Four months after he faced a staff mutiny the beleaguered head of the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art in Gateshead is stepping down from his post, The Times has learnt.

Peter Doroshenko, who has been accused of running the £46 million complex in a “climate of fear”, took on the directorship of the North’s answer to Tate Modern – one of the biggest centres in Europe – two years ago.

Yesterday Sir Ian Wrigglesworth, its chairman, confirmed that Mr Doroshenko’s departure would be announced on Thursday. He declined to comment further.

Mr Doroshenko told The Times: “I can’t comment. Have a good day.”

In July Mr Doroshenko was faced with a motion of no confidence from his staff. As many as 46 employees were believed to have signed a document protesting about his style of leadership, which they described as intolerable and bullying. Ten members of staff – out of about 28 – were reported to have left in the previous 12 months.

Staff have despaired over curatorial decisions, including the staging of a Beryl Cook exhibition. One insider said: “This is not the sort of project the Baltic should be doing because they’re funded to do challenging curatorial work. I could perhaps understand if Cook had connections with the North East, but she doesn’t.”

The employees criticised the director in a questionnaire that staff circulated among colleagues. The survey’s conclusions were submitted to Sir Ian, who commissioned an outside human resources specialist to talk to the staff and produce an independent report.

Like Tate Modern, the Baltic was created by transforming an abandoned industrial building, in this case a 1950s flour mill. But the Gateshead centre - which, unlike Tate, does not have its own collection but stages a series of changing exhibitions – has been plagued by difficulties since it opened more than five years ago, a year behind schedule.

Its past financial problems prompted comparisons with the Millennium Dome, with one insider saying: “The northern Tate Modern can now be called the northern Dome.”

Three years ago, before Mr Doroshenko’s appointment, a critical Arts Council report, leaked to The Times, expressed alarm that the Baltic had fallen into financial chaos. Staff at the Baltic first voiced their grievances about Mr Doroshenko more than a year ago, in a letter sent to him by their union, Unison. The director acknowledged that there was a “climate of fear” but rejected “the implication that it has been deliberately cultivated at Baltic”.

Insiders have also criticised Mr Doroshenko for helping Ukraine at this year’s Venice Biennale.

Sir Ian said that Mr Doroshenko had a new post that would be announced on Thursday.

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