Artists Rooms, an exhibition of striking sculptures by acclaimed artist Ron Mueck starts in Manchester on Thursday 4th February 2010. On show are Wild Man (2005), Spooning Couple (2005) and Mask III (2005).

The exhibition, takes place at Manchester Art Gallery, (Mosley Street, Manchester M2 3JL) and lasts from Thursday 4 February to Sunday 11 April 2010. Entry to the exhibition is free.

Find out more at the galleries website, here.

Examples of Mueck’s work can be found on this You Tube video.

Portraits for Posterity is a project begun by Jacki Reason and Jan Marsh, in 2007. In order to reach their goal they were joined by professional photographer Matt Writtle. Together, they had one simple goal – to photograph survivors of the Holocaust living in Britain today and by doing so make a lasting record for generations to come.

Pictures from their collection have been displayed elsewhere in the country but this is the first time they have been on display in Manchester.

Portraits for Posterity’s exhibition in Manchester Town Hall, starts on Wednesday 27th January and has been timed to coincide with Holocaust Memorial Day 2010. The exhibition consists of a series of photographs of survivors of the Holocaust, who are now resident in Manchester. Each portrait is accompanied by a short biography.

The exhibition runs from Wednesday 27th January to Saturday 20th February 2010. It will be located in the Sculpture Hall in Manchester Town Hall (Albert Square, Manchester, M60 2LA) and entrance is free.

The project’s website can be found at PortraitsforPosterity.com and London based photographer Matt Writtle’s website can be found here.

Manchester is rightfully proud of The Urbis (Cathedral Gardens, Manchester, M4 3BG). However, it has been decided that the Urbis is now going to house the National Football Museum. There are plans to close the Urbis from around February 2010 to refit it to host the new Museum. If things go to plan the Museum will open in 2011 and the current exhibitions will remain on display until Feb 2010. So, there is still time to see some of the great exhibitions on display. Here are three that are definitely worth visiting, with some YouTube videos of the exhibitions………………

Home Grown:The Story of UK Hip Hop,
Chronicles the development of the UK Hip Hop scene.

Manchester, Television & The City: Ghosts of Winter Hill
A celebration of Manchester’s Television past, present and future, investigating the cultural impact of Television on the city and the people who live here.

Curry Mile
Located in ‘The Corridor’ (situated between the foyer and the shop)
An exhibition capturing the colour, excitement and spice of Manchester’s famous district, Rusholme.

All of these exhibitions are free………….

Manchester has always been a city known for its science and technology. The Manchester Science Festival, which takes place this year from Saturday, 24th October to Sunday 1st November 2009, is a great opportunity to find out more about science in an entertaining and informative way.

In excess of 150 science related events are planned.

Events are taking place at the Museum of Science and Technology in Manchester (Liverpool Road, Castlefield, Manchester, M3 4FP) as well as locations right across the Greater Manchester area.

Event venues include central Manchester locations such as The John Rylands Library, Deansgate, the Friends Meeting House, Manchester and Manchester’s Urbis. There are also events held in locations further afield such as at The Trafford Centre, Bolton Museum, Aquarium and Archive, the Central Art Gallery, Ashton-under-Lyne and Touchstones, Rochdale.

There are four festival themes in 2009 – Manchesticity, ‘mind and body’, ‘our planet and beyond’ and ‘bright ideas’. This is a varied Festival which includes walks, talks, workshops, shows, comedy and exhibitions – there is plenty of paid for and free events to chose from.

There is a great website to support the event. The site has a searchable database of the 150 kids and adults events that make up the Festival – so you can find one that is at a time and location suitable for you. So don’t delay, and visit the Festival website to find out whats going on.

This is a great way to start off the new year for all motorcycle fans and their friends, partners and families, too!

The organisers promise an…….

“……………….action packed high-octane start to the New Year with everything you would expect and more from the greatest regional bike show……..”

There is something of interest for almost every motorcycle enthusiast and there is a full programme of entertainment planned for each day. The Manchester Bike Show 2010 includes:-

Heart-stopping stunt displays
An Indoor Freestyle Arena
Dealers and dealer approved used bikes
A classic bike and classic scooter display
Motorcycle trials riders like Steve Colley
Demonstrations from Extreme Globe demonstrations by Finland’s Heidi and Mikko
Safe riding advice organisation Ridesafe Backsafe, will be there to arrange a riding assessment
Riders who want to improve their skills will be able to take a free assessments by Stockport School of Motorcycling

………and much, much more.

The event will also have a helmet park and a free bike park.

Admission on the day is £12.00 for Adults and £6.00 for Children and OAPs (There is also an advance ticket hotline.) For more information about the Show and for details about the advance ticket hotline visit the Manchester Bike Show (National Motorcycle Show) website.

The Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair is a high quality craft fair in a city centre location, Spinningfields, just off Deansgate in Manchester.

The Fair is a place where a wide variety of high quality art and craft designers will be selling art and crafts direct to the public (and trade). This large contemporary craft fair will host products from, in the region of 130 – 140 high quality designers. Their products are made using a wide variety of materials and including ceramics, furniture and wood, glass, jewellery, metal ware, mixed media and textiles and leather.

