For a while now, all roads have led to Manchester

Jeremy Deller, Turner Prize winning artist, one of those commissioned for this year’s Manchester International Festival, and also, as it happens, a Best of Manchester judge, had this to say a few weeks ago:

‘For me for some time now, all roads have been leading to Manchester. I have been so inspired by the industrial and musical heritage of this town.’

Deller, who is creating a procession down Deansgate as part of MIF, went on to say that his new work was ‘a love letter’ to Manchester.

But none love this dirty old town as much as the people who live and work here, eh? So, now’s the time to show Deller (and all the other BOMA judges) what Manchester is, creatively-speaking, made of.

This is your 4-week warning to get your entries in to the Best of Manchester Awards. Entries close on 1 May. You don’t have long.

Enter now.

An image of 'Procession' by Jeremy Deller (copyright Tim Sinclair)

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The anticipation is almost too much to bear

We like to think we’ve been busy here at BOMA Towers, but our efforts are nothing in comparison to what the Manchester International Festival lot have been up to. Not only have they managed to raise a staggering £3.1 million in sponsorship (has no one told them there’s a recession on?), they’ve also lined up what promises to be a best-yet series of performances, events, gigs, debates, installations and, er, bingo for this year’s festival.

Details of some events have already gone on sale – and give a taster of what we can expect. They include Rufus Wainwright’s debut opera, Prima Donna, and, over at Manchester Art Gallery, a strange fusion of jaw-dropping architecture and the music of Bach. What are we going on about? International architectural practice, Zaha Hadid, is in the process of creating a visually and acoustically perfect pod. This pod will sit inside the main exhibition space at the Art Gallery and would, in itself, be worthy of a visit. During the festival, however, three internationally acclaimed musicians will perform Bach’s solo instrumental works from inside it. It’s this ability to leap across boundaries, in this case architecture and classical music, in Wainright’s case, opera and contemporary music, that makes MIF so, well, Mancunian.

Tickets for the opera and chamber music events are selling out fast. And, if they don’t tickle your fancy, the full MIF programme will be unveiled later this month. Rumour has it that one of our BOMA judges, the Turner Prize winning artist, Jeremy Deller, is working with MIF this year. We’re keeping everything crossed that the rumour turns out to be true – Deller is one of the most exciting artists working in Britain today.

Image shows what we might expect from the Zaha Hadid installation at Manchester Art Gallery…

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Something for everyone

The world has gone competition crazy. From (lowbrow) Britain’s Got Talent to the (highbrow) Turner Prize, talent shows are spreading across Britain’s creative consciousness like they’re catching.

In Manchester, Cathedral Gardens is gearing up to host the 24-hour ‘conversation’ that is the Tony Wilson Experience. On Midsummer’s Eve, a clutch of young creatives will get the chance to debate, learn and question big-name media, music and design stars. This lucky, lucky audience of 200 only got in on the action by uploading their ‘inspired moment’ via the TWE website. (Presumably, whoever was most inspired woke up one morning to find an invite sitting suggestively on their doormat.)

There are, as yet, no plans to release the winning inspired submissions, and what arrangements there are for the event itself remain deliberately sketchy. But that’s the point: interesting, experimental things need space to grow, and TWE is simply a space, some time and a group of people who may or may not come up with something profound to say.

Elsewhere, the Noise festival, a bi-annual creative shindig with roots in Manchester, is well underway.

And then, of course, there are the Best of Manchester awards. Possibly the only creative talent show not aimed solely at the youth of today, it’s designed to showcase the talents of those who’ve spent a few years or more grafting at the coalface of the creative industries. (And to give people whose work is impossible to categorise a place where their creative endeavours can shine.)

So what links these creative competitions? Peter Saville. It was he who dreamed up the Tony Wilson Experience and he’s a judge for both Noise and the Best of Manchester. Peter is also creative director to the city of Manchester, runs his own studio, is creative consultant to Manchester International Festival and, oh, a million other things. Suffice to say, he’s a busy man. So lucky us that he’s made the time to preside over the Best of… competition, and lucky you if he ends up judging your work.

(For the record, Peter doesn’t have anything at all to do with Britain’s Got Talent or the Turner Prize, but if Simon Cowell or Nick Serota would like his email address we’d be happy to oblige…)

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