Manchester Art Gallery is more than just a physical place. It’s a digital one, too.
We have our website. There is the Platt Hall website. And we also have this blog. You can visit us through the Bloomberg Connects app. We’re also present on social media, on Facebook, X, Threads, YouTube, Vimeo, and Instagram.
But the Gallery is about so much more than us. It’s about you, the public, too. So, if you don’t know about it already, we’d like to welcome you to the latest site in our digital portfolio, mag_inspired on Instagram.
Edmund, from our Visitor Engagement Team, is the inspiration behind it. Mag_inspired features work inspired by Manchester Art Gallery. While still grounded in the Gallery and its collection, its stars are, as the late, great Leonard Sachs would say, “chiefly yourselves!”
Leonard Sachs in The Good Old Days ©BBC
Edmund has worked at the gallery for over seventeen years. During that time, he has seen many visitors sketching and drawing. “It shows us another way the gallery is being used and how our visitors are engaging with the collection,” he tells us. “As well as a quiet space for contemplation, the gallery is a thriving, active place.”
He wondered if there was a way to highlight our visitors’ art. Not just a space for practicing artists, but a space for all abilities and disciplines to share their creativity. Instagram offered an immediate visual platform, as well as an engaging and accessible space.
The Enchantment of Painting © Rob Pointon, used with the kind permission of the artist
“In my search for artwork, I found a wealth of creativity. There were artists just starting out on their journey and accomplished artists using the gallery as their subject matter,” he tells us. “There was also a range of mediums from oil paints, ink, pencil, and watercolour to embroidery, and glass.” We’ve even had poetry.
“All the contributors to mag_inspired have their own personal connection to the gallery, a story that is unique to them. Since the launch of the site a few months ago, the variety of work submitted really reinforces the idea that the gallery is an ‘Art School for Life’, and a space to celebrate creativity,” Edmund says.
Heatwave, Mosley Street by Rob Pointon, used with the kind permission of the artist
So we asked some of mag-inspired contributors to talk about their experience of the gallery.
Rob Pointon is a street artist who paints en plein air, in the open air, around the city centre, but he found himself struck by the possibilities of the Gallery.
“I thought what a good subject the galleries would be to paint. My first experience of painting inside Manchester Art Gallery was with Adolphe Valette, the master of painting the wintry mists and drizzle that often hang over Manchester.”
“They granted me access to paint inside the Valette and Lowry Room and The Victorian Galleries. I painted the room with a more impressionistic approach, with exaggerated thick air and atmosphere led by the influence of Valette's work. I have painted many pieces inside cathedrals and places of worship in the past and the experience of painting in the hushed gallery, alongside my icons, was a similar experience.”
The Lowry and Valette Room © Rob Pointon, used with the kind permission of the artist
Some contributors aren’t even local. Kate Hill lives 225 miles away. She takes photos of the gallery when she visits her sister in Manchester. She says she feels inspired by the regular reinvention of spaces, and the diversity and apparent randomness of the collections in each room.
“I feel permitted to connect things in my mind, and on paper, that would not be apparent at first glance. I showed this with a couple of sketches I did of 2 visitors I came across one day, who, for all intents and purposes are not related, but in my mind, they became grandmother and granddaughter, and are now muses of mine that will appear from time to time in other works.”
© Kate Hill, used by kind permission of the artist
“All of this makes the space feel inclusive, which is the whole point of a place inspiring creativity, reflection and safety.”
Which is a point Ian Morris makes. “Manchester Art Gallery has always been a source of sanctuary,” he says. It was a place he visited often as an art student. “Not too long ago, I visited the gallery. I was run down and needed to seek solace, let my mind wander, and feel invigorated again. I could pull out my sketchbook, undisturbed and lose myself in the meditative practice of drawing with no outcome for anyone else, except myself. A mental detox. After spending a few hours drawing and returning home, I felt at ease.”
© Ian Morris, used with the kind permission of the artist
But not everybody is a solitary artist. Louise Diggle had been an urban sketcher for years. She travelled to Manchester to join up with the Manchester Urban Sketchers at the Gallery.
Art and Mindfulness © Louise Diggle, used with the kind permission of the artist
“As an artist and art-lover, I spent the day wandering around appreciating the collections, and of course sketching: I sketched vistas through the spaces, I sketched the artworks, I sketched while enjoying a cup of tea and scone in the café, and I sketched the gallery visitors.”
“It never fails to inspire me. Manchester Art Gallery is a wonderful asset for Manchester residents and visitors alike, and with no admission fee and no limit on the length of a visit, it is accessible to everyone. I'll be back there soon!”
One mag_inspired contributor has even had their work exhibited in the gallery. David Tomlinson’s work was part of the Grayson Perry’s Art Club exhibition.
His artistic practice is based around drawing from observation, then reworking these into paintings. He finds the Gallery’s collection and temporary art exhibitions inspiring and says they inform his artistic journey. “I especially enjoy revisiting the paintings of Adolphe Valette and ‘The Scapegoat’ by William Holman Hunt and many others.”
© David Tomlinson, used with the kind permission of the artist
“On one particular visit, I discovered a man having a photo shoot inside the gallery. He was dressed so smartly he looked like an African Prince. I asked if he wouldn’t mind me drawing him and taking a photograph. This was the start. The man in the gallery environment amongst the wonderful artworks sparked an idea and compelled me to create a larger painting.”
Rita Sokolova moved to Manchester from Paris a year ago. Manchester Art gallery was one of the first places she visited. She says some of her most inspiring and fondest memories are associated with it.
“As an art historian, I found the beautiful works of world art here. As an artist, I found an inexhaustible source of inspiration. As a lecturer and researcher of world art, I am fascinated by the cultural programmes that the Gallery organises every week. Finally, as an immigrant originally from Russia, I have found myself among the wonderful multinational volunteers at the Gallery, who have provided me with invaluable friendly support and encouragement. In fact, one of them, Ben, was the one I captured in my sketch during the traditional Friday art talks.”
© Rita Sokolova, used with the kind permission of the artist
“It is no exaggeration to say that the Manchester Gallery has become my ‘place of strength’,” she says. “Today I can say that I have been to all the museums in the city of Manchester, but it is only the Manchester Gallery that I return to again and again almost every week.”
John Hewitt was a tutor at the Manchester School of Art and has introduced many art students to the gallery. “Their tutors asked them to complete various drawing tasks in response to the permanent and temporary exhibitions. The tutors, in turn, gained new and refreshed insights from their students’ creative reactions to the collections.
© John Hewitt, used with the kind permission of the artist
“While many of the works on the gallery walls contain almost cinematic narratives, I find the exterior of the gallery to be equally engrossing and full of incident. From the bottleneck of visitors at the doors to the philosophic inscriptions in the stone facades, from the hanging exhibition banners to the kinetics of the street, the external aspects of the gallery become a hive of activity, interaction, and ideas.”
Manchester Art Gallery has been inspiring artists and thinkers for almost 200 years. We work with Manchester residents to celebrate creative practice as an integral part of everyday life. This is an art school for everybody, and for life – a free and accessible institution for the city and its people.
We believe that art is for everyone and have created this space where visitors inspired by the gallery and its collection can inspire others.
So, if the gallery has inspired you to create works, let mag_inspired know. You can contact Edmund via email at edmund.wakefield@manchester.govuk. But check out our guidance and house rules for submission first.
We look forward to seeing how Manchester Art Gallery has inspired you.
