Young String Players Wanted for New Hulme Based Orchestra

Young Manchester musicians proved there is more than one string to their bow when they turned out in force to a special free event held by Manchester Music Service.

Just short of one hundred youngsters from more than 40 different schools across the city turned up to a String Play Along event held at the Zion Arts Centre in Hulme last week.

The event was designed as a taster session for the Manchester Central String Orchestra - the city's newest string orchestra for young people - and formed only last year.

Each of the young people had been given music to practice on their own at home and in their music lessons at school before the big event which saw them play their instruments alongside members of the orchestra.

The event gave the youngsters the chance to experience first hand the thrill of playing with an orchestra and for many of them it was the first opportunity they had had to play their instruments with other musicians.

It also served as a great introduction to the new orchestra which rehearses every Wednesday during term time from 6 - 7 pm at the Zion Centre.

The orchestra was formed in September last year and played its first concert in December with plans to play regular concerts each term of the school year.

Councillor Sheila Newman, Executive Member Children's Services, Manchester City Council, said: "Manchester has a rich musical heritage and we're keen to provide as many opportunities as we can for all our young people to make and to experience music.

"This event was a great success and we hope the young people who took part in this event so enthusiastically will keep playing music and keep coming back."

Local Councillor Nigel Murphy added “It is great to see the Zion Centre being used as a base for this new orchestra; I’d encourage any local young people who are interested in joining or wants to find out more to contact the Music Service on 0161 226 4422”

Manchester Central String Orchestra is open to all children and young people aged 7 - 19 years.

LOST HULME - A photographic journey through the streets of Hulme

10^th - 28th February, 10:00hr – 21hr00, The Zion Arts Centre, Stretford Road

This exhibition brings together a unique collection of historical photographs and documents to tell the history of Hulme since the industrial revolution.

It draws on collections from the city’s institutions, libraries, archives as well as private collections. Many of the photograph have been rarely seen in public.

The images are arranged in broad themes and provide a fascinating series of images about a Hulme that is no more. They also argue that the history of Hulme, an important and much misunderstood community in Manchester, needs to revised, to take account of its longer past.

Thus whilst the more recent developments in Hulme are covered in the exhibition - the story of the Crescent and later local initiatives - it uses photographs, maps and other documents to argue that Hulme has a much longer and significant history in the making of Manchester, the world’s first industrial city. The importance of the Bridgewater Canal in sparking of the economic development of Hulme is acknowledged and the ‘galloping urbanisation’ that occurred during the nineteenth century is charted. As early as 1851 Hulme’s population already exceeded 50,000, a figure that ranked it above towns such as Chester and Rochdale.

The photographs also reflect the poverty and deprivation which led to the creation of the idea of ‘Outcast Hulme’ in the early twentieth century. Housing problems and the initiatives to tackle the slums were certainly not confined to the post-war period.

The exhibition also focuses on the vitality of the community, its cultural and educational institutions. The now forgotten role of the Stretford Road as one of the city’s most important shopping streets is also remembered. To recover these lost periods of Hulme’s past is to understand better its place in the city.

The exhibition is arranged through the Department of History and Economic History at Manchester Metropolitan University. Claire O’ Hanrahan, a history student in the department has been the principal organiser.

£18 million for Trinity High School

Local Labour Councillors have welcomed the news that building work is due to start in May on the refurbishment of existing buildings and the construction of a major two-storey teaching and administration block, at Trinity High School on Higher Cambridge Street. The £18 million investment is part of the Labour Councils “Building Schools for the Future” program that has seen £600 million invested in schools across the City. Commenting on the investment local Councillor Nigel Murphy said “Hulme has already benefited with the rebuilding of Rolls Crescent Primary School and this new investment shows that Manchester Labour is committed to improving the education and facilities for our future generations.”

Zion Arts Open Day - Sunday 7th February 2010

Why not go along to the Zion's Open Day on Sunday February 7th to get to know them and what they do! They want you to get involved and they want to hear your views

on the centre and what you want to see done there!

 

The day will include:

 

Drop in taster workshops including MC classes, Street Dance and Music

Live music from local DJ's and Radio Stations

Free refreshments

Drama, Dance, Comedy, Music, Arts and more!

 

 

They want to meet members of Hulme community so that they can make Hulme's creative quarter, a place for you!

 

A Copy of the Open Day Programme is available here! www.zionarts.com

 

It will also be an opportunity to meet their new Resident Artists who will be working within the building from January to March. These include Single Cell who will be bringing the Hulme Buskers project here along with many other musical events. Stuart Bowden will be introducing his project Architectonic which will be combining dance with an exploration of the building.

 

 

It will be also a chance for you to aquaint yourself with other tenants of the building including Manchester Music Services, Creative Hands Foundation, Odd Theatre, Drake Music and DIGM.

Zion Arts Centre - Open Day Sunday 7th February

Why not go along to the Zion's Open Day on Sunday February 7th to get to know them and what they do! They want you to get involved and they want to hear your views

on the centre and what you want to see done there!

