YORK gallery According To McGee is re-launching with a re-brand, a new collection and a collaboration with the Art of Protest Gallery in Little Stonegate.

"It's the most rejuvenated we've felt for years," says gallery director Ails McGee, "We've worked with great outfits in the past: The Beautiful Meme, Lazenby Brown, Goldsmiths College, but never with another gallery. It's the right time."

For 13 years, According To McGee primarily has celebrated contemporary painting, but with the McGees' next exhibition, We Made Something Of This, the Tower Street gallery is taking steps into exhibiting framed limited editions with a more urban outlook. This edgier style is set to continue for the foreseeable future with outsider artists booked in until 2018.

"Artists are obliged to develop and diversify. It's part of their job description," says Ails. "Evolve or fossilise, and that's the way it should be. Galleries don't share that freedom. It's like a gallery secures its brand, and then, like Bettys, it sticks with it. I think it's supposed to reassure clients and collectors, but we've taken a decent amount of gratification from being progressive and adaptable. Some of our biggest risks have been our most rewarding, professionally and commercially."

The Northern art scene is in a very different state to when the McGees launched their gallery 13 years ago, reckons co-director Greg McGee. "York has benefited massively from that, and the knock-on effect in culture has been phenomenal: York Art Gallery, the festivals, the wine bars, the coffee. Only a misanthrope would say it was better without these things. What we've noticed, however, is that bounty can bring apathy. There's not too much to get angry about if you're sipping your second latte of the day," he says.

Greg is especially grateful for the emergence of Little Stonegate's Art Of Protest, "The number of galleries in York is a reflection of just how fine a fettle is the city's cultural scene. What's really great about Art Of Protest is that they're carving a name for themselves quickly and with the kind of brand confidence that ordinarily comes from a decade in the saddle," he says.

"Ails and I knew for some time it was time to revamp According To McGee but we were struggling with the details. Jeff Clarke and Craig Humble, of Art Of Protest, have a very clear mission statement and the quality of their artists mean they've international reach. A collaboration with them is an exciting opportunity."

Art of Protest is playng to its burgeoning strengths, while the McGees are retaining such favourite exhibitors as former miner Harry Malkin and The Specials rock musician and Pop Art artist Horace Panter, who says: "I’m delighted to be included in the re-launch exhibition.

"We Made Something Of This includes my Clash and Ramones limited-edition prints, where both pieces seek to encapsulate the essence of two iconic musical forces while leaning on the references of Sir Peter Blake and Robert Rauschenburg. My Walkman pieces, meanwhile, celebrate a moribund piece of music technology; groundbreaking in its day, it now exists only as a repository of memory for all those who owned one in the 1980s."

Work by Karl Sandor and Chris Rivers from The Killing Tree is prominent. "Our design concepts and collaborations have always been different. This show is great for us,” says Sandor.

Turner Prize winner Jeremy Deller, Dave Pearson, Mat Lazenby, John Creighton and Brian Lewis will be exhibiting too, alongside pieces by York College, York St John University, Goldsmiths and Glasgow School of Art students.

"York College is a great college for young artists; we've worked very successfully with them in the past," says Greg. "Layla Khoo, from the college, has organised for three artists to exhibit with us, and it's heavy-duty stuff by Rudo Bolcar, Kate Buckley and Layla herself.

"It's cracking art, witty and provocative, and it's just as collectible as anything we've ever shown. These guys are our tips for the collectibles of the North. Come see it while the ink is wet."

Layla adds: "The works were chosen from the viewpoint of looking for something fresh and innovative in what can be seen as the fairly traditional arena of craft. In order for the 3D work to resonate with the viewer in a 2D format, it needed to have a quality beyond that of the surface and the form.

"The three artists are excited to be considered as part of the dynamic new turn the gallery is taking and we're delighted to have our work shown amid such high-quality pieces in the heart of our home city. The importance of the support of local galleries to students on arts degrees cannot be overstated."

The exhibition was launched  on May 11 with a performance outside According To McGee by Claire Hind and Gary Winters entitled So You Had A Dream About This Place.

"Everything is the same, except the light. It’s not day or night - it’s half-night," said Claire and Gary, introducing their work. "There’s a thing in back of this place. You came to see if it’s out there. You can see it through the wall, you can see its face. The red bricks moving by are coming to an end, the corner is coming closer. The corner is now very close. That’s it."

We Made Something Of This runs at According To McGee, opposite Clifford's Tower, York, until September 1. Opening hours are 11am to 5pm, Monday to Saturday; 12 noon to 3pm, Sundays.