northern quarter creative tour

Manchester, February 2018

A creative exploration of Manchesters’s Northern Quarter for English undergraduates on the ‘Manchester and the City’ module at Manchester Metropolitan University, which requires the students to undertake a research project on ‘Manchester as text’ and produce an artefact related to the city.

This tour highlighted some of the permanent and temporary artworks installed in the Northern Quarter. It explored their various forms and functions, from adding decorative and visual appeal to the streets, and creating a sense of place, to celebrating and commemorating the history of the area, and showed how they have contributed to the distinctive identity and atmosphere of the Northern Quarter.

These public commissions date primarily from the 1990s onwards, when this part of the city began to be transformed from a run-down former textile, wholesale and retail district to a place known for its creative identity, independent businesses and night life.

The tour considered the ways in which the area continues to change and evolve, and the extent to which its different uses coexist. It addressed current debates about ongoing and future developments in the area, and how they might impact the character and qualities for which the Northern Quarter has become known and valued by those who live, work and socialise there.

northern quarter street art tour

Manchester, February 2016

A street art tour to celebrate 30 years since the Centre for Chinese Contemporary Art (formerly known as the Chinese Arts Centre) was established, and to coincide with an exhibition featuring artists from RareKind China illustration agency.

The tour took as its basis an expanded definition of street art, encompassing not just what we might usually regard as street art, ie that which is covert, transient and wall-based, but situating street art within a wider context of all art which is publicly visible on the streets of Manchester, from mosaics and architectural adornment to statues and sculptures.

Street art is something which we have all seen, and about which most of us have an opinion. The tour aimed to be informal, accessible, flexible and participatory, with participants invited to share, reflect on and challenge their own perceptions and experiences of street art and to disclose any particular favourites in the area. The tour invited discussion on questions such as: Who gets to decide what is art, and who is an artist? How do works of art on the street influence perceptions of a place, both by the people who live / work there and externally? What is ‘beauty’, and who decides what’s beautiful? Does art need to be beautiful? Can a value be placed on street art?

The tour visited two distinct areas of Manchester city centre – Chinatown and the Northern Quarter – as part of a broader narrative of change and evolution. Manchester has transformed from an industrial Victorian city to a modern city known for its entertainment, creativity and leisure / shopping opportunities, and this can be read through the art on its streets (or lack of it in certain places). Street art may have different motivations, from self-expression and ownership of spaces to decoration, celebration and commemoration of heritage, but all contribute to the identity, atmosphere and demographic of different areas and show how people have shaped Manchester over time.

The tour also offered contrasts and comparisons between: public art which is official and council-endorsed, and commissioned from high-profile artists; gallery-supported initiatives; local businesses promoting local artists; corporate sponsorship of street art, and street art techniques which have been co-opted for advertising purposes; and street art which is unsolicited and illegal.

public art tour of central salford

Salford, November 2015

A tour for a group of human geography undergraduates from the University of Central Lancashire, which has been turned into a publication. The tour aimed to offer a brief introduction to the historical context and development of public art, and some of the debates, concerns and issues surrounding it, asking questions such as ‘What is public art?’ and ‘What form does it take?’.

The tour took as its starting point the post-war era, widely regarded a time when artworks began to step down from the gallery plinth to be installed in public places and buildings, though many of them used the same form and materials, and relied on the same assumed distance between artwork and viewer, and framework of interpretation, as artworks which might be seen in a traditional institutional setting. It concluded in the present-day. The resulting guide moves from a presentation of object-based artworks to highlighting artworks which are ephemeral, activity and performance-based, and may leave the viewer with little or nothing to look at on a permanent basis, but nonetheless contain the potential to transform the way their participants think about and experience the city, and interact with certain spaces and situations. On its way, the guide takes in artworks which aim to engage with communities and local people, as well as artworks linked with specific places and pieces linked with wider agendas of tourism and regeneration.

The publication also acts as an introduction to an area of Salford which has undergone several phases of development, decline and renewal and is currently undergoing transformation and attempted gentrification at an accelerated pace. It starts at the University of Salford, progressing down the Crescent and Chapel Street. The guide draws on a number of sources, including original interviews undertaken with artists, curators and others involved in public art in the area and published elsewhere, including on The Shrieking Violet blog.

northern quarter creative tour

Manchester, February 2018

A creative exploration of Manchesters’s Northern Quarter for English undergraduates on the ‘Manchester and the City’ module at Manchester Metropolitan University, which requires the students to undertake a research project on ‘Manchester as text’ and produce an artefact related to the city.

