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Top Three Art Galleries in Manchester

Looking for the best place to see new and historic artworks? Here’s our three favourite galleries – plus mention of one other that has some exciting things planned for 2014. Manchester Art Gallery This is the grand dame of Manchester’s art scene, a neo-Classical gallery that sits slap-bang in the middle of the city centre. Its monumental frontage, Grade I-listed and designed by the celebrated Victorian architect, Charles Barry, signals that serious art is contained within. And, indeed, once you step through its Corinthian-columned entrance you’re met with a historic collection that boasts some 25,000 objects, paintings and sculptures, from world-renowned Pre-Raphaelite paintings by the likes of Millais and Rossetti to works by the 17th century Dutch masters. But, while it may have an impressive collection, this is one gallery that’s not all about the old. The building was extended in 2002, with a glass-roofed atrium connecting the Victorian building to newer gallery spaces. Now, alongside historic shows, it stages regular contemporary exhibitions, with work and new commissions from some of the biggest names in visual art. Turner Prize winner Jeremy Deller, for example, premiered his All That Is Solid Melts Into Air here in November 2013, while the Portuguese artist Joana Vasconcelos opens an exhibition of new, large-scale sculptural work in February 2014 (until June). The gallery also boasts a decent restaurant and café (with great homemade cakes), is open until 8pm every Thursday, offers hands-on activity packs and workshops for kids - and is our top tip for a calm, cultural respite from the city’s busy, traffic-clogged streets. Manchester Art Gallery, Mosley St, Manchester, Lancashire M2 3JL, Cornerhouse Cornerhouse is something of a Manchester institution. When it first opened in 1985, in the slightly odd, triangle-shaped building it still inhabits, it was the only place in the city you could get a cappuccino. Fast forward three decades and while it has retained its food and drink charms – its second floor café-bar is still one of our favourite places to grab a bite to eat, its floor-to-ceiling windows perfect for a spot of people-watching – it is now better known for its art and film programme. Three floors of gallery space play host to regularly changing exhibitions of new, contemporary visual art, and it’s the only Mancunian picture house whose three screens show arthouse, independent and foreign film. Cornerhouse has also carved out a name for itself thanks to its deliciously unusual festivals, from the VIVA! Spanish and Latin American Film Festival to Abandon Normal Devices, a curious celebration of digital art and film that gives new meaning to the phrase “cutting edge”. But don’t get too comfy in its squashy café sofas - in March 2015, Cornerhouse will close its doors for the very last time before reopening as HOME, a brand new gallery, theatre, cinema and workspace located a little further down Whitworth Street West. Cornerhouse, 70 Oxford St, Manchester M1 5NH Castlefield Gallery Located just on the edge of town, by Deansgate Station and the ever-lovely Castlefield urban heritage park, this small but influential gallery is worth a look. In it, you’ll find work by some of the North’s rising arts stars, working across all mediums and occasionally fresh out of art school. Like Cornerhouse, this gallery has been going in one form or another since the mid-1980s, and was originally run as a place for artists to promote their own and their peers’ work. After a shaky few years (when funding to the gallery was cut entirely), Castlefield Gallery has recently returned to form, showcasing artists who often go on to make their name on the international art circuit – if there’s one place to spot the next big thing in art in Manchester, this is it. In March 2014, the gallery extends its reach via a new, eight-storey contemporary art space at Federation House. In the meantime, head here for a dose of interesting new art (and perhaps also detour to nearby Duke’s 92 - sitting in its south-facing, canal-side courtyard on a sunny day, pint in hand, is one of Manchester’s greatest pleasures). Castlefield Gallery, 2 Hewitt St, Manchester M15 4GB The Whitworth No mention of Manchester’s best art galleries is complete without reference to the Whitworth Art Gallery, the glorious, red brick institution that opens out onto its namesake park. The reason it doesn’t make it into our top three is entirely pragmatic: it is currently closed for a £15m development that will see, among other works, the construction of an entirely new wing. The renewed Whitworth re-opens in September 2014. Whitwort Art Gallery, The University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester M15 6ER @Groupon_UK #grouponguide #Manchester ____ Click to see our deals for art galleries in Manchester.

