Top Picks
Guides
What’s on
Where to go
See all

esea contemporary

Creative Tourist

Visit now

esea contemporary

Market buildings, Thomas Street, Manchester, M4 1EU
0161 832 7271
Website Facebook X
  • Tuesday10:00am - 5:00pm
  • Wednesday10:00am - 5:00pm
  • Thursday10:00am - 5:00pm
  • Friday10:00am - 5:00pm
  • Saturday10:00am - 5:00pm
  • Sunday12:00pm - 5:00pm

Always double check opening hours with the venue before making a special visit.

Visit now
Centre for Chinese Contemporary Art CFCCA by Michael Pollard
Photo by Michael Pollard
Book now

Thanks to its dynamic programme of events and exhibitions celebrating artists of East and Southeast Asian heritage, esea contemporary (formerly Centre for Chinese Contemporary Art, CFCCA) is a non-profit arts centre, widely regarded as the number one place for experiencing East and Southeast Asian contemporary art in the UK.

Established in 1986, it was originally located in Chinatown but is now tucked away at the end of Thomas Street in Manchester’s vibrant Northern Quarter.

esea contemporary presents and supports art informed by East and Southeast Asian (ESEA) cultural backgrounds. Alongside a regularly changing programme of new exhibitions, it also commissions new work and runs artist-in-residency schemes.

Previous exhibitions featured work from Steph Huang, Dinu Li, Jane Jin Kaisen and many others.

esea contemporary is a short walk away from the Manchester Craft and Design Centre, Saan1 and Black Redstart Gallery.

What's on at esea contemporary

Featured in

The Whitworth
Art Galleries in Manchester & Salford

Manchester’s art scene is thriving – here’s our guide to the best art galleries, from artist-led studios to major institutions.

What's on near esea contemporary
MusicManchester
MF Tomlinson at The Castle

London-based, Brisbane-born singer-songwriter MF Tomlinson brings album number three, Die To Wake Up From A Dream, to The Castle Hotel.

From £11.00
After Hours at Chetham's Library
TourManchester
Chetham’s Medieval Buildings

Join an access-all-areas guided tour of Chetham’s Library and the surrounding school – among the most venerable buildings in the North West.

From £20.00
LiteratureManchester
Nikita Gill at Feel Good Club

Enter the Underworld with internationally bestselling poet Nikita Gill as she discusses her “propulsive, electrifying and enraging” new book Hekate.

From £18.99
Walking Stock Image
TourManchester
Bombed and Besieged: Manchester at War

Marking the anniversary of the Christmas Blitz, this walking tour explores Manchester’s history of conflict, from the English Civil Wars to the World Wars and beyond.

From £20.00
See all events

Where to go near esea contemporary

Manchester
Bar or Pub
Bar 21

A bar in Manchester’s Northern Quarter for fans of television and cinema science fiction. Enjoy food and drink amongst a off-beat selection of movie memorabilia.

Manchester
Café or Coffee Shop
This & That Café

Eternally popular curry canteen taking its name from a time when patrons didn’t know what to call their orders, but pointed instead to a bit of “this” and “that”.

Wolf At The Door
Manchester
Restaurant
Wolf At The Door

Three storey bar and restaurant on Thomas Street in the Northern Quarter, from the team behind the Wilderness record store and bar in Withington.

Manchester
Bar or Pub
The Bay Horse Tavern

The Bay Horse Tavern is a laid-back pub based in the dead centre of the Northern Quarter, with a wide range of drinks and food options.

Manchester
Café or Coffee Shop
Ziferblat Manchester

Ziferblat is a pay as you stay café in the northern quarter, where everything is free – except the time you spend.

Manchester
Shopping Centre
Smithfield Market

The neo-Romanesque arches of this former wholesale food market still stand as a reminder to the Northern Quarter’s mercantile past.

See all places

Manchester District Guides

The front of Didsbury restaurant Volta.
Didsbury, Manchester

Didsbury has the perfect split between big brands and independent businesses, welcoming all from far and wide.
Ancoats, Manchester
Ancoats & New Islington

Ancoats, just off the Northern Quarter in Manchester, is one of the city’s most increasingly desirable neighbourhoods. Find out why.
People enjoying drinking in Altrincham
Things to Do in Altrincham

Plan a day out down Altrincham way, and you’ll soon find that one day isn’t nearly enough. Getting there is easy on the tram, or how about cycling along the…
Salford museum and art gallery exterior
Salford, Greater Manchester

Cross over the River Irwell, and you’ll find yourself in another city entirely – Salford, which is enjoying something of a regeneration.
chinatown, manchester in sun by ben williams
Chinatown, Manchester

Chinatown is a network of back streets dotted with Chinese restaurants – go to Ho’s Bakery for perfect honey buns, Hunan for spice and Middle Kingdom for a very affordable menu.
The Quays, Greater Manchester

The Quays is home to MediaCityUK (the largest media hub in Europe) and studios purpose-built for the BBC’s move up North in 2011.
Chorlton, Manchester

Chorlton is a left-leaning suburb a few miles south of Manchester’s city centre (and only 10-odd minutes away by tram). A sprawling hive of artisan coffee shops, boutique clothing stores,…

Culture Guides

Cinema in the North

This month we recommend a season of Film noir, cult Australian movies and a huge celebration of DIY community cinema.

Theatre in Manchester and the North
Theatre in the North

This season’s theatre is gloriously eclectic: from radical cabaret and reinvented classics to new musicals and boundary-pushing performance.

Wisp Press Image
Music in the North

From corrupted shoegaze to experimental electronica, post-hardcore to Indian classical, these are the shows that should be on your radar.

Detail of an abstract sculpture, with burned materials and rusty chicken wire at the centre, with rusted metal bars bent around it.
Exhibitions in the North

Chocolate fountains, beautiful batiks and medieval marginalia - this month's supersized Exhibitions Guide has it all.