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ON the balcony of Impressions Gallery, in York's ripening summer sun, director Anne McNeill is growing tomato vines, chillies and peppers.

This will be the last growth at Impressions. After 33 years, the photographic gallery has not only outgrown its premises, tucked away frustratingly out of view in Castlegate but, more contentiously, it has outgrown York too.

The announcement came on Monday, the statement frank and forward-looking. Chairman Darryn Hedges spoke of the move as the next step towards being "the UK's leading contemporary photographic gallery". Anne McNeill reflected on Impressions helping to shape York into a dynamic, modern, cosmopolitan city and the gallery's sadness at leaving the people of York, while looking forward to "this very exciting phase in our development".

Most significant are the sentiments of ACE Yorkshire, the latest acronym for the Yorkshire wing of Arts Council England. The gallery's primary funding body has not only pledged support for the next three years but also a significant uplift in funding (the gallery now receives £150,000 a year in grants).

ACE Yorkshire executive director Andy Carver says: "Impressions is an important part of the landscape for photography and media arts, nationally as well as regionally. The Arts Council fully supports Impressions' proposals to relocate within Yorkshire. We are optimistic the move will provide exciting opportunities for improved exhibition and education facilities, along with a more secure future for the organisation."

In other words, not only does it make financial sense to move to the arts honey-pot of West Yorkshire, but also Impressions, like Manchester United or Ribena, is a brand name.

Ask Anne McNeill which is more important, Impressions' continuing presence in York's cultural landscape or Impressions' significance as a beacon for photography and the digital arts in Britain, and she answers without hesitation.

"First and foremost, Impressions plays an important part in the Arts Council's photographic galleries. There used to be more in the 1980s, maybe 15, but many closed because of lack of funding. Now there are only six.

"This network of galleries is really important in promoting photography and Impressions is pivotal in that. So, in a way, Impressions could be anywhere," says the Scottish director. "Val Williams, who was one of the co-founders with Andrew Sproxton, said it was a happy accident that it opened in York. They had been driving all round Britain when they were looking to open a gallery; they'd been up to Scotland and were heading back home to Kent when the van broke down just outside York, and the rest is history."

The rest is indeed history, in York at least. "You have to be hard-headed about it and put your pragmatic hat on for the financial future of the organisation, and that's been a perennial problem," says Anne. "The board of governors has to show due care and diligence in running Impressions and the figures don't stack up."

When Anne McNeill became director in January 2000, Impressions was undergoing a stabilisation programme after the departure of Cheryl Reynolds 11 months earlier. Even with a staff of only four, Impressions' figures still struggle to add up.

"If we'd not closed the caf, it would have cost us an average deficit of £10,000 a year, and we were getting to the point where it was beginning to divert money meant for exhibitions and accompanying activities," says Anne. "That is the core business and sometimes you have to be true to the essence of what this place is about, and while a caf is nice and did enhance a visit to Impressions, you can't use funding to subsidise a catering operation."

Goodbye caf, but still no goodbye to financial palpitations. Only last September, the gallery's short-term future was secured with a £27,000 one-off grant from City of York Council, a hand-out that came with a caveat. The authority warned that another grant of the same size would be unlikely in 2005 unless the gallery moved from its premises in Castlegate, allowing the council to re-let the building (for which Impressions pays £27,500 rent, while receiving an annual grant of £30,000 from the city council).

This has now come to pass. "The reality is: projecting budgets for three or four years ahead, it makes sense to move to new premises, not necessarily bigger but more suited to our needs," says Anne. "One factor was our financial needs; the other was that we could never make the Castlegate building fully physically accessible to everyone because of its Grade II listed status. We can't touch inside or outside the building, so we can't put in a lift, and we can't meet the requirements of the Disability Discrimination Act, which has come into force, and again that situation is against our ethos of being open to all."

Initially the Impressions board looked to move within York; Hungate was a possibility but never a serious consideration. Negotiations with York Theatre Royal for a joint redevelopment of the De Grey Rooms went as far as a positive feasibility study by Allen Tod Architecture, but that move could not come sufficiently quickly.

"We've been looking at moving in York for 18 months; it was always in the business plan. Even with the De Grey Rooms, however, there was an accessibility problem," says Anne.

"While both the Theatre Royal board and our board accepted the feasibility study, when it came down to the financial situation, the finance was not readily in place, and they're still working towards that.

"It's a great, great shame, what with York Museums Trust's plans for York Art Gallery as well. It would have been a great vision for the city and the infrastructure is there, so the redevelopment could still happen if people have the forward thinking.

"But we had to think of our future and it would be 2008 before the De Grey Rooms would be ready and that's just too far away."

