Manchester City Council Archives

The Reformation – John Rylands Library Manchester

29th August 2017

Although not my usual ‘What’s On’ blog of Contemporary Art, this exhibition ‘The Reformation’ from The John Rylands Library in Manchester, one of Manchester’s iconic buildings and next to some of the ultra modern building of Spinningfields, focuses on a subject which continues to fascinate. And not just historians. Take the success of Hilary Mantel’s ‘Wolf Hall’, and many still remember Keith Michelle’s portrayal of Henry VIII from TV’s…

Manchester Histories and Peoples History Musuem Get Peterloo 2019 Project Funding

17th August 2017

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The Peterloo 2019 Project On 16th August 2015 I saw actor Maxine Peake read Percy Bysshe Shelley’s ‘Mask of Anarchy’ at Manchesters’s Albert Hall which was then going through a refurbishment programme. The fact that there was a certain amount of disarray, due to building works, only added to the atmospheric staging of Shelly’s poem which was done by Peake in a candlelit stage setting. The memory of that Peterloo…

Manchester’s “Factory” Arts Project Gets Planning Go-Ahead

24th January 2017

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Factory – Manchester’s New Cultural Centre Planning approval was granted on the 12th January for The Factory, Manchester’s new £110m cultural hub. Located on the site of the old Granada studio’s and designed by the world-famous Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) founded by Rem Koolhaas, it promises to put Manchester at the forefront of culture in the North and give London a run for it’s money. The project is OMA’s first major public…