After I first moved to Manchester, I discovered myself in an previous mill warehouse tucked behind Oxford Street. It was known as M One – a shared area over a number of flooring, providing inexpensive desks and workplaces. Winters had been freezing. The roof typically leaked. However the neighborhood inside was heat and welcoming.
Graphic designer Laura Boast was on the third ground with paper artist Laura Tallon, sharing a studio and creating stunning work. Danielle Molyneux was additional alongside the hall, crafting intelligent, thought-about typography. Additional down the way in which had been equally gifted folks resembling Victoria Simpson, Nick Chaffe, Micha Purnell, David Sedgwick of Studio DBD, Andy Mallalieu and Mark Bebbington from 9 Sixty. And, after all, there was illustrator Stanley Chow.
Stan had a beneficiant area filled with posters, artworks and an ever-growing inspiration archive. I first met him almost a decade in the past, interviewing him for Inventive Growth again when the platform was nonetheless a aspect venture for me.
I used to be upstairs on the fourth ground and curious to fulfill the person whose profession had taken off after Meg and Jack White of The White Stripes noticed his work and commissioned him to create paintings for Icky Thump. The remaining, as they are saying, is historical past.
Since then, Stan and I’ve crossed paths many instances. We’re doing a chat collectively at Movement North later this month, which I’m actually wanting ahead to. And we nonetheless stumble upon one another at artistic meet-ups throughout town I known as house for 11 years.
However in these early days in Manchester, when M One felt like house, it appeared like everybody was constructing one thing. Not simply careers, however tradition. A way that you just had been a part of one thing larger. And that you weren’t alone.
That spirit is precisely what a brand new city-wide artwork path in Manchester captures. Curated by Stan and produced alongside Wild in Artwork, the exhibition runs throughout the Northern Quarter and Ancoats till mid-March. It brings collectively 21 North West artists, remodeling partitions, home windows and billboards into an open-air gallery.
From large-scale murals to immersive installations, the elements of Manchester we all know and love have been reimagined as daring, public celebrations of creativity. It is a reminder that this northern metropolis has all the time thrived on collaboration, graft and neighborhood. The warehouses might have modified, however the spirit stays the identical.
The complete line-up consists of Stanley Chow himself, plus Kim Thompson, The Hammo, Jay Sharples, Oskar with a Okay, Clare Birtwistle, Caroline Dowsett, Pete Out of date, Qubek, Jonathan Edwards, Rick Hyde, Florence Burns, David Bailey, Daren Newman, himHallows, Jessica Lee, Luke Insect, Charlie Cross, Barney Ibbotson, Dotto, and Mattress Studio.
Its official objective is to rejoice The BRIT Awards 2026 coming to Manchester on the finish of February. Nevertheless it feels larger than that.
With a devoted map, and a poster designed by Stan himself, the path invitations guests to discover town otherwise. To lookup, decelerate and take discover.
For these of us who bear in mind chilly studios and leaky roofs, it looks like a full-circle second. Most of the individuals who as soon as gathered quietly in previous mill warehouses are actually out within the open, on partitions, in home windows and throughout the streets.
In fact, this artistic neighborhood means extra to me than I can correctly put into phrases. It formed my profession in addition to Inventive Growth. It jogged my memory, at a time once I wanted it most, that you don’t construct something worthwhile alone.
They’ve been by way of rather a lot in recent times. Funding cuts. Studio closures. Rising rents. A heavy, unsure world. And but they maintain going, making, and exhibiting up for one another.
Manchester might have constructed its fame on business… it continues to construct it on creativity. And I really feel extremely proud to have been a part of that story – even when it was for a short time.
The Brits ’26 Artwork Path runs till 16 March throughout the Northern Quarter and Ancoats and is free to discover.
Stanley Chow
The Artwork Path poster by Stanley Chow