Impressions will not be moving far away.

The new location will be announced in October. It could be Wakefield, maybe the burgeoning arts quarter of Quarry Hill in Leeds, but most likely Bradford, possibly in a link-up with the National Museum of Photography, Film and Television.

Impressions Gallery of Photography wants to be part of the bigger picture. It must be hoped there is no knock-on effect for contemporary culture in York, where Impressions helped the city do more than live the history.

First and last Impressions

Name: Impressions Gallery, York

Role: Specialist contemporary photographic gallery, founded by Val Williams and her late husband Andrew Sproxton, 1972. Only the second to open in Britain, Photographers Gallery in London being the first.

Artistic vision: Now spans photography and digital arts and leaving York on October 29 for pastures West Yorkshire

History: 607 artists; 373 exhibitions; 33 years; five directors, Val Williams, 1972-1980; Frances Middlestrob, 1982-1986; Paul Wombell, 1986-1994; Cheryl Reynolds, 1995-1999, Anne McNeill, 2000 onwards; three gallery sites

Birthplace: 39a, Shambles, November 1972, although first exhibition, by Magnum photographer Werner Bischof, was held in temporary space at 7a, Clifford Street

First Shambles exhibition: Whitby scenes, 19th century by Frank Meadow Sutcliffe; 20th century by Martin Parr and Daniel Meadows, staff photographers at Butlin's, Filey

First retrospective: Sir Cecil Beaton, doyen of British photography, 1973

Last Shambles retrospective: Bill Brandt, of Picture Post, 1976

Gallery moves: June 1976, Impressions outgrows Shambles premises; gallery relocates to 17 Colliergate

First Colliergate show: The Darker Side Of The Moon, by Angus McBean, surrealist photographer of 1930s-40s

Landmark Colliergate shows: June 1978, first Yorkshire Arts Association Photography Award Winners exhibition; July 1984, What A Woman Can Do With A Camera, first UK exhibition for pioneering American photographer Frances Benjamin Johnston; December 1988, retrospective of South African magazine Drum; 1990, Ecstatic Antibodies - Resisting The Aids Mythology

Gallery moves again: June 1992, to Grade II-listed building, a former Georgian house at 29 Castlegate

Landmark Castlegate shows: March 1993, Mask, Valerie Brown's photofit mask, asking "What does it mean to be European?"; January 1998, Photo 98, UK Year of Photography and Electronic Image launched at Impressions with European premiere of Kurdistan - In The Shadow Of History

Gallery closes: June 2000 for new roof and internal refurbishment

Gallery re-opens: October 2000, launch of SightSonic, York's first international digital arts festival

More Castlegate landmark shows: October 2002, Time, Memory And Myth, 30 years of Impressions; June 2004, Only A Game?, something beautiful and something rotten in the state of football

Education: Since 2001, 5,000 people have participated in the programme of talks, events and projects

Visitors each year: 50,000

Last show in York: Premiere of Mariele Neudecker's Kindertotenlieder, Songs On The Death Of Children; fusion of installations, moving images, Mahler music and Ruckert verse, tomorrow until October 29

Why is Impressions leaving York? "This move is the next step in support of our artistic ambition to be the UK's leading contemporary photographic gallery." Darryn Hedges, chairman.

Post Impressions art in York

Janet Barnes, chief executive of York Museums Trust, says:

"It's very sad news that Impressions is leaving the city, especially as we were working closely together and we'd done some great projects together.

"We're pleased its legacy will continue in the region and wish it well and won't lose contact with it as the specialist photography gallery in the region.

"Impressions is a very long-standing organisation, and the board knew that change was afoot under the stabilisation programme. It's just that it's a bigger change than they anticipated.

"I do think the move will be beneficial for Impressions and the Arts Council is right behind it.

"But York has moved on too, with the £445,000 redevelopment of York Art Gallery and the new St Mary's contemporary art space, and the launch of York Renaissance Project's new lighting works this autumn. This is adding a contemporary response to the city.

"So while we shall miss Impressions, there are other contemporary players in the city, and there's always room for optimism."

Why is Impressions moving?

Accessibility: the new location must be fully accessible, friendly and welcoming, under the Disability Discrimination Act

Flexibility: space to promote photography, digital arts and education projects

Financial security: "We're looking for partnership funding with the local authority, for exhibitions and education. If all goes well, it could be parity funding with the Arts Council, not in terms of hard cash but rent in kind," Anne McNeill says

New developments, such as "wi-fi" Internet space

Why is Impressions not staying in York?

Problems with accessibility and level of city council financial support

Updated: 11:28 Friday, August 26, 2005