Cantona, cinemas and a temporary closure: Cornerhouse moves Manchester HOME after 30 years

This article originally appeared on Culture24.

Cornerhouse leaves home after 30 years ahead of opening of £25 million HOME arts centre in Manchester

Years before Eric Cantona netted his own film career, Manchester United’s pyrotechnically-tempered French maverick played out his most infamous moment of drama.

A wild lunge at a taunting Crystal Palace fan shocked the country and saw the striker banned for nine months. If any positive could be taken, perhaps it was the spare time spent in one of Manchester’s finest creative centres, the Cornerhouse complex near Oxford Road station, by a footballer often regarded as an artist in his own right.

“I would see Cantona,” says Siobhan Ward, reflecting on her time with an organisation she joined before it even opened, in 1985, as it prepares to close its enticing glass doors for a final time before switching to the city’s much-anticipated new £25 million HOME development.

“He used to sit in the bar with an orange juice. He’d do it before going to watch films during his temporary suspension from playing at Old Trafford.”

An idol with a capacity for obsession, Cantona became such a regular within the Cornerhouse corridors that some staff wondered when he would find time to turn his attentions back to his gifted pursuit . He returned – albeit not in the flesh – with The Children of the Marshland, described as a nostalgic period drama set in provincial France, and, in 2010, the Ken Loach-directed love letter Looking for Eric.

But by then staff were used to being starstruck around spaces which have, perhaps even more importantly than offering exhibitions, films and inspiring events, allowed people a setting in which they can sit and make sense of the programme within sight of beer and pizza. “That’s all part of the whole cinema experience,” Boyle, a patron of the organisation, told CreativeTourist. “Somewhere to meet and talk about films as well as to watch them.

“It’s crucial to have these kinds of places. I always think the only good thing you can ever do, as a filmmaker, is to hope that there is someone sitting out there in the audience who actually ends up becoming a filmmaker. The new generation of young filmmakers are out there waiting to take over and a place like Cornerhouse allows that person to sit there and dream.”

Ward says a lack of office experience almost thwarted her 20-year allegiance. “I read an article in the Manchester Evening News about research for a new arts centre for the city, so I kept an eye out and applied for the job as PA to the then-Director, Dewi Lewis,” she recalls.

“My application was actually unsuccessful but my sister also applied and she was invited for interview. In the meantime, she had taken up another position, so she suggested I go for the interview in her place.”

Fortune forgave her cheek. “On arrival I confessed this to Dewi who, although a bit taken aback initially, looked favourably on my nerve and, I like to think, my enthusiasm for the project.” Two months later, Ward was asked to act as an assistant to the newly-appointed Head of Arts and Film.

“Dewi kindly gave me the call back, taking a chance by offering me a job. I grabbed it with both hands. From our offices in the Palace Theatre we watched what was Shaw’s furniture store being rebuilt into the arts centre that has been known for the past 30 years as Cornerhouse – my second home.

“It enhanced Manchester and the north-west’s established cultural world by filling a gap with an exhibition space for emerging artists and art practices, and also hosted a cinema programme of independent and art-house films not screened at the new multiplex cinemas in the area – all in a relaxed environment where people could eat, drink and generally socialise.”

Their relocation next month will be to an enviable top-of-the-range abode: HOME has a 500-seat theatre, 150-seat studio space and five cinema screens. When the Arts Council awarded £5.5 million to the venue, in April 2013, some supporters expressed concern at Cornerhouse moving from its invitingly central home, on a busy road buzzing with pedestrians, to a relatively removed setting.

“I will miss everything about it,” wrote one, fearing that the “brilliant atmosphere” would evaporate and calling the Oxford Street site "perfect and intimate.” Ella Swain, of Cornerhouse, responded by reasoning that the building was struggling to serve 500,000 visitors each year, its early 20th century home posing frequent structural problems.

“People should be more excited about the future with the launch of HOME,” believes Ward. Those pining for their former corner might find solace in the opening exhibition, The Heart is Deceitful Above all Things, described as a group anatomy class of desire, love and regret. “They will be able to experience an even bigger and better offer of theatre, film and art.”

She understands the melancholic edge to the move, naming an encounter with playwright Arthur Miller, who answered questions and signed books at Cornerhouse, as another cherished experience. “As a member of staff it has been an exciting and ever-changing place to work,” she says, her enthusiasm shining through. “There have been many inspirational moments and happy memories.”

• Visit cornerhouse.org and homemcr.org for more and follow @home_mcr and @CornerhouseMcr on Twitter.

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Source: http://www.culture24.org.uk/art522713-cantona-cinemas-and-a-temporary-closure-cornerhouse-moves-manchester-home-after-30-years