The old Granada Studios in Manchester will host The Manchester Contemporary and Buy Art Fair for the next three years, the Manchester Evening News reports.
The studios, which were built in 1956 and closed in 2013, are a real landmark in British television history. They hosted The Beatles’ first television performance in 1962. The cult drama Coronation Street, the world’s longest running serial, was also shot there.
As the newspaper points out, this refocus on art is particularly appropriate for the building. Baron Sidney Berstein, the founder of Granada TV, was a keen art collector.
Works by modern masters including Chagall and Modigliani used to hang on the building’s walls to “inspire the employees.” Upon his death in 1993, the collection was split, with some works shared between Manchester Art Gallery, the Whitworth Art Gallery, and a private collection.
“Old Granada Studios offers the perfect scale, flexibility and city centre location to develop our art fairs alongside each other,” commented the two fairs’ managing director Thom Hetherington.
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