esea contemporary

Creative Tourist

Visit now

esea contemporary

Market buildings, Thomas Street, Manchester, M4 1EU
0161 832 7271
  • 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.

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

What's on near esea contemporary

Blondshell by Hannah Bon.
MusicManchester
Blondshell at New Century

With sardonic wit, towering hooks and distortion dialled high, Blondshell lands at New Century this September, armed with album number two.

From £24.00
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
Bloom Chameleon Dancers
Ancoats
Bloom at Hallé St Peter’s

Bloom fuses Manchester and Japan’s creative energies in music, dance and fashion, imagining bold futures for shared histories.

Free entry

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.

Culture Guides

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.

Literature Events in the North

The autumn leaves might be falling already, but the harvest is plentiful as the live literature scene gets back into the swing of things after a summer break...

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.

Cinema in the North

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