Manchester Art Gallery
Mosley Street
Manchester
Greater Manchester
M2 3JL
England
Website
r.fitzgerald@manchester.gov.uk
Telephone
Information desk
0161 235 8888
Textphone
0161 235 8893
Fax
0161 235 8899
0161 235 8805
Here you'll find everything from fine art to a Levi jeans chair. Manchester Art Gallery's world class collection spans six centuries and contains over 25,000 items.
Winner of Large Visitor Attraction of the Year 2008 in the Manchester Tourism Awards and shortlisted for the Guardian Family Friendly Award, Manchester Art Gallery has something for everyone.
Regularly changing exhibitions, an award winning cafe and a gallery shop mean that you can pop in for 10 minutes, or spend a whole day there. You don't have to like everything inside. And you don't need to be an expert to enjoy a visit.
Manchester Art Gallery. Enjoy. Discover. Relax.
This gallery has a Designated Collection of national importance.
Venue Type:
Gallery
Part of a Designated Collection of Fine and Decorative Art, which you can also see at Wythenshawe Hall and Heaton Hall, is on display here. Please contact Manchester Art Gallery for more information if you wish to see a specific item.
Manchester Art Gallery is renowned for its collections of fine and decorative art, including internationally famous Pre-Raphaelite paintings and significant holdings of English ceramics. The Art Gallery re-opened in 2002 after a £35 million expansion which doubled the amount of display space available.
Famous for its impressive collection of Pre-Raphaelite paintings, the gallery houses works by Hunt, Rosetti, Madox Brown and Burne-Jones among others. However, all periods are covered, including what’s happening now.
Collection details
Fine Art, Decorative and Applied Art, Archaeology
Key artists and exhibits
- Designated Collection
Focal Points: Art and Photography
Photography is at the heart of some of the most significant works of art of our times.
This new display of around 30 photographs explores just some of the different ways contemporary artists have used photography in their work. It reveals how they have used the camera to explore traditional artistic themes in new and exciting ways.
Taken from the 1980s onward, the photographs explore the body, reinvent still-life, examine our cultural identities and explore the places where we live, work and spend our leisure time. The artworks often find ways of making the familiar strange and the ugly beautiful.
The display features work by influential photographer Keith Arnatt, famous British artist Helen Chadwick, Turner Prize nominee Catherine Yass and Young British Artists such as Sarah Lucas and Jane and Louise Wilson.
It also includes a number of photographic works collected by the Gallery over the last 10 years, with support from the Contemporary Art Society’s Special Collection scheme. By artists including Craigie Horsfield, Cornelia Parker and Thomas Demand, these works explore the themes of photography and sculpture and the connections between the two. They are the inspiration for this photography display.
The photographs in this display come from the collections of Manchester City Galleries, The Arts Council Collection at The Southbank Centre, London and other lenders.
Suitable for
- Family friendly
Admission
Free.
Website
http://www.manchestergalleries.org/whats-on/exhibitions/index.php?itemID=91
Highlights tour
Meet your guide in the atrium on the ground floor for this free tour.
Each guide selects their own highlights so if you enjoy today's tour you can join a different guide on another day.
Highlights tours take place every Thursday, Saturday and Sunday 2-4pm. Free, there’s no need to book.
Look out for Focus Tours on the first weekend of every month looking at themes and special interest areas.
Our visitors say:
"I wasn't expecting to enjoy a guided tour so much. I looked at things I wouldn't have stopped at and learned so much! The guide was really knowledgeable and had a sense of humour with it."
"I've been to more than one tour. The guides personalise them so it's not like they're just reading from a script. They seem to really love what they are talking about."
Suitable for
- Any age
When
2-3pm
Admission
Free
Tour: Art Between the Wars
Curator Kate Jesson leads this tour of Art Between the Wars, an exhibition of modernist paintings from Manchester Art Gallery’s collection. The tour will be supported with audio description of each art work by Anne Hornsby.
Meet in the historic foyer at the entrance to Manchester Art Gallery on Mosley Street.
Places are limited, please book:
Suitable for
- Any age
When
10:30am-12pm
Admission
Free, booking essential. Email magevents@manchester.gov.uk
Phone Kate Day on 0161 2358855
We kindly ask that you only book if you are blind or visually impaired or attending with a blind or visually impaired person as places are very limited.
Great Escapes
Inspired by the theme of escape in our British Art Between the Wars exhibition, artists Katy and Michiko will help you to make your own creative haven in the gallery.
Play with paper, scissors and stones to create real and unreal worlds.
Drop-in session from 12 til 4.
Suitable for
When
1-4pm
Admission
Free
Great Escapes
Inspired by the theme of escape in our British Art Between the Wars exhibition, artists Katy and Michiko will help you to make your own creative haven in the gallery.
Play with paper, scissors and stones to create real and unreal worlds.
Drop-in session from 12 til 4.
Suitable for
When
1-4pm
Admission
Free
Light Catchers
Use all of your senses as we search for textures and colours around the gallery then listen to music whilst you drip and dab paint onto huge light-flooded panels. Plus make your own see-through painting to take home.
Free, drop in event, no need to book. Suitable for families with children age 0-11
Suitable for
When
1-4pm
Admission
Free
Light Catchers
Use all of your senses as we search for textures and colours around the gallery then listen to music whilst you drip and dab paint onto huge light-flooded panels. Plus make your own see-through painting to take home.
Free, drop in event, no need to book. Suitable for families with children age 0-11
Suitable for
When
1-4pm
Admission
Free
Light Catchers
Use all of your senses as we search for textures and colours around the gallery then listen to music whilst you drip and dab paint onto huge light-flooded panels. Plus make your own see-through painting to take home.
Free, drop in event, no need to book. Suitable for families with children age 0-11
Suitable for
When
1-4pm
Admission
Free
Light Catchers
Use all of your senses as we search for textures and colours around the gallery then listen to music whilst you drip and dab paint onto huge light-flooded panels. Plus make your own see-through painting to take home.
Free, drop in event, no need to book. Suitable for families with children age 0-11
Suitable for
When
1-4pm
Admission
Free
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