Art Assembly nominated for Manchester Culture Award

An innovative art festival that was co-hosted by The Manchester College and involved our Visual Arts students has been nominated for a Manchester Culture Award.

Art Assembly was a one-day festival in Manchester city centre on 18 June 2022, hosted at various locations across the city including the College’s Shena Simon campus.

Organised by Art Fund with Manchester Art Gallery, Castlefield Gallery, HOME, the Whitworth and The Manchester College, Art Assembly explored how art and culture can shape our understanding of the world with the theme of ‘City as Art School’.

Our Visual Arts students collaborated with established artists to create work for the festival and also showcased their College work at our Shena Simon Campus.

Now, the festival has been nominated for the Made in Manchester Award at the Manchester Culture Awards 2023.

First launched back in 2018 by Manchester City Council to acknowledge the city’s rapidly growing reputation for culture and the arts, the Manchester Culture Awards celebrate the very best of culture and the arts in the city with nominations invited from members of the public, arts professionals, the voluntary and community sector and others.

Over 400 nominations were submitted for the 2023 awards in twelve categories. Art Assembly is up in the Made in Manchester category, which celebrates a physical, digital or other form of creativity that demonstrates the depth of amazing work in the city, particularly art forms that have been less represented in the awards to date.

Maria Foran, Head of Department for Visual Arts, said:

Arts Assembly was a wonderful event that distilled the very best of how art and artists in Greater Manchester can generate outstanding outcomes and experiences for its students and its residents.

"The Manchester College was proud to work with our partners and students from every age to create a dynamic City as Art School on a sunny day in June.”

It’s the second year running that the College’s Visual Arts department has been nominated for a Manchester Culture Award. Last year, Unlock the Love, a Future Creative project with The Manchester College and Manchester Art Gallery, was also a finalist.

The winners of the 2023 awards will be announced at a ceremony at Aviva Studios on Monday 4 December.