Godfrey Worsdale has been head of the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art since 2008 - its fourth director since the opening 10 years ago. For a while, it seemed the role came with some form of ancient curse that couldn't be shaken. But he’s turned Europe’s biggest contemporary art centre into his very own cultural masterpiece, as Ruth Lognonne finds out.

The Questionnaire

What car do you drive?
VW Golf.

What’s your favourite restaurant?
The Cleveland Tontine.

Who or what makes you laugh?
My children; Lily and Theodore.

What’s your favourite book?
Any dictionary of quotations.

What was the last album you bought?
Thomas Tallis – Spem in Alium.

What’s your ideal job, other than the one you’ve got?
An ambassador somewhere peaceful.

If you had a talking parrot, what’s the first thing you would teach it to say?
I’d teach it the art of silence.

What’s your greatest fear?
Having recently worked with colleagues from the charity Crisis, homelessness is a really frightening thought.

What’s the best piece of business advice you have ever received?
Take risks and work hard.

And the worst?
Everything comes to those who wait.

What’s your poison?
White Burgundy.

What newspapers do you read, other than The Journal?
The Times, The Guardian and the FT.

How much was your first pay packet and what was it for?
£4.50/week for my newspaper round.

How do you keep fit?
Jog.

What’s your most irritating habit?
I often see both sides of an argument and that can irritate everyone in one go.

What’s your biggest extravagance?
My unnecessarily large and demanding old house.

Which historical or fictional character do you most identify with or admire?
I admire Leonardo da Vinci, not just because of his genius, but because of the huge breadth of his creativity.

Which four famous people would you most like to dine with?
Andy Warhol, pictured left, Marcel Duchamp, Joseph Beuys and Pablo Picasso, pictured far left, probably the four most important artists of the past century

How would you like to be remembered?
I don’t mind.