Art Comes Home to the River

Advantages: Easily accessible, free, ever changing
Disadvantages: none!

...*****The Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art***** On Saturday last week, my boyfriend and I went down to the Baltic Art Gallery on the south banks of the river Tyne for a bit of a cultural visit. I had been before, as I live locally, but it was a first for my vaguely sceptical bloke. For anyone who doesn't know already, Baltic is a relatively new Art Gallery, known fondly by locals as Tate on Tyne, and housed in a former flour mill that has stood empty for years and years, home only to seagulls and pigeons before renovation completely transformed it into the beautiful art space it is now. The idea for the Baltic began back in 1991 when Northern Arts announced very publicly that it wanted to change the face of Tyneside, breathing new life into an idea that Newcastle was a vibrant city, full of artist possibilities and as...

phoenixgreen 12.09.2006 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Review of The Baltic Center for Contemporary Art, Newcastle

Contemporary Arts in Bristol

Advantages: Good variety of events, many of which are free
Disadvantages: Hard to say

...with readings by contemporary poets such as Simon Armitage, and a poetry slam between Liverpool and Bristol. This type of event, however, is not always free; check the Arnolfini website for ticket prices. The upper floors of the Arnolfini can be reached by either stairs or a lift, and there seemed to be quite a few people wheeling buggies around on the top floor. Toilets are available on the top floor as well as adjacent to the cafe on the ground floor, where there are also baby-changing facilities. Considered as one of Europe's leading centres for the contemporary arts, the Arnolfini is worthy of a visit by anyone interested in visual art, film, poetry, or dance. It is, however, closed on Mondays, except for Bank Holidays. You can sign up at Arnolfini's website for their newsletter to be sent to you by either email or post; since events...

denella 20.08.2008 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of Arnolfini, Bristol

MA Contemporary Art & Design Practice

Advantages: Very easy access, good library
Disadvantages: bottom of league table, very low teaching level, bad programme organistion

...I'm a professional graphic designer and didn?t get anything out of the postgraduate course Contemporary Art & Design Practice. The tuition fee for one year full time for EU/ Home student: 4990£ and International student: around 12000£ is very high for the poor teaching service and quality. The programme leaders for MA Contemporary Art & Design Practice couldn?t support me at all. If you intended to do graphic design or digital art you would be best off studying somewhere else. Programme leaders and personal tutors did their entire degree in fine arts and are working professionally only in this field. No need to say that you won?t get any useful support and advice in the other fields. In addition you won?t get the assessment you deserved as they won't understand what you have done at the end, especially when you are a graphic designer...

postgraduate 19.08.2009 (23.08.2009) · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of East London University

The Art of Death

Advantages: Good second half, some interesting details
Disadvantages: Clunky plot, a bit meandering

...halfway through it was much better. The main character is Adelia - "The Mistress of the Art of Death" - i.e a forensic pathologist. Her struggle to conceal her profession is quite prominent in the plot as female doctors were unusual in the twelfth century. She is helping Simon of Naples discover the killer through the clues left on the bodies of the victims. I found this quite interesting although I'm not sure how realistic it would be in the twelfth century. The plot does wander a bit as it is so concerned with Adelia and her origins and training. The character of Rowley (the King's so-called tax inspector) is ok but the romance seems to have been thrown in as a bit of an afterthought and didn't add anything to the story for me. Mansur and Gyltha offered some light relief as the servants as did Gyltha's grandson Ulf. Simon of Naples was...

mogdred1 27.01.2009 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of Mistress of the Art of Death - Ariana Franklin

Art Attack?

Advantages: Keeps the action going.
Disadvantages: Unoriginal, poor performances.

...74. Kickboxer 3: The Art of War (1992) This all feels a little like déjà vu, especially after watching American Ninja 3. Once again there is a fighting tournament in a tropical location. This time Rio De Janeiro. An American kickboxing champion, David Sloan, arrives with his sensei, Xian, in tow. On first sight Xian looked a little like Lee Van Cleef, or maybe that was the spectre of 1984 TV series Master Ninja repeating on me. Either way, it helps signify that this was the tale end of a long running era of budget American martial arts films and television shows. The first classic cliché comes quickly when the hapless heroes are mugged by a small Brazilian boy, Marcos, and his sister, Isabella. Naturally, after a long chase through the back alleys of Rio and the kicking of same random thugs, they befriend the knife wielding...

