When art galleries close, it’s usually a cause for bitter recrimination rather than celebration. Not in the Whitworth’s case. This weekend, the Manchester gallery hosts new work by Nick Crowe and Ian Rawlinson, a reprise of Jeremy Deller’s famous Acid Brass collaboration with Stockport’s Williams Fairey Band, live music and art, children’s events and a “fire, light and sound finale”. And that’s because it’s not really a goodbye, but, as its director Maria Balshaw says, “a foretaste of what is to come.”
This time next year, Whitworth Art Gallery will reopen after a £15million programme of new building and refurbishment. “It really will take the gallery into the 21st century,” Balshaw promises. The expansion of the gallery spaces began nine months ago, supported in the main by The Heritage Lottery Fund, Arts Council England and University Of Manchester.
The broader intention is to reconnect the gallery with the park, with two new wings that will reach out into the trees, providing more gallery space, study and learning studios, an art garden and a new cafe. The existing building is also being refreshed and reshaped – when the work is complete, the amount of public space will be doubled.
“The gallery has 55,000 objects in the collection, many of international importance, and we rarely have more than five per cent on show,” says Balshaw. “And alongside both historical and contemporary art, we also have fantastic textile and wallpaper collections. That’s quite an unusual combination and we attract a really diverse audience, but we’ve reached a point where we really can’t accommodate all the people who want to use the gallery and its collection.”
Public engagement
The connection with Whitworth Park is important too – the gallery sits on the edge of the city centre and is very much connected to the cultural life of the city, but it also faces some very deprived communities. The gallery’s public engagement programme – which will continue off-site during the closure – is widely praised for opening up collections to communities who might not otherwise come to art galleries, but the hope is that the new building will build on those connections.
“You know, we have works by Picasso, Blake and Van Gogh out at the moment,” says Balshaw. “Artists that people consider legends but wouldn’t imagine are on display in their city. It’s about making sure all different sorts of people use the gallery when it reopens.”
Not that the Whitworth is about to disappear from view entirely during its closure. This autumn, Canadian film-maker Atom Egoyan will present a site-specific piece in a disused Manchester cinema – “he’s a great person to create something unique but transitory,” enthuses Balshaw – and in the spring, plans are afoot for a pop-up Whitworth.
“It’ll be exciting stuff, but we’re keen not to go overboard while we’re shut,” says Balshaw. “If you’re planning a gallery that will last another 100 years, you want to have a moment of pause and reflection where you work out how you want to use these new spaces. We have to get this period right.”
Whitworth Weekending runs from Friday 30 August to Sunday 1 September 1. The gallery will be closed from 2 September and reopens in summer 2014. www.whitworth.manchester.ac.uk
