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NEW: HOME Launches May 2015
MCR's new £25m culture centre reveals opening bank holiday weekend of events
HOME, Manchester's new £25m culture centre at the heart of the wider 20-acre, £500m First Street regeneration project, will launch on Thursday 21 May 2015.
The new centre for arts, theatre and film is a merger between the city's Library Theatre Company and Oxford Road's Cornerhouse and will become the country's largest combined arts centre outside of the capital.
Cornerhouse is set to close in April 2015.
"Its unique location in the heart of First Street has been a catalyst for the creation of a new cultural and commercial quarter"
Designed by Dutch architects Mecanoo (the firm behind Birmingham's new £189m library), HOME will feature a 500-seat theatre, a further 150-seat flexible theatre space, five cinema screens, a 500 metre square, 4 metre high gallery space, digital production and broadcast facilities and a cafe, bar and restaurant.
HOME's springtime launch will kick-off an opening bank holiday weekend of events including the world premiere of Olivier Award-winning Stockport-born playwright Simon Stephen's The Funfair; the launch of a year-long music and film project bringing together some of the city's finest musicians to perform original scores over archive footage; and group exhibition The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things.
The full 2015 programme will be revealed in January 2015.
HOME taking shape
It is estimated that HOME will attract up to 500,000 visitors in its first year, which should put the new arts centre straight in as one of the top five most visited attractions in the city.
Dave Moutrey, Director and Chief Executive of HOME, says:
"This gives a little taste of our artistic ambition for HOME when it opens in May next year.
"We’ll be a HOME for everyone, staging challenging and critically engaged art, yet connected with our city and communities. Our opening will introduce audiences to new and extraordinary experiences of outstanding art and show off to the world just what is possible in our beautiful new building."
Councillor Rosa Battle, Executive Member Culture and Leisure, Manchester City Council says:
"The opening of HOME marks the newest high profile addition to Manchester's renowned cultural scene - a scene that brings with it huge economic benefits and is a big part of what makes the city a place that people want to live, work and invest in.
"Its unique location in the heart of First Street has been a catalyst for the creation of a new cultural and commercial quarter that is fast developing in the surrounding area, and that looks set to bring even more jobs and further investment into the city."
Danny Boyle is a HOME patron
The launch date announcement comes as HOME prepares to host the ninth annual Re:Play Festival in a specially built pop-up theatre space at Number One First Street from Monday 12 to Saturday 24 January 2015.
Re:Play gives audiences a second chance to see the best and most talked-about productions from Manchester and Salford’s thriving fringe scene.
Patrons of HOME include Oscar-winning director Danny Boyle, actress Suranna Jones and poet Jackie Kay MBE.
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39 comments so far, continue the conversation, write a comment.
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Hmmm...I don't like the look of it so far, but at least it's prettier than the gas towers it replaced. I wonder if MIF 15 will get first dibs on some it.
Some of it is better than I thought. However, that hideous carpark in yellow glad, concrete and steel, damages and ruins the view from the street. Unforgivably hideous, for the 'second biggest arts and culture centre out of London'. As for the baloney that the demolishing of the Old Cornerhouse, Sailsbury, Thirsty Scholar, Gorilla et al hasn't been decided by MCC and Northern Hub, is I imagine a big deception. The whole thing is rigged and despite any heartfelt protestations, it will sadly go I believe. Hope I am wrong.
its Home and Away!
Great name!
For an out of town furniture shed.
Strong drugs?
I'd rather stay at Home.
Haha that is a new and relevant witticism oh hang on no it's 2014 not 2012.
Gimboid #mancontroll
Oh get a grip. Or call your Mum if you're really upset.
Why don't you fuck off HOME?
Eh now, calm it.
Why so cramped in? There's plenty of room in Manchester, how about something nice and wide to stroll along rather than windy little passages?
It's got a big square at the front.
