Picture House at Belsay English Heritage invited 15 of the most original and experimental film directors, artists, actresses and designers from Britain and around the world to bring Belsay Hall, Castle and Gardens to life with a series of cutting edge art installations.

Picture House - Film, Art and Design at Belsay, opened on 5 May 2007, and transformed the neo-classical mansion in Northumberland, its 14th century castle and Grade I Listed gardens. The specially commissioned exhibition saw electrifying works of fashion, sculpture, music, design, poetry, music and video fill Belsay’s vast empty rooms and landscaped grounds.

Installations included some exciting collaborations, such as a soundscape by composer William Basinski and Antony Hegarty from Mercury Music Prize-winning New York city band Antony and the Johnstons.

Likewise actress Tilda Swinton - known to millions as the White Witch in the Chronicles of Narnia - created a piece for Arthur Middleton’s bedroom, working alongside her husband, playwright and visual artist John Byrne - and their children.

Internationally renowned fashion designers Viktor & Rolf provided a centrepiece display of silver ballgowns suspended between the Grecian columns in the Pillar Hall, while award-winning costume designer Sandy Powell – famed for her work on The Aviator and Gangs of New York, set up a ‘peephole’ into false door with a peephole in Lady Middleton’s bedroom, where viewers spied on the inhabitant dressing and undressing.

Picture House is curated for English Heritage by Judith King and includes three commissions curated by Juha Huuskonen for Dott 07 (Designs of the time 2007).

Picture House also included the Maps and Skinsan HLF education programme, funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund. Young people in the area were set the task of designing an interactive computer game based on Belsay’s colourful heritage, which were unveiled at the exhibition over the summer.

Throughout the property – from the cellars of Belsay Hall to the Grand Hall of Belsay Castle and the delights of the sheer cliffs of the Quarry Garden - Picture House saw Belsay transformed and reinterpreted through dozens of creative perspectives and  provided a fresh appreciation of the social and architectural history of this unique historical site.

Picture House was the fifth in a series of contemporary art exhibitions to be staged at Belsay. The first was Living at Belsay in 1996. This was followed in 2000 by Sitooteries, which showed contemporary interpretations of traditional summerhouses. Sitting Pretty in 2002 was an interactive exhibition of chairs and seating. Fashion at Belsay in 2004 saw acclaimed fashion designers including Alexander McQueen, Stella McCartney and Paul Smith creating dazzling installations.