Exclusive: Antwerp Mansion reveal a new venue for Halloween, with a new initiative for young artists

Antwerp Mansion has been back as an evening club for a few weeks now. As Halloween approaches, spooky sounds are coming from the haunted house. Antwerp Mansion revealed via this Facebook event that their Halloween 'Deathtrap Disco' will be twinned with a new sister venue, the location to be announced soon.

Antwerp also want their new venue to be 'antwerp-ed', and are offering paid positions to young artists who want to help with the decor.

Building on our last interview, The Tab Manchester spoke exclusively again to owner Andy Mansion and arts coordinator Lizzie to get the latest update.

Andy, I see on you have a secret venue arranged for Halloween, can you tell me any more about this?

No! Exciting isn’t it?

Why have you found a new location?

Basically, we are now having problems fitting all our arts events and our music into one venue because of the restrictions that have been placed on us by the actions of the council. So, some time ago, I started looking around for a new location that I felt was interesting enough to feel like it could be a part of the mansion.

Very recently, I found one. So what we are going to do is ‘Antwerp-up’ this new venue, so when you enter it it feels like a new room at Antwerp Mansion that you have not seen before, and in there, you are going to be able to enjoy all the same music events that you’ve enjoyed over the years at Antwerp Mansion, just in a different location, and with a 3am closing time.

At the same time, we will still be running some of our event nights at Antwerp Mansion, with the 11pm closing time. Effectively, you will have an early close and a late close for our events.

How can students get involved with the ‘Antwerp-ing’ of this new location?

We are already putting a shout out for graffiti artists and lovers of decor to come and help us with ideas- there is even a little money around- nobody is expected to work for free! Contact Antwerp Mansion Arts on Facebook for more details.

Antwerp is doing what it has always done, supporting the arts by putting some of the best events, club and otherwise, so that we can support talent that can’t support themselves, so if you wanna help, buy a ticket, come and have a beer and I’ll see you at the bar.

Arts Coordinator Lizzie, performing outside the mansion

Arts Coordinator Lizzie added that "While Manchester has a great artistic scene there is nothing that caters specifically for young independent emerging artists. In this current climate, artists are being exploited by venues and programmers.

We wanted to join up with an institution that has always supported artists, and here is where Antwerp is different. Antwerp was originally established by artists for artists, and is still run by artists and still cares. Antwerp gives young pioneering creatives an opportunity to take risks that may not pay off financially but will pay off artistically."