In March 2020 me and my art classmates went to the open art exhibition in HOME Manchester. We went to this arts event to get inspiration for our Silver Arts Award. At this arts event there were paintings and drawing and many other art forms and styles created by members of the public who submitted their art works for the art event.

My mother dropped me off near HOME Manchester, where I met up with my classmates and teacher. When we first arrived, the atmosphere was very quiet with hardly any people around . We checked the time the arts event opened and realised we were an hour early!

Luckily there was a cafe where me and my classmates and teacher sat while we waited for the arts event to open. We chatted about what paintings and different art forms we might see and the schedule for the day.  We also ate some cakes, cinnamon rolls and drank hot chocolate.

I was pretty excited about the exhibition because I haven’t been to many arts events before and I would get to see some new different art forms.

When the doors opened we went inside and we were given leaflets about the exhibition and the names of the art pieces, the artists who made them and how much money each art piece cost. We were also given a leaflet of  the order of the different art pieces presented in the exhibition.  

The gallery was very spacious and quiet and had a nice, relaxed and friendly vibe around it. We decided to explore all the art pieces together.

There were lots of different art forms like paintings, drawings ,sculptures, digital art, textiles and more. It was really interesting seeing these new art forms.

These art pieces were all different shapes and sizes. Some of these art pieces were hung up on the walls, some where placed on the floor or on tables and others were on screens. The first thing I noticed at the art event was a mannequin wearing some bright pink sewed clothes and some large dyed multicoloured fabric that had been hung up on a wall. At the end of the exhibition me and my classmates and teacher took some photos and sketches of the art pieces then we left to go home.    

I really liked the layout of the art exhibition because the art pieces were in numerical order which made it easy to find them. It was also very spacious and not overcrowded.

I liked a painting of an eye that was hung up on the wall. It was called ‘My Friend Chris’ by Robert Francis Stephenson. It’s a closeup painting of an eye and I thought it was really captivating.  I have tried painting and drawing eyes before but they have never turned out as realistic as this particular piece.

My favourite art piece was called ‘Feral’ by Caroline Daly which is a digital art piece of a pigeon. I decided to sketch this art piece because I like pigeons and I thought the colours were nice. A rather unknown fact about pigeons is that they are considered to be one of the most intelligent birds in the world.

I also liked a piece called ‘Welsh Terrier’ by Faith Carter. This art piece was a needle felted Welsh terrier. I really liked this piece because I have tried needle felting a cat before but I found it quite challenging.

Another art piece I liked  was called ‘Artists Palette’ by Susan Scudder Harrison.I liked this art piece because it is crocheted and I love crocheting so I wanted to use this as an inspiration for any future crochet project I will do.

I also found the textile art pieces very inspiring and elegant. which encouraged me to incorporate some of those designs  in my final arts challenge.

This art event made me think about how many different art styles and forms there are and that I would like to try some of these out like digital art or sculpting. It also made me think about what art means to different people as each art piece I saw was unique and was created in different ways and that anyone can have their art placed in an art gallery.

At the event there were a few art pieces containing nudity and profanities which I didn’t really like, but I understand that this is a form of art, and how some people may express themselves so I didn’t really mind.

There was also some difficulty in parking arrangement as there was no space for parking, so if you are to take a car to this art exhibition you would have to park somewhere else or use some other form of transport, like public transport.

Overall this art exhibition was extremely enjoyable with only a couple of minor inconveniences. I would definitely recommend this arts event to other people as there are plenty of art pieces to see and get more ideas for future art projects. I also think this art event will inspire others the way it has inspired me to make more art.

Thank you for reading my review on HOME Manchester open art exhibition 😊

By Muslimah Rahman