HOME and the Council have allowed the developers to get away with murder here. In addition to earlier grants given to ASK for public realm and site remediation, the publicly funded HOME is effectively de-risking (read subsidising) the rest of the development. And what do we get in return? Ultra cheap, lumpen, artless boxes covered with gaudy rainscreen cladding panels, all overlooking a rather characterless public plaza. The developers and contractors have taken us for a ride here. Who exactly is providing HOME / the Council with planning and design advice? I wish the new institution well, I really do, but I fear they have handicapped themselves by allowing ASK to undermine what was already a challenging location with this very poor attempt at place making.
+1
+2
Totally agree, the development is looking nothing like the original plans. The cheap yellow cladding on the carpark reminds me of the old Manchester Arndale, a concrete box that looks unfinished - who let them get away with this one!? In ten years time it will need knocking down.
...and cinemagoers will be getting a pretty raw deal IMHO...five screens yes, BUT closing a much-loved venue in a great location for only 30 more seats in total seems inadequate for a city the size of Manchester... Cornerhouse Screen 1 299 seats Screen 2 158 seats Screen 3 56 seats HOME Screen 1 250 seats Screen 2 150 seats Screen 3 44 seats Screen 4 39 seats Screen 5 60 seats Good Luck getting a ticket!
Can't wait for this. Well done to the team for keeping everything on track so far.
Creep creep creep from the the councils creeping spokesman,who strangely goes deaf at the mention of the Coop development these days.
Agree. Irrelevant spiel.
Internal informal email fodder. Not really for posting on a site like this
Is it going to be close to the new metrolink line - or is there parking available? Hubbie's gammy leg means it has to be accessible to us when we want to visit..........
What new line? The closest is Knott Mill/Deansgate.
Ignore
Massive multi-storey car park on site.
The vilest central carpark in Manchester yet, I would argue...!
Will this mean the cornerhouse is closing ?
Yes. I heard that it'll then either become an Italian Restaurant, a Greggs, one of three [or all] coffee chains, an indie burger restaurant, or demolished completely to make way for a hotel. However, I've also heard Brittania Hotel Group are interested in the site which means it will remain empty for at least thirty years.
Or maybe it will be taken over by Trof or Mr Thomas's Chop House, or another local outfit, or maybe it will be otherwise usefully adapted, like many many buildings in the city have been into something useful. But I guess that wouldn't fit your miserabilist picture of the city, that seems to be wilfully blind to all that is good about the place. The glass-mostly-empty attitude of people like you does NOTHING to help make Manchester a better place to live.
The Cornerhouse buildings may potentially be knocked down and redeveloped! www.change.org/…/manchester-city-council-and-network-rail-save-the-cornerhouse-buildings…
I agree with Turnip.
I like the sound of the new building but HOME is a terrible, terrible name. Can't something be done about it? It sounds horrible and focus grouped and about as un-homely as it could. Wasn't HOME a crap superclub in London? Why not call it The New Cornerhouse?
It was the name of a very short lived club inside Ducie House on Ducie Street in '93 to '94.
So disappointed Cornerhouse is closing. It has been a unique Manchester cultural venue for years and I very much doubt the new place will have the same vibe. I wish they'd have asked the people of Manchester if we wanted to keep Cornerhouse - I certainly would have voted 'yes'. The only reason I would go to HOME for the cinema is if they continue Viva, the Spanish Film Festival (which I hope they do).
Lets hope the new place is more adventurous in its film programme. Too much of the programme in recent years has crossed-over into multiplex stuff, leaving arthouse & avantgarde sidelined or forgotten.
I fear the gritty character of Manchester is being lost as it transform into an identikit city
Identikit to where? I do not know of any other city that looks like Manchester,it is a truly awesome second city. Try living in Hull and then complain.Apart from this you have a new theatre complex being built on the Granada site. Mediacity and the Lowry,The Palace,Royal Exchange,The Opera House,The Bridgewater Hall plus the towns around the City all have thriving theatres,particularly Oldham and Bolton. Plus the Contact and the RNCM and Chethams.Identikit! Bet the rest of regional England wish it was Manchester's identikit.