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Skyliner

@skylinermcr

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Critical thinking walks. Northern Quarter archivist. Advisor for ethical art & places. Contextual researcher for culture. Historian. BOOK COMING SOON

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The artist sent me this of Mr Smith's Dream earlier, its been a long time coming as she's had technical issues but lovely to see it in action.

This sounds two times a day (but I can make it work on demand with a secret code 😉) by @skylinermcr

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2 years ago

Repoating this lovely video that @mcrfinest did with me last year. taken in Manchester, United Kingdom by @skylinermcr

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4 months ago

Educators/public engagers/home schoolers/arts institutes/local authorities/placemakers/everyone in between.

Fledglings is a walking workshop where young people will become critical thinking tour guides for the day.

Students will learn their influence over their environments; from the art we see, the places we play, and the ways we access or dwell in places.

With prompts and encouragement from the UK's only critical-thinking tour guide (that's me!), this is a chance for young people to think like a planner (they probably already do!)

Bookings for groups are open and the offer is national, with individual opportunities opening up from September. by @skylinermcr

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2 years ago

In the winter of 2015, @andrewpbrooks and I created something of an uncanny travelogue of the former Granada site. We met kestels, heard of ghosts and plans for glass bottom boats tours, explored the cinema, underground canal, and former sets - most importantly the Sooty show set.

It's ten years since the project was first published and is now archived over on my site. I loved writing place in this way and signed up for Manchester Writing School's Place Writing MA (@english_manmetuni) soon after 😊

Thanks to the super @here.then.now whose new Granada tours reminded me of this piece of work (which also formed the basis for my 2023 tours for MIF). taken in Manchester, United Kingdom by @skylinermcr

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22 days ago

Grid post for posterity. Despite some recent reels telling you otherwise - The Minut Men are in absolutely no way inspired by the Native Americans in Salford. They're a nod to the more pagan corn king and spring queen pieces by the same artist, William Mitchell, but reimagined for an industrial and technological-facing Salford.

Link in bio for more 🤓 taken in The University of Salford by @skylinermcr

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2 months ago

There's only a few tours left for the rest of summer. This Thursday, a rare midweek tour, and then Saturday 29th. Come and learn about the art and politics of the city's Northern Quarter.

Booking link in bio.

Some Manchester Day shots for attention @manchesterday taken in Manchester, United Kingdom by @skylinermcr

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2 months ago

Recently, @plant_mcr tidied up some of the planting by @siopshop including removing the rather dead looking honeysuckle (which itself replaced the original clematis) planted by Liz Scrine, the artist behind this piece, as part of her 90s mural.

I caught up with Liz earlier and she's delighted about a new lease of life for the wall, with a new purple flowering plant in place. I wonder if this one will fully take over the mural as she'd once intended.

For now, the replacement has meant we get to see a few pieces of the mural that have been covered for a while, like this lovely circular piece covered in the waves of the river Tib.

🌊💚 taken in Northern Quarter, Manchester by @skylinermcr

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3 months ago

Hiya!

Meant to do these "who am I" posts once in a while, right? (Also inspired by someone not knowing what I did for work recently and called me a bum 😅)

I'm Hayley. I'm from Ashton in Makerfield and live in Whalley Range. I've been running Skyliner since 2011, I work as a researcher (in local history and urban placemaking), I'm also a critical thinking tour guide, cultural placemaking strategist, and get involved in all manner of projects that touch on those areas. I also work as @rocking_chair_riot to advise on ethical and equitable culture art and placemaking, including for The Turner Prize in Bradford, and run workshops that teach young people to be critical thinking guides. I'm one of only eight people globally to be awarded a Gehl award for critical thinking skills, and I have a book in the works about the arts led regeneration of the Northern Quarter since the 1960s. Have curated a few art shows too, 'Streetview' was a biggie for me.

