I have been meaning to blog about this gig for ages now but it took awhile for the pictures to be given the go ahead and then I got busy, but, better late than never! I was asked by the lovely Gwen Oakden who works at Manchester Art Gallery, to cover this event which was held for the Gallery’s patrons and, to be honest, I got pretty excited – for those who don’t know Manchester, Beetham Tower is by far the tallest building in the city and it completely OWNS the skyline here. Hit the jump for more pics and further write up…
Ian Simpson (pictured above and below) is the architect who designed it and his apartment comprises the top three floors, with 360 degree views of Manchester. It is a spectacular space and not only houses Ian and his family, but also an entire olive grove and quite a few other rather lovely odds and ends. I would love to show all the pictures I took, but part of the agreement Manchester Art Gallery had with Mr Simpson for holding the event there and having a photographer there, was that he would have control over which pictures were used. Completely understandable as it must be somewhat of a privacy invasion having a exited trigger happy photographer running around your home! The event started with a bit of mingling, canapés and champers, and then moved on to a talk by Mr Simpson about his love of art, furniture and beautiful things. The evening concluded with a meal in the Hilton’s Podium restaurant below on the ground floor of the tower. If fellow Mancunians look up at the Beetham Tower on our lovely cloudy days and imagine a dark overlord brooding at the top of his tower they would be completely mis-imagining the truth. Ian Simpson was charming and spoke with humility and passion in regards to his personal art collection insisting that he buys pieces because he loves them, not because of their cost, or their speculative value in the future. He explained that some of the pieces he treasures most have almost no value other than what they mean to him. He is clearly a man with a love of beautiful things and has worked hard to afford himself them. Amen to that. Quite inspiring.
The Harvey Nichols team amongst the olive grove.