Winner: Best City and Neighbourhood Blog 2011
Shortlisted: Best Arts and Culture Blog 2011
Based in Manchester, Skyliner is about sharing stories of unusual art, architecture and history with a view to enthusing residents of their cities to love where they live, and an ultimate aim to acquire and share knowledge freely.
Every city is amass with surprising and significant sights and stories that are in danger of being forgotten. Every building has a hidden story that can transform the way in which you view and interact with it. It’s staggering to think that there’s public art which has been made within our lifetime yet goes uncredited….and it will forever do so if we don’t ask questions about it. There are archives being destroyed; there are stories we can save.
Awareness of our art and our history can help drive passion for important sites; it can help save buildings in danger; it can expand minds; it can inspire people.
Eventually Skyliner would like to be a nationwide database of locations and stories from across the UK that have been saved from the brink of being forgotten, because after all, a memory lives only as long as the last person who remembers it…
You can listen to my BBC interview about Skyliner here.
Press and Projects:
Since its beginning Skyliner has been featured and recommended in publications across the globe, including Creative Tourist’s Best UK Arts Blogs, The Telegraph, Flavorwire, The British Council, and during the latter half of 2012 it appeared twice in The Guardian.
At the beginning of 2013 Skyliner premiered its first art show; Streetview at 2022NQ to critical acclaim across the UK - the show was also featured in many national publications including coverage from the BBC and The Guardian. Prints from the show are available to buy here
Your involvement:
If you want to photograph or illustrate anything for Skyliner (and potentially be republished on international sites that I contribute articles to) then just email me. Or if you have another idea for collaboration I’d love to hear it.
Finally:
Skyliner is one person, and is self-funded. If you approach me to help on your project that will benefit from the information I share with you then please help me to make a living, or credit me so that others can.
The creator of Skyliner is Hayley Flynn.
A lover of looking up, opening closed doors, microfilm, and architectural illustrations. I love art and cities, and as a consequence I am now a tour guide, curator, location scout and researcher. Master of none.
I can also be found writing for Creative Tourist, Untapped Cities, Manchester Confidential, Now Then Manchester, Twigs and Apples, and 2022 magazine. In 2013 my article about the former Piccadilly Hotel will appear in print as part of Manchester Art Gallery’s Dreams Without Frontiers publication curated by Dave Haslam.
I have been known to babble on a bit on the radio too, I was the ‘Voice of Manchester 2000-2012’ on the Beeb for a Diamond Jubilee special in 2012.
And I have a second, much-abandoned blog all about reading other people’s mail: Lost Touch
Unless otherwise stated, all written work and images are my own. So beware…
Skyliner is part of the UK Web Archive
