The gallery has set up an online appeal for £60,000, which raised more than £10,000 in less than 24 hours.
Bryan Dixon, the co-director of AmberSide which runs it, said the reaction had been “phenomenal” and the donations would give them “space” to explore further funding options.
“The emotion in that response, how people feel about the place, has given us real energy to take this forward,” he said.
People answering the gallery’s plea on Twitter said it was “one of the best bits” of Newcastle.
The city’s Discovery Museum called it, external “an intrinsic part of Tyneside’s cultural landscape”.
Writer and historian Tom Dyckhoff said, external the gallery and the film collective had “transformed lives”.
He said: “The photography and film work it has created has been inspirational.”
