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Puma initiative to find best alternative music talent, £70 million plan for new Hulme university campus and Manchester exhibition wins prestigious national award.
Got the Puma factor?
Multinational sports goods company Puma has launched a search for the best of Manchester's up and coming alternative music talent.
The winners, who will be chosen by a judging panel of music experts and Puma representatives, will get to play alongside Pete and The Pirates at a gig at Moho Live on May 14. They will also receive a year's consultancy with leading music industry professional Ewan Grant, who managed Feeder and Joss Stone, to help put them on the road to success.
And there's more. Puma will whisk the winners away into a professional studio to record two tracks that will be released digitally. The studio work will be supported with a promotional campaign, including a photo shoot and six-date UK live tour.
To enter the competition go to www.pumamanchester.com and upload your tracks.
£70 million university campus plan announced
Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU) has unveiled plans to create a £70 million campus in Hulme, in what has been hailed as a massive regeneration boost for the area.
If it gets the go-ahead following public consultation later on this spring, the campus will bring education and training for teachers, social workers and healthcare professionals onto a single site, to replace MMU campuses in Rusholme and Didsbury. Altogether, around 5,000 students will use the site, named Birley Fields, among them a high number of mature students who live and work in the city.
Coming in the middle of an economic recession, the development is particularly welcomed by the city as it is expected to create jobs, open up new education and training opportunities, and provide a host of spin-off benefits to the communities of Hulme and neighbouring Moss Side.
The mummy wins it
The Manchester Museum's exhibition Lindow Man: A bog body mystery has won a prestigious national award.
The exhibition, which explores the mysterious life and death of an Iron Age man found in a peat bog at Lindow Moss, Cheshire, fought off competition from eight other finalists to win the Temporary Exhibition Design category at this year's Design Week Awards. Created in-house, in collaboration with the people involved in the original excavation and a forensic scientist, it was chosen for the quality and simplicity of its design and execution.
Lindow Man: A bog body mystery continues to run at The Manchester Museum until April 19.
Band on the Wall counts down to relaunch
Manchester's iconic music venue Band on the Wall has appointed a new CEO and music programmer in the run-up to its big relaunch this September.
Incoming CEO Gavin Sharp is no stranger to the Swan Street venue, having worked there as marketing and programme manager in the past. More recently, he worked at Liverpool Philharmonic Hall, where he produced its Capital of Culture programme.
Sharp will be working closely with new music programmer Mike Chadwick, who has worked as a radio broadcaster since 1991.
One of the cornerstones of Manchester's music scene for the best part of the last century, Band on the Wall has hosted some unforgettable concerts, from Manchester greats like Buzzcocks, The Fall and Joy Division to internationally acclaimed artists including Mica Paris, Bjork and Art Blakey.
Closed since 2005 for redevelopment, the transformed venue promises state-of-the-art new facilities and a cutting-edge music programme befitting its legacy.
Time ticking for BOMA entries
If you live or work in Manchester and believe your creative talent ought to be recognised, then you need to hurry up and enter this year's Best of Manchester Awards (BOMA).
Organised by Urbis, the annual BOMA celebrates the work of Manchester's most innovative artists, musicians and fashion designers. Now in its third year, the event is one of the most important dates in the city's cultural calendar.
The 2009 competition is open to entries until May 1 and the entrants will have their work evaluated by a panel of 24 judges, including Turner Prize-winner Jeremy Deller, design superstar Peter Saville, fashion guru Wayne Hemingway and painter Liam Spencer.
The winners will be announced at an awards ceremony at Urbis on July 23. In addition to a £2,000 cheque, they will have the chance to have their work shown as part of a major exhibition at Urbis this summer, and all the exposure they need to kick-start their careers.
For more information and to enter online, visit www.urbis.org.uk/thebestofmanchester.
