esea contemporary: Relaunch of a Northern Quarter arts and culture centre and its new exhibition

A non-profit art centre in Manchester city centre is relaunching with a brand new exhibition.

Formerly the Centre for Chinese Contemporary Art, esea contemporary in the Northern Quarter specialises in presenting artists and art practices that identify with and are informed by East and South East Asian culture.

The new exhibition ‘Practise Til We Meet’ includes moving images, installations, wall works, videos, paintings and a newly commissioned sculpture and opens to the public on Saturday February 18.

Xiaowen Zhu, director at esea contemporary, said:“It’s with great pleasure to be relaunching esea contemporary 36 years after its birth as an artist-initiated, community-oriented arts festival in Manchester.

“The centre’s new name indicates our profound trust in the ESEA community and this significant transformation has grown from a collective will to redefine and re-envision the organisation’s purpose and mission.

“Working with Hanlu Zhang to present this inaugural exhibition represents our responsibility to show, archive and convey contemporary ESEA community stories and memories.”

She also said the centre is hoping to run monthly - or even weekly - workshop events to get the community actively involved in arts and culture.

We visited esea contemporary just before opening day to find out more.