Meet the founders!


  • Co-founder & Artist

    Emerging artist and creative producer who co-founded Longsight Art Space and led projects like The Pear Project (which evolved into SNUG). Exhibited across the North-West and made lasting contributions to the space.


  • Director & Curator

    Nearly 20 years in the creative industries as a curator and arts venue operator. Founder of multiple arts organisations, with extensive national and international links. Currently consulting on Manchester's new 10-year Cultural Strategy.

How It Started

Longsight Art Space began as a small experiment, an idea by artists Chris Bailkoski and Chi Emecheta from PROFORMA Arts Ltd, who wanted to see what would happen if contemporary art lived right in the middle of a neighbourhood, not tucked away in the city centre.

They opened the doors in 2021 in a small shop on Northmoor Road, and people started to drop in first for exhibitions and talks, then for workshops, music nights and chai-fuelled conversations. What began as a space for contemporary art soon evolved into something much wider, a place where art, community and everyday life could meet and make sense together.

Along the way, creativity began to move beyond the walls. Together with local residents, we transformed a disused bowling green in Crowcroft Park into The Orchard Garden a community orchard and open-air art space where people now grow, create and connect. That project, part of our SNUG (Sustainable Northmoor Urban Greening) initiative, has since spread further: we’re now working with neighbours to green alleyways, plant trees, and imagine how art can live alongside nature on our streets.

In 2023, Longsight Art Space became a Community Interest Company (CIC) officially led by the same residents who helped shape it. Since then, we’ve hosted exhibitions, craft sessions, storytelling nights, and our annual Our Longsight Festival, which brings the neighbourhood together every summer.

Longsight Art Space has grown from a contemporary art project into a shared community hub where creativity, care and the environment are all part of the same conversation. It’s proof that art doesn’t have to sit on a white wall to make an impact; sometimes, it grows in the park, in an alleyway, or over a cup of tea

Mixed media collage of colorful fabric and paper with cut-out shapes resembling hands, on a reflective gold background with red border.
People gathering outdoors in a park with trees and garden beds, some tents set up, cloudy sky overhead.
Group of people gathered outdoors on a sunny day, some standing and some kneeling, looking at the ground in a garden or park area with trees and a tent in the background.

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