Elbow frontman Guy Garvey talking to 3rd year BA(Hons) Film-making Student Lois Hanney at the opening of the Manchester School of Art Benzie Building.
Guy Garvey opens £34million School of Art
20 November 2013
Elbow frontman praises MMU's support for arts
GUY Garvey opened the new £34million Manchester School of Art building last night on the school’s 175th anniversary.
The Elbow frontman joined Tom Bloxham, Malcolm Garrett, Dave Moutrey of Cornerhouse and students past and present to celebrate the latest ‘reinvention’ of the School – England’s first municipal art school.
Guest of Honour Garvey, who received an honorary degree from Manchester Metropolitan University in the summer and has “many, many friends” among lecturers and students said he’d accepted the invite because “the measure of a community is how it treats its arts.”
“When arts funding is so scarce and MMU is investing £34m, it makes me proud to be a Mancunian. I think the arts are a barometer of a city’s spiritual and moral health.”
Great institution
Manchester School of Art was established in 1838 to support the city’s textile industry on the site of the current Manchester Art Gallery.
Manchester City Council Leader Sir Richard Leese said the new building on MMU’s main All Saints campus was “quite revolutionary” and spoke of the School being “one of the city’s great institutions.”
Fashion student Stephanie Wood said the open plan ‘factory feel’ of the School allowed students from textiles, fine art, sculpture, photography, film-making and more to “mix together and influence each other”.
The ceremony was presided over by Vice-Chancellor Professor John Brooks and outgoing chair of governors Alan Benzie, after whom the building is named. They welcomed video messages from a host of former students including actor David Threlfall and animator Brian Cosgrove.