Manchester's Best Museum and Gallery Shops

Forget Market Street – sometimes the best and most interesting places to shop are found inside museums and galleries. Here are a few of our Manchester favourites. MOSI MOSI, Manchester’s Museum of Science & Industry, does many things well: steam train rides, interactive exhibits and blockbuster shows that somehow manage to combine science, art and discovery in one heady mix. Its on-site shop is stacked with the sort of science-related goodies that make for unusual gifts. After a glow-in-the-dark solar system? Step right this way. How about an instant IQ test, retro train poster or book that explains How Nearly Everything Was Invented? You can get all of these items alongside the usual museum souvenirs, pocket money toys and vintage trinkets – but it’s for the science kits, books and toys that this shop really stands out. MOSI, Liverpool Rd, Castlefield, Manchester M3 4FP Centre for Chinese Contemporary Art The CFCCA has just reached its tenth birthday. Its small spaces showcase new work by artists based both in the UK and across the world. But alongside the art sits a dinky little shop, whose wares – quirky bird brooches, graphic t-shirts and bags, and a range of prints and posters – are mostly produced by the artists that the centre works with. What you buy here will inevitably be limited-edition and handmade, and, although the range isn’t by any stretch extensive, the CFCCA’s proximity to the independent boutiques of the Northern Quarter makes it worth a detour. Centre for Chinese Contemporary Art, Northern Quarter, Manchester M4 1EU Manchester Craft & Design Centre Another Northern Quarter resident is the Manchester Craft & Design Centre. The setting alone is worthy of your attention - the centre is housed inside a former Victorian fish market, around whose glass-roofed central atrium cluster a series of contemporary craft studios. These studios sell everything from original jewellery and accessories to posters, prints, soft furnishings, handmade cards and much more. The café (rather good - homemade cakes worthy of a British Bake Off) and regularly changing exhibitions of work by some of the country’s leading contemporary craftspeople – add up to a shopping experience that’s about as far from the high street as you’re likely to get. Manchester Craft & Design Centre, 17 Oak St, Manchester, Greater Manchester M4 5JD Manchester Art Gallery As well as being one of our favourite galleries, the shop at Manchester Art Gallery has gone from strength to strength in recent years. Alongside the exhibition catalogues, art books, magazines, posters and postcards you might expect of an institution of this size, the shop also stocks a decent range of jewellery and accessories, pocket money toys (perfect for kids whose love of new stuff is greater than their love of art), ceramics, textiles (such as a range of African print-bound books), furniture and a colourful range of children’s art books. The shop is occasionally supplemented by selling exhibitions in the adjacent galleries - December’s Dazzle (annual) is, for example, one of the best places to source jewellery from the UK’s leading designer-maker Manchester Art Gallery, Mosley St, Manchester, Lancashire M2 3JL Join the conversation! @Groupon_UK #grouponguide #Manchester ____ Click to see our deals for Manchester museums.

Hello Mr D'Arcy! Visit the Best Country Homes in Manchester (Including That Famous Fountain!)

Manchester may be best known for its mills and industry (or shops and football, depending on your persuasion), but it is also remarkably rich in historic houses the most famous probably being Lyme Park. Here are three of our favourites – all within striking distance of Manchester city centre.Dunham MasseyFor 300 years the family home of the aristocratic Grey family (distantly related to that Lady Jane Grey), Dunham Massey is far more than a grand country house. While its interiors meticulously document the sometimes tumultuous lives of the various Earls of Stamford who once called it home – the last earl gave the house to the National Trust in 1976 – Dunham is as well known for its formal gardens, expansive parkland (whose herd of fallow deer can be traced back to Norman times) and winter gardens. These latter gardens feature over 25,000 early flowering bulbs - snowdrops, crocuses, daffodils – whose effusive blooms are a cheery sight during those months when all else is bare. Recent developments include a shiny new visitor centre while the house, meanwhile, has been transformed into the Stamford Hospital. This is a recreation of the military hospital Dunham became during WWI and is a humbling reminder, timed to commemorate its 100th anniversary, of just how much the “war to end all wars” affected lives both ordinary and aristocratic. Free entry to parkland; charges apply to house and gardens (free for National Trust members).Tatton ParkOne thing is for sure: you’ll not get bored at Tatton Park. Noble country house? Check. Formal gardens? Uh-huh. 1,000-acre deer park? Roger that. Petting farm, adventure playground, lakes, restaurant and shop? Tatton’s got the lot. Jointly owned by the local council and the National Trust, this place is nothing if not extensive, and it’s one of Cheshire’s most popular attractions as a result. On top of all that, Tatton also hosts some of the biggest flower shows, vintage car rallies and food fairs in the region – which makes it worth checking ahead before a visit, lest you get snarled up in the inevitable hobbyist traffic. Despite the seasonal crowds, though, Tatton’s size makes it easy to find a quiet corner - its Japanese garden or vast deer park offering a slice of tranquility that even the occasional overhead roar of planes coming in to land at nearby Manchester Airport do little to disrupt. Free entry to deer park (charges for cars, including NT members); charges apply to gardens (free for National Trust members). Lyme ParkJane Austen fans: this one is for you. The (in parts) Elizabethan house and formal gardens that form the centerpiece of this National Trust estate played a starring role in the BBC’s adaptation of Pride and Prejudice in 1995. It was this stately old dame that stood in for Pemberley, while its tranquil lake is the spot where Colin Firth set many a female heart a-fluttering (courtesy of a clandestine swim and resulting wet, white shirt). But the appeal of Lyme goes far beyond the period drama. Though the house had its heyday during the Edwardian period, its contents include 600 years’ worth of clocks, books and tapestries, most of which belong to a single family, the Leghs. Its formal gardens, meanwhile, feature neat rose and perennially planted beds, an exotic plant-friendly orangery and a “ravine garden”. But that’s not all. Those with small people in their lives will appreciate the epic Crows Wood adventure playground (close to the Timber Yard café; be warned - both get overrun at weekends and holidays), while those who wish to stretch their legs can amble over 1,300 acres of deer-grazed parkland. Free entry to parkland; charges apply to house and gardens (free for National Trust members).Image Credit: Mike Bean, Flickr , Image Credit, Janet Roberts, Flickr, Cover Image Credit: Duncan Hull, FlickrAgree with list? What are your top Manchester spots? Join the conversation @Groupon_UK #grouponguide #manchester____Check out all our deals for things to do in Manchester.

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