Prepare To Be Dazzled
Sir Peter Blake’s Dazzle Ferry set sail today off the banks of the River Mersey. Heather Garner found her sea legs and discovered a joyous — and ever-so-slightly bonkers — artwork that brings history...
Nick Bagnall’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream — Reviewed
Jospeh Viney gives new associate director Nick Bagnall top marks for setting his adaptation in the confines of a public school… Would it be trite to say that Nick Bagnall’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream...
Picture The Poet — Reviewed
How do you aesthetically capture the poet’s imagination? Leanne Rimmer visits the National Portrait Gallery’s touring exhibition in Preston to find out… On arrival at the Harris Museum to see Picture the Poet, my...
‘The Invisible Hand’ Of Group Therapy: Mental Distress In A Digital Age
Helping hands, hands to hold, and being in the wrong hands: Deborah Laing finds a reoccurring theme in FACT’s new exhibition about metal distress that leads her into a simultaneously unsettling and empowering environment… FACT’s new exhibition Group...
#BeACritic With Tim Marlow! Applications Now Open
Serious about becoming a published arts writer? We announce Round Two of our annual competition – with the Royal Academy’s Tim Marlow — and ask you to step up and #BeACritic… We are...
Federation House Says Goodbye, One Year On
One year since Federation House became the largest of Castlefield Gallery’s New Art Spaces to date, its occupants were given notice to vacate to make way for new tenants. Nichola Jacques addresses the unfortunate,...
The Big Interview: Joanna Moorhead On Leonora Carrington
Who better to talk about Surrealist painter Leonora Carrington than her cousin, the Guardian’s Joanna Moorhead? Here, Deborah Laing asks the writer about Carrington’s rich and turbulent life, her relationships, and her legacy…...
The Age Of Earthquakes: A Guide To The Extreme Present
‘Planet Earth needs a self-help book, and this is it.’ Mike Pinnington talks to author, writer and editor Shumon Basar about his new book, The Age of Earthquakes, and why the future is...
Torque Symposium #2: An Act of Reading — Reviewed
How do we read and why? Analysing the act through a broad spectrum of media theory, philosophy, literature studies and neuroscience, Grace Harrison considers the idea of language as art form, political tool and “collective force”…...