Visit Manchester
It’s great that you’re for thinking of attending one of my art courses in Manchester
I have welcomed students from as far afield as New York, Switzerland and Israel.
Manchester is regarded as one of UK’s most dynamic cities and is a great place for an Art + Culture break
Book on a Creative Art Course at AWOL Studios and turn your art course into a remarkable Art and Culture City Break. Stay in Manchester a while longer or arrive a day or two earlier.
Manchester is an easily walkable city – look up and you will be rewarded with interesting architectural gems from Manchester’s proud past creating a fascinating juxtaposition amidst the new steel and glass towers rising up within this fast changing city.
Accommodation
Stay local
If you are travelling to Manchester for one of our creative art courses stay in a local hotel or B&B.
Ibis Hotel is the closest hotel with about a 10 minute walk to my studio. But there are other options.
Insurance
It is good practice to buy travel insurance at the time of booking, to cover you for any additional costs in case you experience unexpected illness, Jury service, family bereavement, or I have to cancel a course, etc.
Many insurance companies offer UK based holiday insurance that includes ‘cancellation cover’ for any travel that includes 2 nights hotel accommodation. This should not be an excessive cost.
- Always check insurance details fully before you purchase any insurance products.
- Please read my Terms + Conditions for full details on refunds, transfers and cancellations, as costs of your transport and accommodation is not refundable by Creative Art Courses.
Note
- The information and websites listed on this page are to help make your travel plans as easy as possible.
- This page includes links to independent websites, so please use them with due care and diligence, at your own discretion.
- The information on this page should not be understood as advice or guidance, and accommodation is in no way recommended by Creative Art Courses.
Art + Culture City break
If you have any preconceptions about Manchester – change them now!
If you have any preconceptions about art – join one of the drawing, painting or mixed-media courses at Creative Art Courses – and have your mind changed forever.
The Visit Manchester website is full of useful information.
Visit >>
Manchester University boasts
“Birthplace of a revolution, home of an evolution –
Manchester is the home of pioneers and we continue to be led by discovery.”
Book one of our weekend or evening courses
Visit >
Stay in Manchester a while and enjoy all that Manchester has to offer
What better city to spend some time in, broaden your art horizons and discover your passions and talents.
Leave inspired and a step closer to becoming the artist you’ve always dreamed of being.
Travel around Manchester
All the venues listed are accessible by foot, Metrolink, Manchester’s free bus, and National Railway network.
It’s a great way of turning a 2-day creative art course into a rewarding 3 or 4-day Art + Culture City holiday.
Tempting isn’t it!
Liverpool isn’t far away
Broadening your horizons. Look west towards the Irish Sea and you can travel effortlessly by train to Liverpool and enjoy another Northern UK city with a very different history and cultural offer. It takes less than an hour to travel by train and is a rewarding day trip. There are 2 main galleries of interest – Tate Liverpool Art Gallery and the Walker Art Gallery, with a other smaller galleries also worth visiting.
Origins of Manchester
The name Manchester originates from the Roman name ‘Mamucium’ from the 1st century settlement, derived from a Celtic world meaning ‘breast-shaped hill. Visit Castelfield to experience an interesting juxtaposition of old world Roman remnants with new world Victorian engineering ingenuity of the Bridgewater canal and the world’s first railways. It’s an excellent spot for a bit of Urban Sketching. Why not check out the Manchester Urban Sketching group on facebook – they may have an event while you’re here.
Even with a long, proud and rich history, Manchester has become a bit coy about celebrating its past and it’s contributions to the world stage. With a bit of help from the listings on this page you can tease out and discover some of its rich world-impacting history and culture.
Manchester is a city of firsts
Here is a list of just a few of Manchester’s inspirational arts, cultural and scientific gifts to the world;
- Women’s Votes: Emmeline Pankhurst who started the Women’s Social and Political Union in 1903, supporting the Suffragette movement and finally gaining votes for women.
- Computers: Alan Turing’s, known as the father of modern day computer science, contributed to developing the world’s first computer in 1948.
- Libraries: Chethams Library, the first public library opening in 1653.
- Modern City: Ancoats, the first industrialised suburb and the beginning of the Industrial Revolution around 1760.
- Modern transport:
- The Bridgewater canal, the first navigation canal operating independently of rivers opening in 1761 and still going strong.
- Railways, with the first railway opening in 1830.
- Liverpool + Manchester Railway was the first InterCity railway in the world opening in 1830
- Science:
- Splitting of the atom by Ernest Rutherford in 1919
- Development of Graphene, the world’s thinnest substance, in 2004
- Vegetarianism: The Vegetarian Society started in 1847
- Nobel prize winners: More than 20 originate from Manchester
- Environment:
- RSPB origins in 1889
- Policing
- Sir Robert Peel known as the ‘father of modern policing’, established the first police force in 1829 – the London Metropolitan police force
- Society
- The foundations for the success of the modern Cooperative Movement was borne in Rochdale with the establishment of the Rochdale Society of Equitable Pioneers in 1844.
- The foundations for the success of the modern Cooperative Movement was borne in Rochdale with the establishment of the Rochdale Society of Equitable Pioneers in 1844.
Manchester’s top Art destinations
Manchester City Art Gallery
About
Manchester City Art gallery on Princess Street in Manchester city centre has works of local and international importance. It has an important collection of paintings from the Pre-Raphaelite brotherhood and Victorian decorative arts that are well worth seeing.
Important works held in the collection are The Sirens and Ulysses, 1837, William Etty, The Hireling Shepherd, 1851, William Holman Hunt, The Scapegoat, 1854–55, William Holman Hunt and Work, 1865, Ford Madox Brown
The Manchester City Art gallery is a group of 3 buildings, now interconnected. Two were originally built by Sir Charles Barry with the original building completed in 1823.
What’s on at Manchester City Art Gallery: Website
Metrolink station: St Anne’s Square
Lowry Art centre
About
The Lowry Arts centre in Salford, a separate city to Manchester, has over 400 drawings and paintings by LS Lowry on permanent exhibition. It has a second gallery area for showing contemporary exhibitions. Central to the arts venue are 2 theatres with the Lyric theatre having the largest stage outside of London.
The Lowry is a vibrant and important arts centre that showcases all the creative arts.
The Lowry was built as part of a Millennium project to revitalise the derelict Salford Docks area. It has been described as ‘Salford’s Guggenheim’ – not of the same size or complexity, although built for the same aims to spearhead regeneration.
Well worth a visit for performing arts entertainment, LS Lowry exhibition, the building itself, restaurants, Salford Quays and access to the Imperial War Museum North across the water.
What’s on at The Lowry: Website
Metrolink station: Media City
The Whitworth Art Gallery
About
The Whitworth has an interesting collection of modern art covering drawings, paintings, etchings, and its specialty – archives of wallpapers and textiles. My favourite sculpture at the gallery is the famous sculpture Genesis (1929–31) by Sir Jacob Epstein. The Whitworth won the Art’s Fund museum of the year award in 2015, so is well worth a visit.
The building is an interesting blend of its original free Jacobean style completed in 1900 with a contemporary twist after the completion of a £15 refurbishment in 2015.
What’s on at The Whitworth: Website
Metrolink: St Peter’s Square + free bus + walk
Manchester’s top Cultural destinations
Libraries
The Portico Library
John Rylands Library
Chethams Library
Theatres
Home
Hope Mill Theatre
The Palace Theatre
The Royal Exchange
Mueums
Imperial War Museum North
Museum of Science + Industry
National Football Museum
Peoples History Museum
The Pankhurst Centre
Manchester Museum
Manchester Jewish Museum
Manchester Transport Museum
