On a budget? Looking for free things to do? Here are our highlights of the best free and cheap things to do in the locations we love. From blockbuster exhibitions in some of the UK’s finest galleries to self-guided walks and tours, and from fabulous new-build museums to historic buildings, parks and gardens, there’s much you can do without causing fatal harm to your wallet. Enjoy.
It is a landscape so varied that it is a celluloid dream
One photography exhibition and 100 images allow you to get out of the city – for a moment, at least. Sometimes, living and working in the city, I forget just how powerful a good landscape…
More like this please. I'd like my mind blown & my world-view shaken on a more regular basis.
We take a wild ride inside the mind of painter Raqib Shaw and find art “on the grandest of grand scales”. I came out of the Raqib Shaw exhibition feeling shell-shocked and thinking something like:…
As with any social group, fractures appear & people regroup in different ways
A new photography exhibition profiles the most influential women in gay Manchester – and beyond. “We look for reassurance around us, and I think it’s important for people to know what has come before them,”…
One film is so rare that "the spetsnaz have had agents looking for it for years".
One of the city’s smallest venues stages a free night of film and music to celebrate a Punk legend. Temporarily dubbed the Voodoo Cinema Lounge for this very special event, Moston Small Cinema burst into…
His inspiration comes from sources as diverse as archives & miners' strike posters
Axisweb, the online contemporary art resource, selects the North’s most promising new artists. Next up in our series of new artist profiles is the Islington Mill-based Maurice Carlin, an artist as happy collaborating on group…
You begin to wonder what's real and what's not.
Don’t expect any easy answers in this old masters-inspired exhibition at Abbot Hall. Uwe Wittwer is an intriguing sort of an artist. He appropriates old masters – think Gainsborough and Hogarth – fuses them with…
It's not just fashion frippery; this is how fashion and the beautiful game have changed pop culture
From mods to Rooney, this is a show about a fashionably beautiful game. If you haven’t visited the National Football Museum since it relocated from Preston North End’s ground to Manchester last summer, then a…
Ambitious and original, much like the design scenes of the cities that share its name
Five of BCN’s best design agencies showcase their graphic wares in MCR. Manchester has long touted its graphic design scene as a vibrant, dynamic alternative to London, one that is willing to take risks and…
Tate Liverpool gives space to an “extraordinary” yet overlooked artist. Anyone who has studied the history of art knows that it was until recently a man’s game. Women were routinely ignored by historians and critics…
Painter Raqib Shaw opens his largest solo show – on Valentine’s night British artist Raqib Shaw creates rich and elaborately detailed work that draws from sources as diverse as Kashmiri textiles, Japanese lacquered screens and…
A monument to a forgotten man – and one of Europe’s key lost works of Modernism On the site of a former gunpowder works, nestled amongst the woods and just a short distance from the…
The Walker Art Gallery celebrates feel good politics with its latest Obama-inspired exhibition. Last year was pretty full-on, what with the Diamond Jubilee, all that rain, the tortuous lead up to the Olympics and the…
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creativetourist: @BibiLynch Hmmm, it just doesn't work. Which is a shame, as Manchester is such a long word.... (I'm thinking Twitter here) # about an hour ago.
creativetourist: @BibiLynch Hey up missus, it's an abbreviation of Manchester (but clearly not a very good one)! # about 1 hours ago.
creativetourist: @iamdavekennedy Excellent, now there's an interpretation we *never* considered :) # about 1 hours ago.