This tour highlighted some of the permanent and temporary artworks installed in the Northern Quarter. It explored their various forms and functions, from adding decorative and visual appeal to the streets, and creating a sense of place, to celebrating and commemorating the history of the area, and showed how they have contributed to the distinctive identity and atmosphere of the Northern Quarter.

These public commissions date primarily from the 1990s onwards, when this part of the city began to be transformed from a run-down former textile, wholesale and retail district to a place known for its creative identity, independent businesses and night life.

The tour considered the ways in which the area continues to change and evolve, and the extent to which its different uses coexist. It addressed current debates about ongoing and future developments in the area, and how they might impact the character and qualities for which the Northern Quarter has become known and valued by those who live, work and socialise there.

northern quarter street art tour

Manchester, February 2016

A street art tour to celebrate 30 years since the Centre for Chinese Contemporary Art (formerly known as the Chinese Arts Centre) was established, and to coincide with an exhibition featuring artists from RareKind China illustration agency.

The tour took as its basis an expanded definition of street art, encompassing not just what we might usually regard as street art, ie that which is covert, transient and wall-based, but situating street art within a wider context of all art which is publicly visible on the streets of Manchester, from mosaics and architectural adornment to statues and sculptures.

Street art is something which we have all seen, and about which most of us have an opinion. The tour aimed to be informal, accessible, flexible and participatory, with participants invited to share, reflect on and challenge their own perceptions and experiences of street art and to disclose any particular favourites in the area. The tour invited discussion on questions such as: Who gets to decide what is art, and who is an artist? How do works of art on the street influence perceptions of a place, both by the people who live / work there and externally? What is ‘beauty’, and who decides what’s beautiful? Does art need to be beautiful? Can a value be placed on street art?

The tour visited two distinct areas of Manchester city centre – Chinatown and the Northern Quarter – as part of a broader narrative of change and evolution. Manchester has transformed from an industrial Victorian city to a modern city known for its entertainment, creativity and leisure / shopping opportunities, and this can be read through the art on its streets (or lack of it in certain places). Street art may have different motivations, from self-expression and ownership of spaces to decoration, celebration and commemoration of heritage, but all contribute to the identity, atmosphere and demographic of different areas and show how people have shaped Manchester over time.

The tour also offered contrasts and comparisons between: public art which is official and council-endorsed, and commissioned from high-profile artists; gallery-supported initiatives; local businesses promoting local artists; corporate sponsorship of street art, and street art techniques which have been co-opted for advertising purposes; and street art which is unsolicited and illegal.

public art tour of central salford

Salford, November 2015

A tour for a group of human geography undergraduates from the University of Central Lancashire, which has been turned into a publication. The tour aimed to offer a brief introduction to the historical context and development of public art, and some of the debates, concerns and issues surrounding it, asking questions such as ‘What is public art?’ and ‘What form does it take?’.

The tour took as its starting point the post-war era, widely regarded a time when artworks began to step down from the gallery plinth to be installed in public places and buildings, though many of them used the same form and materials, and relied on the same assumed distance between artwork and viewer, and framework of interpretation, as artworks which might be seen in a traditional institutional setting. It concluded in the present-day. The resulting guide moves from a presentation of object-based artworks to highlighting artworks which are ephemeral, activity and performance-based, and may leave the viewer with little or nothing to look at on a permanent basis, but nonetheless contain the potential to transform the way their participants think about and experience the city, and interact with certain spaces and situations. On its way, the guide takes in artworks which aim to engage with communities and local people, as well as artworks linked with specific places and pieces linked with wider agendas of tourism and regeneration.

The publication also acts as an introduction to an area of Salford which has undergone several phases of development, decline and renewal and is currently undergoing transformation and attempted gentrification at an accelerated pace. It starts at the University of Salford, progressing down the Crescent and Chapel Street. The guide draws on a number of sources, including original interviews undertaken with artists, curators and others involved in public art in the area and published elsewhere, including on The Shrieking Violet blog.