 

The day will include:

 

Drop in taster workshops including MC classes, Street Dance and Music

Live music from local DJ's and Radio Stations

Free refreshments

Drama, Dance, Comedy, Music, Arts and more!

 

 

They want to meet members of Hulme community so that they can make Hulme's creative quarter, a place for you!

 

A Copy of the Open Day Programme is available here! www.zionarts.com

 

It will also be an opportunity to meet their new Resident Artists who will be working within the building from January to March. These include Single Cell who will be bringing the Hulme Buskers project here along with many other musical events. Stuart Bowden will be introducing his project Architectonic which will be combining dance with an exploration of the building.

 

 

It will be also a chance for you to aquaint yourself with other tenants of the building including Manchester Music Services, Creative Hands Foundation, Odd Theatre, Drake Music and DIGM.

Hulme guided tours

Join guided tours of Hulme

HOME of the first Rolls Royce factory, a precious Pugin church and, for a while, Winston Churchill, the historic Manchester district of Hulme has more than a few claims to fame.

It is also, according to our guide, the only inner city district to have had the heart ripped out of it, not once, but three times - first by German bombers, then in the 1960s slum clearances, and more recently with the removal of the Crescents housing 'experiment'.

If you want to find out more about this influential but troubled district, Manchester Metropolitan University is running a series of social history walks in the capable hands of human geographer Steve Millington.

Dr Millington has descended from generations of Hulme people and proves it by littering his two-hour tour with the locations of now-defunct family homes!

The walk is a fascinating journey through Hulme offering insights into the impact of the Industrial Revolution and the Mancunian Way, and the struggle to maintain a

sense of community. Steve also offers observations on the new Hulme and the planned MMU campus on Birley Fields.

Steve's first tour will take place on 3rd February at 2pm and you can register here: http://www.eventbrite.com/event/546514640

Everyone is welcome on this free tour which is also an opportunity to meet people from the university, and find out more about MMU's links with its communities.

If you can't make this first date, don't worry, the tour will be repeated on 3rd March, 7th April, 5th May, 2nd June and 7th July.

A separate walk around the Mancunian Way and investigating its impact in more detail, is being run in on March 20 in partnership with The Manchester Modernist

Society. Registration is at: http://mancunian.eventbrite.com

Look forward to seeing you on one of the walks!

http://www.mmu.ac.uk/hulme

Follow MMU people and events at www.twitter.com @manmetuni

Manchester's climate change plan goes live

A website featuring details of Manchester’s ambitious plan to tackle climate change has gone live.

 

The plan, entitled Manchester: A Certain Future, was officially launched with help from Ed Miliband, Secretary Of State For Energy And Climate Change, during a high profile rally attended by more than 500 people at Manchester Central on Tuesday December 8.

 

The event, organised by the Department of Energy And Climate Change (DECC) and Manchester Friends Of The Earth, was the minister’s last UK appearance before attending the Copenhagen climate talks, and he described the plan as an excellent example of how cities should respond to the challenge.

 

Details of the plan, which aims to cut the city’s carbon emissions by 41 per cent by 2020, have now been published on a website http://www.manchesterclimate.com.

 

Manchester City Council leader Sir Richard Leese will also be travelling to the Danish capital where he will present world leaders with the document and call for them to make meaningful decisions at the summit.

 

The plan, which was coordinated by the City Council but written by nearly 100 organisations including Manchester Friends Of The Earth, outlines a range of actions such as:

 

Making improvements to at least 100,000 homes in Manchester. This will

reduce residents’ bills and save more than 350,000 tonnes of carbon

every year by the end of 2020.

 

Setting out an ambitious education plan to inform all residents and

employees in the city about climate change.

 

Radically producing energy using renewable sources such as biomass,

geothermal and combined heat and power, while adding small community

and business energy-generating schemes to this network.

 

Constructing new buildings that are energy efficient, helping create

around 15,000 jobs in the growing green economy.

 

Accelerate the ongoing work to create more green spaces, gardens and

green roofs, absorbing carbon and acing as a flood defence, while

aiming to double the amount of food grown locally.

 

Improving cycle ways, encouraging people to walk, increasing the use of

public transport, setting up street lights powered by renewable

energy and a network of charging points for electric vehicles.

 

The use of smart meters, enabling residents and businesses to carefully monitor their energy consumption by showing how much they are using, is also put forward. DECC has announced the meters will be in every UK home by 2020, and plans are already underway to create the first smart metering business district in the Northern Quarter.

 

Sir Richard Leese, City Council leader, said: “Manchester led the industrial revolution and we now intend to play a lead role in tackling the challenges which climate change presents.

 

"These plans will play a key role in Manchester’s economic recovery as we emerge from the recession, with the potential to create thousands of new jobs, as new green businesses are developed in the city.

 

“We are presenting this report to world leaders at Copenhagen as an example of the sort of ambitious targets that can be set when organisations work together. This is a visionary approach that will work for us in Manchester and we believe it will also work elsewhere.

 

“A low carbon future is in everyone’s interest and I am urging leaders to seize this critical opportunity to secure a binding agreement that sets ambitious targets for reducing global emissions, while also providing resources to developing countries.”