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'We want to demonstrate that an organisation rooted in Manchester can contribute meaningfully to global artistic conversations while remaining deeply accountable to its communities.'
Our Director, Xiaowen Zhu, spoke to The Guardian for a feature on esea contemporary's 40th anniversary year, our artistic programme, and some of the many changes undertaken since the organisation's original founding as a grassroots Chinese Visual Arts Festival.
Read the full story here.
esea contemporary has been awarded a grant from the GMCA Culture Fund, which supports organisations delivering high-quality, impactful cultural activity across Greater Manchester. This new funding will enable the expansion of our public engagement programme, including esea ArtClub, across Salford, Trafford, and Stockport.
The funding allows for the recruitment of a new Community Outreach Coordinator, who will collaborate closely with partners in the community, social enterprise, and voluntary sectors, as well as with organisations that assist the elderly, immigrant, and refugee communities, to bring esea contemporary’s activities into libraries, museums, and community centres. We will also stage a series of Lunar New Year celebrations, including family-friendly events, performances, and workshops that nurture cultural pride and shared values.
'Turning 40 feels less like arriving at certainty and more like standing at a threshold. esea contemporary has never been a fixed thing. It has shape-shifted constantly through different moments, generations, migrations and aspirations. What began as a grassroots response to cultural invisibility has become something far more fluid: a space where contemporary art can hold contradiction, intimacy, estrangement and solidarity all at once.'
Our Director Xiaowen Zhu spoke to The Fourdrinier about the organisation's 40th anniversary year, our place in the contemporary art ecosystem, and what the future holds. Read the full article.
Our gallery team is now certified as Carbon Literate, having taken part in a day’s worth of learning and action planning with the Greater Manchester Arts Sustainability Team. Becoming Carbon Literate means gaining the knowledge, confidence, and practical skills to reduce your own carbon footprint, and inspiring and influencing others to do the same.
esea contemporary is proud to be part of the GMAST network, which aims to reduce the environmental impact of the cultural and creative community by working collectively to tackle the climate and ecological crisis.
The Carbon Literacy Project is an UN-recognised, multi-award-winning initiative at the forefront of certified climate learning globally. It exists to provide everyone with access to Carbon Literacy®: the recognised global benchmark for climate understanding and action.
The training was delivered by Bengü Gün, a certified Carbon Literacy Facilitator, who guided the team through a transformative day of reflection and planning.
esea contemporary will receive £359,100 from the Creative Foundations Fund which is helping theatres, performing arts venues, galleries and grassroots music venues in England address urgent infrastructure needs. The investment forms part of the Arts Everywhere Fund, a £1.5 billion package to support cultural infrastructure projects, delivered by Arts Council England on behalf of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.
The funding will allow us to replace the heating, ventilation and air conditioning equipment in our listed building. It will ensure that esea contemporary can continue to deliver a creative programme, safeguarding our role as the UK’s leading platform for East and Southeast Asian contemporary arts and allowing us to expand our engagement with communities across Greater Manchester and beyond.
Last month, we welcomed the Year of the Fire Horse with a special fundraising event co-presented with London's The House of KOKO.
We were thrilled to be joined by over 200 guests from across the worlds of music, film, fashion and the arts for this landmark celebration of the Lunar New Year, including Rashida Jones, Aziz Ansari, Tinie Tempah, Poppy Delevingne, Jazzy De Lisser, Phoebe Dahl , Fiona Xie, Nick Wood and Jamie QQ.
Proceeds from LUNA 2026 will help fund esea contemporary's artistic programme. You can be amongst the first to find out about future special events by becoming a member.
We are delighted to welcome Pio Abad and Skinder Hundal as the newest members of our Board of Trustees.
Pio Abad's artistic practice is concerned with the personal and political entanglements of objects. His wide-ranging body of work, encompassing drawing, installation and archival intervention, examines the legacies of colonialism, political trauma and personal memory. Abad’s artworks are part of a number of important collections including Tate; Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh; Hawaii State Art Museum, Honolulu; Singapore Art Museum; Kadist, Paris/San Francisco and Art Jameel, Dubai. He was nominated for the Turner Prize in 2024.
Skinder Hundal is a distinguished arts leader and cultural leader with an extensive background in international arts, cultural exchange and business strategic modelling for creative organisations. Previously Global Director of Arts at the British Council, he is currently Aakash Odedra Company's Joint CEO, Global Chair for Arts for the think-do tank Value AI Institute and an Associate of World Cities Culture Forum working closely with the Deputy Mayor of Culture, London. He will serve as co-chair alongside Peter Lin.