For our 2012 programme we commissioned Turner Prize winning artist Mark Wallinger to make a new film inspired by the Great North Run, Camera Running. So we’re absolutely delighted that last night Mark became the first artist ever to be inducted into the Great North Run Hall of Fame. 

These annual awards, established in 2007, recognise special contributions to Britain’s biggest running event from the last three decades – its ranks include elite athletes, volunteers, administrators, fundraisers, media and celebrity supporters of the event.  

We caught up with Mark before the ceremony to find out more:

Mark said, "I am really deeply honoured to be the first artist to be inducted into the Great North Run Hall of Fame. I’m not an athlete but I’ve always loved sport and athletics and Brendan Foster was my favourite athlete when I was a teenager. The Run is of course a lot more than an athletic event. What Brendan created has now inspired nearly a million participants to push themselves to achieve something extraordinary both personally and in the raising of a huge amount of money for charities.

It is the greatest participatory event in the country and every participant has a story to tell. Mine began in 2005 with my first visit to see the run. The experience was inspirational.

I had been approached by Beth Bate, who runs the cultural programme which is such an important and integral part of the Great North Run. I was whisked from the start line to the finish by helicopter and witnessed at close hand what the run means to top athletes and fun runners alike. We had a great time working together and although my proposal fell by the wayside I kept in touch with Beth and Brendan and in 2010 they asked me to make another artwork. This was to be the film entitled Camera Running, a silent hour-long film from the point of view of the leading elite athlete from the start in Newcastle to the finish in South Shields. I worked with a tremendous team and was given special access to the course to achieve what I hope captures something of the experience of running the thirteen miles through all the gathered crowds but also has a dreamlike quality. The motion is very smooth and otherworldly not least because one realizes the incredible pace that a top athlete maintains throughout the race. I hope it succeeds as an artwork and as a new way of documenting this great institution. Sport and art are alike in many ways; they demonstrate how we can transcend the everyday and give life new meaning.”

Brendan Foster, Chairman of Nova International and founder of the Bupa Great North Run added, "Mark’s been a long-time friend of the Great North Run; having an artist of his international stature find inspiration in our event to create a film of this quality is a credit to everyone involved.”

Alison Clark-Jenkins, Regional Director, Arts Council England said, "It’s absolutely right that Mark Wallinger is the first artist to be inducted into the Great North Run Hall of Fame. His film Camera Running is a perfect example of the unique art work which Great North Run Culture has been commissioning alongside the run for almost a decade. Mark’s work really gets the relationships between sport and art, between artists and athletes I hope we’ll see more artists added to the Hall of Fame in the future, and I look forward to new commissions celebrating the North East’s culture of creativity and sporting achievement.”

You can read more about Mark’s film Camera Running, which premiered at BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art last September with an artist Q&A with BBC Broadcaster Kirsty Wark, and watch a short excerpt from the film here.