Life in a Day – Wood Street Mission Creative Friends

This evening saw a significant slice of Manchester’s creative world come together in support of a longstanding, but of late largely ignored, cornerstone of Manchester’s social-industrial past. The Wood Street Mission was established 141 years ago by Manchester’s business community to help the neediest in Manchester and Salford.  Throughout its life Wood Street has provided essential food and clothing to those with nothing, helping them through hard times, before getting them back on their feet.

The Creative Friends of Wood Street are a group of creative professionals and creative businesses that have come together, giving their time and resources for free, to help promote the work of the mission and raise the profile of their excellent work.  The exhibition “Life in a Day” brings together images from the mission’s archive alongside new work from photographer Andrew Brooks who has spent the last year documenting their ongoing work.  Intended as the first in a series of profile raising explorations into Wood Street’s work the Creative Friends ultimate aim is to encourage more businesses and individuals to engage with the Mission’s work and embrace the tradition of Mancunians at the top helping those who find themselves at the bottom.

I got the chance to speak to Wood Street manager Jan O’Connor to discuss the origins of the Mission, the thinking behind the Creative Friends initiative and the challenges faced by small charities in the current climate.  You can listen here.

Although out of the public eye for some time the Mission has been a consistent force for good in Manchester that helped over 11,500 local people, including direct help for over 7,300 local children over the last 12 months. Now, having seen a new business community grow around it on the Spinningfields site, the mission is once again appealing to those doing well out of the city to help them continue their work supporting those a little less fortunate by donating as little as £7.50 a month .

The exhibition is an excellent introduction into the history of a true forgotten gem of Manchester’s third sector and, although only open for 3 days over the weekend, is an opportunity for anyone looking to help make Manchester a better place find out about one charity that has consistently delivered for people in need.  Even if you can’t make it you can donate directly here http://www.justgiving.co.uk/woodstreetmission/Donate or you can call the Mission on 0161 834 3140 to book onto one of their monthly tours to see their work first hand.

“Life in a Day” is open from Friday 30th July – Sunday 1st August 2010
Unit B1/B2 (Next to Cafe Rouge), Irwell Square, Left Bank
Spinningfields, Manchester , M3 3AN

YouTube Play – Deadline Approaching

In a clear demonstration of a sea change in the art elite’s attitude towards the somewhat haphazard creative output of the internet the Guggenheim has teamed up with YouTube to bring the world the inaugural YouTube Play Biennial.

Seeking to identify and present a long list of 200 videos from the site that are “innovative, original and surprising regardless of genre, technique or budget” the Guggenheim and a celebrity judging panel will select the cream of the crop to be presented at the Solomon R. Guggenheim museum in New York with simultaneous presentations in Bilbao, Berlin and Venice.

Judging submissions will be Takashi Murakami, Ryan McGinley, Douglas Gordon, Marilyn Minter and Shirin Neshat; Stefan Sagmeister, Laurie Anderson, Animal Collective and the filmmakers Darren Aronofsky and Apichatpong Weerasethakul.

To be considered videos must be non-commercial in nature, no longer than 10 minutes in length and have been released to the public within the last two years (full terms are available here).

Submissions close July 31, 2010 so if you’ve got work that you want to enter get to http://www.youtube.com/play now!

MLA and UK Film Council Axed

Two big blows for culture today under the new governmental cuts to the DCMS.  Both the British Film council and the MLA (Museums Libraries and Archives council) are to be wound up by 2012 under Jeremy Hunt’s cost saving initiatives.

In a depressingly polite press release MLA chief executive Roy Clare has vowed to keep working up to the finish line which will see a number of his staff moved over to the Arts Council, having been informed of the decision to close his organisation as part of a “very civilised” phone conversation on Friday.  However,  his equal number at the UK Film Council, John Woodward, has been far more vocal and direct in his objections to the cuts calling the decision “a big mistake, driven by short-term thinking and political expediency”.

Next in the firing line: English Heritage, the Heritage Lottery Fund and the National Heritage Memorial Fund.

Perhaps a minute’s silence for public sector supported culture is called for.

Creative Industries Start-Up Toolkit

Whilst looking to put certain processes and procedures in place to ensure the success of our own corner of the creative landscape Curated Place stumbled across some interesting reading from the people at NESTA.

