HOME Manchester — Attraction in Manchester

Home Manchester – A great hub showcasing modern art

What is Home Manchester?

Home is a modern art space in the heart of Manchester. It includes a number of Gallery spaces, a cinema, theatres, a café and a restaurant.

They hold a varied programme of Art Exhibitions each year highlighting a number of key issues to the public such as Science, Climate Change, Animals, Home, Poverty and more.]

Current Exhibitions

As part of their Spring 2023 programme there are currently 3 different exhibitions and they are as follows:

Nick Jordan: Natural Interaction

Chris Paul Daniels: Is there anybody there?

Parham Ghalamdar: Painting, An Unending

Nick Jordan: Natural Interaction

Natural Interaction is an exhibition that explores the interdependencies between healthcare and social wellbeing. It looks at health conditions with symbiotic systems that are found in nature.

The Exhibition emphasises these issues in different ways including drawings and sculptures. It also features a series of films which are:

Rare Frequencies

Genetic Sequences

The Entangled Forest

This was an excellent exhibition as the artwork beautifully highlighted these important issues through the use of forests, botanical gardens and woodlands. They are full of detail and they transport you to that environment.

The mushroom spore prints as a family tree and the green house were also incredible and unique. How Nick uses objects to connect with the issues of green spaces and climate change is something that is done immaculately with a lot of detail and thought.

Chris Paul Daniels: Is there anybody there?

This artistic film explores notion of individual and collective memory, how it is created, by whom and whose stories, identities and cultures are missing.

It is a film that is thought provoking that is not showcased in a chronological order which can make you thinks but also can make you feel dizzy. It was also accompanied by a lovely musical score.

Parham Ghalamdar: Painting, An Unending

This Exhibition was exquisite to watch as the artist used different ways to create his drawings which included oil, ceramics and animation. His art is from the heart in which you are instantly connected to his ideas of politics, community, identity and migration.

The highlights of this exhibition was the tent in a 15th Century Fresco and the vases featured in the 11th Century poems of Omar Khayyam. The way that he uses colour and objects together to create his art is effortless and he creates a scene that is eye catching to look at.

Entry

Entry to the Gallery spaces are free and you do not need to book online. For the cinema and theatre then booking online or via phone is necessary.

Facilities

Home Manchester has a café that serves a great selection of hot and cold drinks. There is also a good variety of food on offer too.

There are toilets at the venue too.

Lighting and Access

The lighting in the Gallery spaces were decent to which you could see the paintings and sculptures however the Is there anybody there film video was in a dark room in order to create an ambience that is similar to a cinema room.

There are no steps to enter the building. Most of the Gallery space is on the ground floor which makes things easy as there are no stairs or lifts needed. There are stairs or lifts to access the other facilities on the other floors.

Parking

Home Manchester has its own parking at the back of the building which is multi-storey. You will need to take a ticket and pay for the parking. This is also the case for Blue Badge holders. Alternatively you can park elsewhere that is pay and display which is free for those with a Blue Badge.

If you love looking at art that is modern, innovative and contemporary then Home Manchester is the...

Used to be way better than it is at the moment. Manchester definitely needs a place like this, which champions and celebrates independent cinema from all over the world rather than just mainstream cinema that will easily be forgotten in no time.

However, for the last few months my interest for the movies being screened in HOME are hitting new lows. From my view, it's been ages that most of the films are either coming of age/mainstream movies that can be seen elsewhere/LGBT content movies (Obviously I don't have anything at all against LGBT characters or stories but isn't it a bit too much already? I have had so many deja vu's about same stories being told countless times? Maybe this is an unpopular opinion, but it is what it is?). And now the last trend in HOME; screening restorations from films from the 80's/90's? Mostly old movies? Obviously there are so many great movies directed 20/30/40/last century but honestly; with this cost of living crisis, who in their right mind would spend 8/9/10 pounds in a film that can easily be found online? For the last months it's obvious that this place is not screening as much movies from abroad, from the non-speaking english as it used to do. For instance; what happened to the VIVA festival, which was long established from many years ago? Even though they were screening spanish-speaking movies that I had mostly already watched, still the curators who were in place back in the day managed to pick interesting films that I hadn't seen before. To sum it up; there are so, soooo many great movies directed, being released and produced from abroad that HOME is already overlooking, and this didn't use to happen. It is obvious there have been a change in the curators in charge of picking which movies are being screen in HOME, and this change hasn't been for the better at all.

On top of that, the service at the bar is absolutely appalling; apart from the cakes of choice on offer now (which are way simpler than before, not quite good looking and obviously more expensive, 4 pounds for a slice...) the bar staff attitude is careless to put it softly. I went to the bar on wednesday morning for a slice of cake around 11 40 AM as I had to sent a few emails. Apart from the sticky table (sticky table not even in the afternoon, it just speaks volumes...), I took a slice of cake and, in the station aside, I noticed there were no spoons for the cake (who would eat a slice of a cake with fork and a knife, honestly???) so, when asking for a tea spoon, I was told "there are forks and knives in the station" by a short lady with dark hair in not a friendly fashion. Only a short, black woman with dark hair bothered to get me a tea spoon. Obviously I wasn't expecting a fine dining experience but maybe even in an average, lousy Spoons you'd get a better service.

To sum it up; so, sooo much room for improvement in HOME in so many ways. Hopefully things will change so HOME will be the place...

A strange venue. From the outside, it looks like a restaurant - with nothing overtly indicating that it is also a 5-screen cinema plus two theatre spaces. Even once you are inside, you would really have had to have done your homework on what's on there. I attended to watch a play, but planned my visit to take advantage of the eating facilities - of which there are two. One is on the ground floor, and has a rather chaotic feel to it and, for some reason, not all of the menu is available to eat downstairs. The main menu is only available on the first floor, which is laid out more formally. There were many empty tables here, but access to them was rather zealously guarded by a man who obviously didn't want his nice, tidy restaurant being messed up by the likes of me! As it was a nice day, I chose to sit outside, where there are plenty of tables, which are also sheltered from any showers thanks to the overhang of the building above. The food was of reasonable quality, and priced in line with what I would expect to pay elsewhere. It arrived in good time, but I was surprised to receive it in a takeaway box. I was told that, if I wanted cutlery, I would have to go and fetch it myself. The theatre hosting the performance I went to see was a black box studio-style space, with a large performance area. The seating - for about 100 people - was slightly raked, and would, I imagine, offer reasonably good sight lines. However, it is formed of benches - not individual seats - and cannot be booked beforehand. Comfort was not brilliant but, thankfully, the production I saw was only 70 minutes and was sufficiently engaging to make the 70 minutes pass quickly. There were plenty of helpful volunteers on-hand to assist audience members. The venue is easy to get to, with car parks close-by and the Castlefields tram stop and mainline station about 100 metres away. One final thing of note is that the venue's name; "Home", is not the most search engine-friendly choice, with the word "home" being too generic to produce good results easily. All-in-all, whilst not a terrible venue, I would need a very compelling reason to make a...