You can browse the wide variety of craft and artwork available and talk to the people involved with making them. Whether you are looking for something special for yourself, someone you know, or something for the home, you will have a wide variety of higher end quality art and craftwork to choose from.

Last years Fair was very successful and organisers plan to build on their success with a new prestigious central location in Manchester’s, Spinning Fields.

There is a Preview Evening on Thursday 22nd October from 6.00pm to 9.30pm and tickets for the evening cost £10.00. The three day Fair commences on Friday 23rd October, and has the following opening hours:-

Friday 23rd October 11.00am – 8.30pm
Saturday 24th October 10.00am – 6.00pm
Sunday 25th October 10.00am – 5.00pm

A one day ‘Single ticket’ is available and is priced at £5 per person. Concessions and group discounts are also available.

Full details of this event are available from the Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair website

The world famous squash tournament, the ATCO British Open Squash Championship will be in held in Manchester from 8th to 14th September, 2009. The British Open has been in existence for more than 80 years and Manchester is proud to host it in 2009.

The competition which lasts from 8th to 14th September features the cream of UK and world wide sporting talent. Top ranking competitors including elite male and female players such as Karim Darwish, Rachael Grinham and Nicol David will take their place amongst other top squash talents in an international line up, to battle it out for the tournament prize.

Some of the early rounds will be held at The Northern, (Palatine Rd, Didsbury, Manchester, M20 3YA), a racket sports venue located in Didsbury, in the south of Manchester. However, the main focus of the action in the later stages of the Open will be the all-glass squash court at the National Squash Centre (Sportcity, Gate 13 Rowsley Street, Manchester M11 3FF) from September 10th, onwards.

For more information about the British Open Squash Championships 2009 and to book tickets for the championship, visit the event website.

CreativeTourist.com describes itself as ‘Manchester’s guide for the creative tourist’, but I think the website will be just as interesting to Manchester’s own arts and culture loving communities, of which there are many.

The website is split into a number of sections including news, features, art, and city guides. There is also a blog, photo-stories, a section called backstory which explains Manchester’s history and an arts news section.

All together I was particularly impressed at the depth and range of arts covered by the site.  The site is developed to a high standard and covers a diverse range of arts media.

The site is edited by journalist Susie Stubbs, who amongst other things, writes the 2008 Manchester Blog Award winning, Travels With My Baby.

Creative Tourist was established by a consortium of 9 museums and galleries who got together to set up a website that promotes Manchester’s creative and artistic soul and its rich historical legacy. The website sums up its aspiration, as follows:-

“”………..We are rightly proud and passionate about this city of ours; we hope that, by reading about some of the things happening here, and finding out more about our outstanding historic collections, you’ll start to feel the same………..”

The nine organisations involved are listed below and they are the most higly respected arts and culture venues in Manchester. They are all well worth including in any visit to the City.

Cornerhouse, Manchester’s centre for contemporary visual arts and film
70 Oxford Street, Manchester, M1 5NH

Imperial War Museum North, The northern venue of this group of museums, located in various parts of England.
The Quays, Trafford Wharf Road, Trafford Park, Manchester M17 1TZ

The Lowry, which includes theatres and an art gallery that includes the work of Salford artist L.S. Lowry
The Lowry, Pier 8, Salford Quays, M50 3AZ

Manchester Art Gallery, possibly Manchester’s best known art gallery
Mosley Street, Manchester M2 3JL

The Manchester Museum, A museum that is part of the University of Manchester
The University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL

Museum of Science & Industry (MOSI), The museum of Manchester’s scientific and industrial past.
Liverpool Road, Castlefield, Manchester, M3 4FP

People’s History Museum, a museum covering the history of working people in Britain, is currently under redevelopment and will reopen in late 2009.

Urbis, Manchester’s innovative exhibition centre of city life.
Urbis, Cathedral Gardens, Manchester, M4 3BG

The Whitworth Art Gallery, shows modern and historic collections.
The University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester M15 6ER

There is a lot to celebrate about Manchester and the arts and cultural scene may well be the best outside London. So a site picking up the best of Manchester’s scene is long overdue.

Although, Creativetourist.com has only been up and running for a short time, it looks like its doing all of the right things.

If you are from Manchester, don’t be put off visiting because the site has been developed for tourists visiting Manchester. The site has lots to offer regardless of whether you are visiting or local.

This is Manchester’s edgier, more down to earth, alternative to the ‘other Festival’ that is on at the same time, and is a celebration of Manchester’s creativity in a whole variety of different fields.

The organisers describe Not Part Of as

………fresh, eclectic, forward-thinking, Mancunian, open; a festival that elicits excellence and provokes thought…..

Looking at the events list you will see that this is certainly true. There are lots of different events on offer. The events programme has loads of opportunities to enjoy arts & crafts, theatrical performances, comedy and theatre – and lots more. Some events are free while others have a relatively modest entry fee.

Venues are mostly in the centre of Manchester and range from such as The Lass O’Gowrie to larger theater venues such as the Great Northern Amphitheater.

Full details of Not Part Of can be found on the festival website NotPartOf.org. You can also find a full listing of all Festival events here, where you will also find a link to download the Festival brochure.

Are you going. Have you been. Why not tell others about it below?