The Creative Enterprise Toolkit brings together the expertise developed by NESTA for their Scotland based Starter For Six programme that supports creative entrepreneurs North of the Border.  Designed to help creative people turn their good ideas into good business ideas the package is available free here and essential reading for anyone looking to make their creativity their living.

Killer (Re)Released

Staying on a musical theme there’s great news for all fans of UK hip hop with the revalation that two of the men that shaped the culture from behind the scenes are hooking up to re-release a forgotten classic.

Andy Cowan, the man behind the world’s first rap monthly HHC, and DJ/producer/music manager Greg Wilson, have joined forces to re-release the Killer album, the highly regarded magnum opus of Hulme’s finest – the Ruthless Rap Assassins.  Cowan, formerly editor in chief of the now all digital UK hip hop mag, has stepped away from the magazine publishing world to focus his love for hip hop more directly on keeping the culture alive by starting up specialist music label Original Dope.

An imprint of Cherry Red Records, who have previously helped out Curated Place on the Hacienda exhibition, Original Dope’s raison d’être is a dedication to preserving the legacy of the best hip-hop music on the planet, with a strong emphasis on classic British rap and lost American standards.

20 years on from the original unleashing of the Assassin’s debut album, Killer will be re-issued in all of it’s glory as the first Original Dope release, with the distinct possibility of the crew making a series of rare live appearances to celebrate the occasion.  Definitely a must have album for any fan of UK hip hop, the album also deserves a place in all serious music collector’s racks as the defining work from a crew officially recognised as the UK’s most successful least successful British chart artists ever (charting twice at no.75 for just one week).

The Ruthless Rap Assassins Killer Album 20th anniversary re-issue will be released in September 2o1o on Original Dope records (catalogue number ODOPE1001)

Musical interlude

Great combination of hi-fi acoustics from mancunian musical outfit This Morning Call and touching lo-fi stop motion visuals from up-coming photographer and film-maker Lisa Risbec in their new video.

Haunting tune and loving Lisa’s accompanying visuals that tap into the darkness of European folk-tales and mythology over polished and sweetened US influenced animation that saturates the mainstream.  Nice atmospheric touch to see everything looking like it’s been shot on a hand-cranked camera too.

What is interior design?

Tomorrow night the Whitworth Art Gallery’s Adult Programme hosts MMU course leader and author of the book “What is Interior Design“,  Graeme Brooker, as part of their Adult Programme talks series.  Greame will be discussing how we design our interior spaces and the traps and stereotypes we fall into.

True to their ambitions to open the gallery to everyone the whole event is free with complementary drinks on offer from 6pm, before the talks kick off at 6.30pm.

Email ed.watts@manchester.ac.uk to find out more or just show up tomorrow at the gallery from 6.

Rethinking Homes, Rethinking Regeneration – Urbis Research Forum Podcast 1

Last Monday Curated Place attended the latest Urbis Research Forum as it settles into its new home at the University of Manchester.

Bringing together academics, professionals and the people on the ground the forum aims to bridge the gap left by institutionalised discussions of Urban space which consistently only brings these groups together on opposite sides of the table.

Over the next few months I’ll be working with Mark Rainey, the man behind the Research Forum to try and spread what they’re doing a little further afield by recording and producing podcasts of the seminars, publishing the results here until we sort out proper hosting. here.

The latest outing, Rethinking Homes, Rethinking Regeneration, brought together Salford University based regeneration officer and academic Antony Lockley and Chair of the Grove Village Residents Association, David Tomlinson, to discuss the importance of consulting with residents in the redevelopment process of inner city housing.

We’ll be posting every outing of the forum on here but to automatically keep up to date with the forum you can subscribe to the feed by going to The Urbis Research Forum Podcast Feed and clicking the “subscribe in itunes” link on the right.

The Modern Lesbian – Project Launch

In the midst of pulling together HomeGrown: The Story of UK Hip Hop Curated Place ended up in the unusual position of also starting out research into what would have been the definitive exploration of the history of Gay Rights and the story of Manchester’s legendary Gay Village for an exhibition opening in August this year.  Timing was crucial, with 2010 welcoming in the 20th Manchester Pride festival and the 10th year of the incredibly influential LGF, this year made perfect sense for the remarkable story to come to light.

