Featured image and gallery: Ciara Reynolds

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There’s a new collective on the block that’s changing the way we interact with art. Eloise Chamberlain and Melissa Haigh are taking the culture scene in Manchester by storm with their innovative new art collective, Nice One, and it’s bringing art to the people.

The most recent installation of the collective was Nice4 A4, which took place in February at Green Arches, Manchester. In the Green Quarter, a hidden tap-room and brewery can be found with ‘BAR’ illuminated above its humble archway door. Nice4 A4 brought together over 40 local independent artists each exhibiting an A4 piece in the venue.

Since its debut exhibition in September 2023, Nice One has confirmed the undercurrent of Manchester’s art scene, going against the grain to provide a platform for emerging creatives. 

The idea itself was borne out of a passion for art, friendship, community and strong values that have allowed Nice One too to build momentum with each installation, tucking multiple sold out events under their belt, including a New Year’s Eve party.

The display was intended to be viewed as a whole, celebrating the versatility of Manchester’s art scene, accompanied by music from local DJs who played across the entire five hours. 

The event hosted a range of artistic mediums including: photography, weaves, paintings and zines, which were all spaced across Green Arches white walls. And while the brief was A4 artwork, the various interpretations allowed each artist to demonstrate their individuality, allowing Nice One to carve out its own beautiful corner in the industry.

As a passion project of lifelong friends, Nice One has steadily built a community of friends and creatives alike. We spoke to creators Eloise Chamberlain and Melissa Haigh about their journeys so far.

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Can you tell us how Nice One started and the aims behind the project?

Mel: “So we both moved here for uni. We both study different courses, but realised that a lot of the subject matter of artworks were similar, based around friendships community, just people in our lives. We then started thinking it was a good idea to create exhibitions around this.

We met with a few venues and then started to build a really nice connection with Green Arches in the Green Quarter. It started as a little like a passion project, like just something we thought we’ll try and see how it turns out… I think the thing that we realised in the first event was the amount of connections people made.”

Eloise: “Because before I did this, there was the rave culture exhibition for Homegrown at YES. And that’s the first thing I’ve ever curated. And then Mel and I were like, should we do keep doing this?”

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What do you think of Manchester’s art scene at the moment?

Melissa: “Obviously, it’s difficult to start something and to actually gain the momentum to go anywhere, but also it means there’s loads of new stuff popping up. People starting things and seeing how it goes. I feel like that’s nice. It kind of gives you the freedom to explore things, whether they’re going to work or not, which is nice. Like if the over saturation is taken in a competitive way, we’re not getting anywhere. And I think it’s a good thing, even if it’s oversaturated with artists, but that means it’s oversaturated with people who enjoy art.”

Eloise: “I was really passionate when we started it about getting all the other Manchester creatives involved, because there’s so many.”

Melissa: “We’re trying to create a space for people to exhibit…from the first event, one person got offered to join a collective.”

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What’s the curation process like?

Melissa: “I’ve been in other exhibitions, we’re taught to be critical about things, which is nice, because it gives me like direction with how things are selected. A lot of the people who we get to exhibit, it’s people whose work I’ve seen, and I’ve thought that has a space.

In terms of the actual setup, luckily, Green Arches has amazing space, which is really difficult to find. And we’re given complete freedom, like with the space to make it however we want. So we just kind of do that together, to see what works well, through a lot of trial and error.”

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What does the future look like for Nice One?

Melissa: “We want to just keep this peaceful. Yeah, expand to other venues…just kind of see where that can go. We want to keep art at the centre of it, although we love having DJs and we love the music side of it. I think art has always been our main focus.”

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How did the name Nice One come about?

Eloise: “There were some music inspired ones because we’ve grown up on the same music, so our first exhibition was called Happy house exhibition. And we were gonna call the whole thing ‘Happy House’.”

Melissa: “Held hands was one and we were gonna do like, what if we held hands here?”

Eloise: “But Nice One felt like familiar and not intimidating like everyone’s welcome.”

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How can people get involved?

Melissa: “At the next event come and speak to us and like, show us your art will be like, Oh, we love that.”

Eloise: “I feel like just building relations with people, finding people that you have stuff in common with is the best way to do it.”

Melissa: “But to get involved with us, we are quite like people, people like, fine. Like, if you see us in person speak to us.”