Cultural Shenanigans

  Spring 2013, and the greenery lavished around Manchester Art Gallery’s entrance, railings and internal balcony belies the often dark and unsettling world of Raqib Shaw’s paintings. The show has now ended, but I wanted to record my thoughts and some of the images which intrigued me so much. Raqib Shaw was born in Calcutta, India [...]

After a mammoth 2011 Weekender, dashing here there and everywhere, I decided to take things at a more sedate pace for 2012. This is also my way of saying I was far too disorganised to properly plan ahead – even with the excellent guide produced by organisers-supreme Creative Tourist, and so missed out on some [...]

December, eh? I’m sure last time I blinked it was October. December is the time for lists. It’s a time for finishing things off and planning the next year. It’s a time for gingerbread lattes, tutting at slow-walking shoppers on Market Street, cradling mugs of over-priced gluhwein in gloved hands and jigging around your kitchen [...]

I was gutted when I read the plans for Creative Tourist’s Manchester Weekender 2011. (Bear with me!). So much great stuff and I was due to be 200 miles away from Manchester that weekend. But then the good folks at All Points North twisted my arm when they asked me to blog about some of [...]

With the opening of this massive show, the first solo show since 1964, Ford Madox Brown makes a dramatic return to Manchester, the city he created one of his greatest works for (a series of 12 murals for the then-new Town Hall) during the 1880s. The exhibition, on the top floor of Manchester Art Gallery [...]