano. Jane and Louise Wilson created Dreamtime, a video of a rocket launch. An early exhibit by the Japanese artist Yoshitomo Nara was also included. The B.OPEN event attracted over 35,000 visitors in the first week. A live art performance, including Tatsumi Orimito's Bread Man and Anne Bjerge Hansen's Moving Bakery, took place during the opening weekend, in which bread was handed out to passers-by in memory of the Baltic Flour Mill's history. When BALTIC opened, there was a target set for 250,000 visitors a year. It achieved one million visitors in its first year, and by its 10-year anniversary in 2012, 4 million people had visited. Notable events Thanksgiving On 20 September 2007, Baltic management contacted Northumbria Police for advice regarding whether or not a photograph should be displayed as part of the Thanksgiving installation, a forthcoming exhibition by American