An ‘ornament to the town’? The Royal Manchester Institution and early public art patronage in Manchester

Abstract

The rapid rise of Manchester as Liverpool’s commercial rival produced an industrial and commercial elite determined to forge a community based on cultural achievement as well as economic endeavour. This chapter explores the cultural plans to reshape Manchester and the role of the Royal Manchester Institution in providing a focal point for the leading figures in the Manchester art world. In doing so it explores how art was used to position Manchester as a major British city and an alternative source of patronage and power to both Liverpool and London. Public exhibitions may not have been commercially successful but they offered a challenge to the dominance of the Royal Academy and a platform for a new generation of emerging northern artists.