Arty Stuff

It's been an arty week.

Castlefield Gallery fundraising auction on Wednesday night was fabulous night, and well over £30,000 was raised, thanks to the generosity of all the artists donating work. I came home (not yet, got to pick it up!) with a lovely Jim Medway painting.

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Last night at the Contact Theatre the whole building was taken over by artists, for a "24 Arty People" - a 24 hour spontaneous artistic collaboration, where 24 artists met from 10pm the previous evening and developed new works together around the theme of "sleep" and "sleeplessness" - appropriately. The audience were ushered around the building from performance to performance and it had some of the fractured dreaminess of a sleepless night about it. From short immersive theatre pieces to more cerebral performances, it was a fascinating evening where you had to let yourself into the dreamlike spirit of things. Videos of the various perfomers from earlier can be found here.

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I missed the launch of the major new exhibition of West African Art, We Face Forward, but already hearing great things about it - so will try and get to see it shortly - it takes place throughout the city.

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I've a busy few weeks, but finding some creative time at next weekend's Manchester book market, where I'll be reading on the Saturday afternoon after 3pm.

But if you're in Manchester Friday or Saturday then pop into St. Ann's Square for some book browsing and some readings.