ThePolarOne 10.12.2008 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Review of Kickboxer 3 - The Art Of War (DVD)

Minimalist Art

Advantages: Central, cheap, artistic
Disadvantages: No facilities, rubbish breakfast

...For some reason, I booked a week's holiday to Brussels. On my own. It should be stated straight away that I didn't have a great holiday, but I'll try not to let that influence my views of the hotel itself. The Comfort Hotel Art Siru (or the Siru as I'll refer to it from now on) is a strange beast. A few years ago, around 130 contemporary Belgian artists were commissioned to decorate each of the 101 rooms, to create the world's first 'Art Hotel'. Every room is decorated with unique and original paintings or sculptures, and it really is a lovely idea. The bizarre thing is that you'd expect this kind of innovation in some kind of high-end resort hotel. The sort of place that has huge suites where actors are interviewed about their latest film against the background of a new and daring work of art. The Siru, on the other hand, is...

Olly_Plimsoll 07.08.2007 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of Comfort Hotel Art Siru, Sint-Joost-ten-Node

The Brutal Art - an incredible, gripping read

Advantages: Brilliant, gripping book
Disadvantages: You will need to break off to sleep!

...OK, first things first: this is an odd book. No, really. It spins a dark and wonderful yarn spanning generations, with a heavy hint of menace, long-lost family secrets, shadowy and controlling people and a love story. Whew! I'll try to explain what the book's about, but it's complicated, so bear with me, OK? There's a New York art dealer called Ethan Muller, who's fast becoming disillusioned with the artists he shows, the art collectors he sells to and the whole art world. He has a very complicated, not to say twisted, relationship with his father, with whom he mainly communicates via his father's long-term friend and employee, Tony. One day Tony tells him he's found some amazing drawings in an abandoned apartment in Queens. Ethan reluctantly agrees to look at the pictures and is stunned by what he finds: a "map of reality as...

Bitchqueenofneworleans 02.04.2009 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of The Brutal Art - Jesse Kellerman

The Art (Of Forgetting A Clothes Peg)

Advantages: Centrally placed with reasonable room rates. Nice staff. Well furnished
Disadvantages: Area never totally quiet - get a room at the back. No immediately obvious disabled facilities

...When I wrote about my experiences in Lisbon a few months back, I was taken to task for spending too much time describing the hotel, so this time, things are going to be a little different. With a distinct sense of trepidation I'm going to write about a hotel as a stand-alone item for the first time ever, quaking at the thought of my opinion being compared to one by Ciao's very own 'unpaid hotel inspector', Uncle Bill's nephew himself, Richada! I've just got back from 5 very enjoyable nights in Athens (and the days weren't bad either!). Part of what made it enjoyable was our stay at The Art Hotel, Marni Street 27, Athens. To be honest, it would be difficult to describe how to get there from the airport as we'd pre-booked a taxi, which ended up stuck in horrendous Monday night traffic, made worse by an obliging perfectly...

BNibbles 28.10.2007 (30.11.2007) · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Review of Art Hotel, Athens

Arty Des Arts!

Advantages: Original building, nice and clean and decent rooms
Disadvantages: Could have quirkier rooms to match the rest of the hotel.

...perceived it from stood outside. Inside was a mix of modern touches such as the small lobby lounge with a flat screen pc for guests to use mixed in with the artistic and very Parisian style furniture and the art that hung on nearly every wall. I actually if I'm honest couldn't decide if I liked it or not as I did because it was boutique and intimate and at the same time some of the decor was too 'old fashioned' looking for my taste. However I think if you came to this hotel you wouldn't be disgusted by it and as you don't recoil in horror when you check in to a hotel that that has to be a good thing! The rooms: I would say I expected the rooms to be different after the decor of the hotel in the lobby and I guess it was because they seemed a little boring somehow - the lobby area had nice chairs and lots of art along with flowers...

frankiecesca 19.12.2008 (18.12.2008) · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Review of Hotel des Arts Montmartre, Paris

York Art Gallery

Advantages: Free
Disadvantages: Small collection

...for me is that these areas also feature works from contemporary artists, including video, photography, ceramics, painting and installation. There is nothing better than contemporary art works to put a historical collection in to perspective, it also gives contemporary artists an exhibition space for there work to find the public eye, and hopefully inject some interest in modern works. I was impressed to see that the gallery had managed to get a Monet as part of the opening exhibition, which is good going for a provincial gallery, ironically enough the subject is flood waters, an apt painting for York whether by accident or design, as the Ouse is well known for spilling over its banks on a regular basis, in York I think there must have been an element of planning in there somewhere, one of the curators must have a dark sense of humour...

jouk04 05.09.2005 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Review of York Art Gallery