Sadly, following the closure of Urbis, we found ourselves in the position where all of the initial research had been done, we knew we had a great story to tell and we had the support of the majority of the significant players in the tale, but we’d lost a venue that was willing to engage with the hidden history of Britain and all of the logistical support that comes with it.  However, rather than call it a day, we picked up the pieces that we already had in place, called in the people we already knew wanted to get their story out there and decided to take forward just one under recognised strand of the tale rather than let an important part of history go ignored again.

This week we’re launching, in earnest, the project that is happening as a result of our dedication to exploring the fringes of contemporary culture, The Modern Lesbian.  We’re excited to be able to bring one of the most casually overlooked, yet most influential strands of our contemporary world to the fore.  Taking the form of a 2 week pop-up exhibition, thanks to the support of 52 Princess Street and Manchester Pride, The Modern Lesbian is an audio and photographic exploration of the impact of gay and bisexual women on the cultural, social and commercial landscape of contemporary Manchester, tracing how their position at the fringe of the fringes has nonetheless impacted radically on the mainstream.

The exhibition features as a key event in this year’s Manchester Pride Fringe and, whilst everyone is welcome, we’re inviting gay and bisexual women coming to Manchester over the Big Weekend (28th-30th August) to add their voices and image to an extended project (which will contribute to a special event over the next 12 months) by having their photograph taken by artist Rachel Adams at our open studio event within the exhibition space.

This weekend I sat down with Rachel to discuss why she wanted to carry out the project, why the story being told is so important and what it’s like shooting a 70 year old lesbian dominatrix who isn’t shy on the details. Listen here now.

The Modern Lesbian exhibition takes place at 52 Princess Street, Manchester, M1 6JX from 21st August – 4th September 10am-5pm weekdays, 12pm-5pm weekends.

The Open Studio Event is happening at 52 Princess Street on the 28th-30th August from 12pm-5pm.

Women who want to be involved can sign up at www.themodernlesbian.co.uk now or you can jump to the first interview here:  Jackie Crozier, Pride Director.

Jeremy Deller’s Procession passes through Manchester one more time

Last night the People’s History Museum became the latest in a line of organisations to be associated with Jeremy Deller’s Procession – the 2009 Manchester International Festival commission that sought to bring together people across Greater Manchester by taking over Deansgate for a bizarre hybrid event that brought together an American Style Parade with the Northern tradition of the Whit Walks.

The 2004 Turner Prize winner was back in town to launch the Cornerhouse books Procession publication that will imminently be available online, in their own bookshop and possibly via other good arts literature merchants.

I got the chance to catch a quick interview with Mr Deller to see what his thinking was behind the parade and what he thought the impact of the event had been, before bringing him down by asking about what his outlook is for the arts now that all the money’s gone. As ever you can listen here.

While Deller’s connection with the legacies of the project seem focussed on recording with Steel Harmony (who also got the well deserved opportunity to perform with Hot Chip at Glastonbury this year as a result of their Procession appearance), it’s fair to say the original event ignited something, for a moment, in the gathered people of Greater Manchester.  Not least with the City Council who made a wholesale carbon copy of the idea with this years inaugural Manchester Day Parade.

Deller’s original proved to be a wonderfully bizarre experience that whipped up people into a state of excitement and anticipation, only to leave them somewhat confused as to how to behave once the parade had passed – a state enhanced by the fact that the collection of heavily branded outlets normally attracted by such a public project were conspicuous in their absence.  It was in this disoriented moment of post-paradus, without a fully realised retail or commecrial agenda to pick up the pieces, that the intrinsic Britishness of the spectators came out as they returned to their inconspicuous meanderings and browsings socially encoded into how one experiences the city centre.  I can’t help but think that anywhere else in the world this would have led to people mingling with others that had just engaged in the same unusual shared experience and perhaps embrace the opportunity to make new friends, but unfortunately, through engrained habit, the opportunity was lost.

Somehow I can’t see this beautiful state of flux being allowed to remain, and perhaps eventually provide a space to change public behaviour for the better, in future iterations of the Manchester Day parade if it is to be considered sustainable by a cash-strapped council.  Sad really.  I just hope they start to include Shriners.

Jeremy Deller’s Process (ISBN 9780955047848) is available now from Cornerhouse publications priced £12.95.