Last month, our very own Nina arranged a carers’ trip out to Manchester Art Gallery. The trip was arranged through Carers Manchester South, allowing the trip to be opened up to all carers in South Manchester.
Nina had arranged a private tour of the gallery to highlight some of the key pieces of work that they currently have on display.
Of course, the moment I heard about the trip, I jumped on board and signed up for it. What a magical experience it was.
Who knew there was so much going on just on our very own doorstep?
The future of the gallery
Manchester Art Gallery is currently undergoing a rebuild of the building, making sure that it is sustainable for the next 100 years. Part of this process is also to catalogue all their inventory to see where it can be displayed through the main gallery and also those that they can loan out.
If you go to the top of the new glass staircase, you will see the cataloguing in process, and you can even book a guided tour of this process and how they go about cataloguing each item.
The cheetahs of Windsor Park
When we went to Gallery 1, I was drawn to this stunning canvas that I have seen every time I go there. It’s of two men with two cheetahs in a park. I love looking at this piece of art, but I never knew the story behind it. While I was being mesmerised by the piece, one of the art gallery volunteers told me about the painting.
King George was gifted the two cheetahs from the Maharaja along with their keepers. They were let loose in Windsor Park to chase a great stag. When they came across the stag, the stag attacked the cheetahs, and one of them fled. It took them two weeks to find the missing cheetah, just roaming around the great park. We know more about the cheetahs than we do about the keepers, yet they are a main focus of the painting. It’s strange to think we are looking at someone who has now been forgotten by time but can still make you feel something when you look upon the artwork.
Different exhibitions
Every few months, the gallery changes the exhibitions that are on display, allowing them to showcase the works that have been stored in their collection along with new and modern art concepts, such as the feature around women over the age of 50 and the gender gap that is still affecting women to this day. Even though we have made leaps forward, we are still not on equal footing, and these exhibitions show how women have to choose between home and family and work and retirement balance. If you have an eagle eye, you might see our very own Nina in the project.
The gallery is also showcasing a range of contemporary fashion pieces alongside period fashion pieces of the time to show how, as time moves forward and women’s equality becomes more accepted, our fashion has also changed along with the movements, allowing for more movement and freedom in what we wear.
My takeaway from the trip is something that our host said: you don’t have to come to the gallery to look at everything in one go; you can come and just look at one or two things and then come back another time.
