Projects in progress
Posted on | April 9, 2009 | 2 Comments
Some lovely projects have come my way of late. www.creativetourist.com launched in July, part of a two-year tourism communications project I have developed for Manchester Museums Consortium. As part of the project, we publish a series of insider guides to Manchester alongside an online art and travel magazine that has, so far, featured interviews with the likes of Marina Abramovic, Jeremy Deller, Sacha Craddock and Wolfgang Tillmans, as well as writing by Louisa Buck, Jessica Lack, Sarah Kent and Dea Birkett.
A fantastic team works alongside me to deliver the project, including SEO experts PushON, web developers OH Digital, the journalist and writer, Kate Feld, PR specialists Katie Moffat and Catharine Braithwaite, and Modern Designers. By putting together a team of highly specialised individuals and agencies, we have been able to deliver an innovative, flexible and evolving project for the Consortium. With an emphasis on social and online media, the results have been impressive. The site, for example, was picked up by Art World and Lastminute.com within weeks of its launch.
Onto other projects. The Best of Manchester Awards at Urbis launched to great success in August; the exhibition at Urbis continues until the end of September. Both launch night and exhibition mark the culmination of an eight month-long programme that included securing a panel of 25 judges (including Jeremy Deller and Tim Marlow), developing a new brand for the Awards and, finally, selecting and showing work by some of the finest emerging musicians, artists and fashion designers in Manchester.
Peter Saville proved a fascinating subject for a major essay that I published this summer in Corridor8 magazine. Saville, the former Factory Records designer, spoke to me about his role as Creative Director for the city of Manchester, drawing a line between his work with Tony Wilson 25 years ago and what he does for the city today. Corridor8, meanwhile, is a new arts annual supported by Arts Council England - copies are on sale here - which also features Will Alsop, Iain Sinclair, Chris Petit and Jon Savage.