Making art in Manchester
Making art in Manchester
Making art in Manchester
Making art in Manchester
Are you interested in attending a life-drawing class through Zoom? Maybe you would enjoy the opportunity to show your work at the Fletcher Moss Parsonage in Didsbury? Or maybe you would just like to know more about one of Manchester's most venerable institutions? Friend of the Whitworth, Jane Cabot introduces us to the Manchester Graphic Club.
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One of the country’s oldest-established amateur art societies, Manchester Graphic Club (MGC) was one of several clubs founded in 1876 at the Athenaeum to counter Manchester’s reputation for exclusive interest in hard-headed business and hard-hearted industry. Ruskin thought art could never flourish in such a setting but a handful of Manchester worthies were determined to nurture local talent and aspiration.
Now the Athenaeum is part of the City Art Gallery and the clubs have lost their studios, meeting rooms and theatre but a few of them still survive: the Chess Club, the Dramatic Society and the Graphics. The Art Gallery has recently renewed its support for amateur creativity with an annual exhibition showing work from several groups and in hosting Grayson Perry’s delightful collection of work by unknown and mainly untrained artists.
Patrons of MGC have included LS Lowry and Emmanuel Levy, Chorlton designed its emblem and badge and Augustus John contributed to its Annual Exhibition. The current Patron is Ghislaine Howard. In the past, wealthy patrons would invite sketching parties to their estates and members would leave their George Street studio to draw interesting scenes at the docks. This year, while face-to-face meetings have been impossible, the club has lost its more comfortable Chorlton studio but has continued online, drawing models who are skilful at exploiting the possibilities of ‘Zoom’-posing – a fascinating extension of the life-class.
The club’s next exhibition will be at the Fletcher Moss ‘Parsonage’ in Didsbury from January 9th to 30th, 2022. If any reader is interested in showing work, it is only necessary to become a member and submit some examples to the Committee. Annual subscriptions cost £25 and admit adults (students at discount) to 30 sessions with occasional workshops and sketching trips. The programme can resume once a studio has been found in October. Meanwhile, online drawing continues and has the advantage of including members from outside Manchester and even outside the UK.
Applications for membership can be obtained from the Secretary : [email protected] and specimens of work are welcomed on Instagram at manchestergraphicclub.
Are you interested in attending a life-drawing class through Zoom? Maybe you would enjoy the opportunity to show your work at the Fletcher Moss Parsonage in Didsbury? Or maybe you would just like to know more about one of Manchester's most venerable institutions? Friend of the Whitworth, Jane Cabot introduces us to the Manchester Graphic Club.
________________________________________________
One of the country’s oldest-established amateur art societies, Manchester Graphic Club (MGC) was one of several clubs founded in 1876 at the Athenaeum to counter Manchester’s reputation for exclusive interest in hard-headed business and hard-hearted industry. Ruskin thought art could never flourish in such a setting but a handful of Manchester worthies were determined to nurture local talent and aspiration.
Now the Athenaeum is part of the City Art Gallery and the clubs have lost their studios, meeting rooms and theatre but a few of them still survive: the Chess Club, the Dramatic Society and the Graphics. The Art Gallery has recently renewed its support for amateur creativity with an annual exhibition showing work from several groups and in hosting Grayson Perry’s delightful collection of work by unknown and mainly untrained artists.
Patrons of MGC have included LS Lowry and Emmanuel Levy, Chorlton designed its emblem and badge and Augustus John contributed to its Annual Exhibition. The current Patron is Ghislaine Howard. In the past, wealthy patrons would invite sketching parties to their estates and members would leave their George Street studio to draw interesting scenes at the docks. This year, while face-to-face meetings have been impossible, the club has lost its more comfortable Chorlton studio but has continued online, drawing models who are skilful at exploiting the possibilities of ‘Zoom’-posing – a fascinating extension of the life-class.
The club’s next exhibition will be at the Fletcher Moss ‘Parsonage’ in Didsbury from January 9th to 30th, 2022. If any reader is interested in showing work, it is only necessary to become a member and submit some examples to the Committee. Annual subscriptions cost £25 and admit adults (students at discount) to 30 sessions with occasional workshops and sketching trips. The programme can resume once a studio has been found in October. Meanwhile, online drawing continues and has the advantage of including members from outside Manchester and even outside the UK.
Applications for membership can be obtained from the Secretary : [email protected] and specimens of work are welcomed on Instagram at manchestergraphicclub.
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