Our friends at 42nd Street – the project now 35 years old – illustrate their continuing creativity and commitment to their roots. True to their philosophy amidst the gloom and stress, giving us something to smile about.
Mental health charity 42nd Street to launch a new venue and programme for heritage, arts and mental health with investment from Heritage Lottery Fund, LandAid and the Redevco Foundation.
42nd Street, a Manchester-based mental health charity working with young people under stress, has today received £516,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) with further support from LandAid and the Redevco Foundation to enable the opening of its new venue, The Horsfall, in May 2016.
The Horsfall builds on 42nd Street’s trusted and innovative approach to improving young people’s mental health. The programme will see national and international artists, makers and heritage experts, working with local young people to reinterpret stories from the past, their own stories and to imagine new futures.
On Monday 3rd November at 4pm, BBC Radio 4 will broadcast Taking Art to the People a 30 minute documentary exploring the history of the Ancoats Art Museum and how 42ndStreet is building on its legacy.
The project will begin with the renovation and repurposing of an empty, Victorian shop into a three storey, dedicated creative space by Manchester based architects Stephenson STUDIO. The launch programme (2016-18) includes a site specific theatre experience, visual arts exhibitions, online collaborations between young people in the UK and Los Angeles and opportunities for young people to develop creative skills for a commercial market.
42nd Street has taken inspiration for the project from the Ancoats Art Museum; a unique social and artistic experiment established in Ancoats, Manchester at the end of the 19th Century. Its founder, Thomas C Horsfall sought to promote wellbeing and social change through contact with art and nature. Horsfall filled the museum with artworks, sculptures, music recitals, public lectures and even live birds in a bid to make the lives of those living in the surrounding slums more bearable. The Horsfall project will draw on this rich, but little known story and make it relevant and useful to young people across the city today.
The innovative programme of workshops, performances and exhibitions will be led by Julie McCarthy; 42nd Street’s Creative Producer and will bring young people together with some of the best creative minds to reimagine how we engage with heritage and the arts.
Read more at http://42ndstreet.org.uk/news/press-release/
IN DEFENCE OF YOUTH WORK 