I also work creatively with textiles, current projects include a banner of 250(ish) Greater Manchester and Lancashire women, a dress which formed the basis of a tour for The Guardian and Scott Trusts Legacies of Enslavement programme, and an enormous lace tapestry celebrating a super interesting historic figure (to be revealed in the next year if funding is successful)

I was the UK's only City Curator, and I'm a sometime journalist having written for The Guardian, the babes at STAT and global publications like Untapped New York. Occasionally I do bits of location scouting.

I get involved in the management of town centres including night time economy advice, I've also got several years under my belt of ghost writing and speech writing for cultural directors. I have an MA in Place Writing so write creative non fiction for Caught By the River, Elsewhere journal, and Comma Press.

I volunteer locally too, including a couple of hours a month at the soup kitchen near me, litter picking, and helping with school street closures.

I will add, there's not nearly enough work to support me lately, but that's an economy issue, not me being a bum 😜

So hello to new followers! I love collaborating with people so say hi ❤️ taken in Manchester, United Kingdom by @skylinermcr

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4 months ago

In my capacity as @skylinermcr I worked on this amazing programme with @guardian @gmwalks

Other walk leaders were:
💜 @decolonialdogs
💜 @elmisaurus
💜 @anisasaleh73 and Sajida Ismail

And the project was managed by the absolutely awe inspiring Keisha Thompson. taken in Manchester, United Kingdom by @skylinermcr

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5 months ago

This wasn’t one of my walking tours.

This was one I went on myself, yesterday, led by Hayley Flynn of @skylinermcr, as part of the Guardian’s Legacies of Enslavement programme, in partnership with GM Moving.

And honestly, I love going on other people’s walking tours.

Even in the same city. Even when they pass places I talk about on my own tours. There is always something new to learn… or a different way of looking at a place you thought you already knew.

That’s the thing about Manchester. No one tour, no one guide, and no one perspective can ever cover it all.

This walk explored Manchester’s links to transatlantic slavery, cotton, public art, monuments, memory, and how the past is still present in the city around us.

What I particularly like about Hayley’s work is her way of reading the city - critically, carefully, and with real honesty about how stories sit in public space. She had even made a dress for the tour, stitched with repeated words from an inscription in Lincoln Square.

I often hear people who live or work in Manchester say they don’t need to go on a walking tour because they already know the city.

But I’m not sure any of us ever really “know” Manchester.

There are always more layers, more stories, more connections, and different people will help you see different things.

Walking tours are all different. The places matter, of course. But so does the person telling the story: the angle they bring, the things they notice, and the way they help you see familiar streets differently.

A really thoughtful and important walk. Thank you Hayley!

Thanks also to The Guardian’s Legacies of Enslavement programme, GM Moving (@gmwalks), and everyone involved in bringing these fantastic routes together.

#ManchesterWalkingTours #UrbanHistory #Skyliner #GMmoving #LegaciesOfEnslavement taken in Manchester, England, UK by @skylinermcr

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5 months ago

A very special tour, May 20th.

This is part of a four-part commission by The Guardian's Legacies of Enslavement Programme & GM Moving called the Heritage in Action routes. I am so grateful to be working with these two organisations on a free tour.

The Legacies of Enslavement programme understands restorative justice as a process of dialogue and collaboration aimed at repair and healing between The Guardian - an institution that benefited from transatlantic enslavement - and descendants of the enslaved. Manchester was the first industrial city in the world. This was built on the cotton trade. This is a shared history.

This route largely focuses on the public art and monuments of the city and the ethics and equity of them, as well as critically assessing the cultural objects review undertaken by Manchester City Council as a response to BLM in 2020 in an effort to help us to draw the links between our past and present.

Fellow route makers are:
@decolonialdogs
@elmisaurus
@blackhistoryinspires
@anisasaleh73 and Sajida Ismail

[Photo taken during the install of the @axelvoid Peterloo mural feat. my beautiful friend Lydia of @theparentingcollectivecic and for which @raja_miah very generously had me on board for some of the creative process] taken in Manchester, United Kingdom by @skylinermcr

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5 months ago

No one told me the Turner Prize was in town taken in Piccadilly Gardens by @skylinermcr

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6 months ago