As the days get longer and the sun finally begins to make a sporadic appearance, we’d dare to say that Spring is nearly here, bringing with it an array of cracking free things to get stuck into to bring on the season of new beginnings in style.
From Portico pop-ups to protest painting, check out our guide for the best free things to do in Manchester this week.
Celebrate International Women’s Day this year with Brighter Sound’s insane takeover of the Depot Mayfield for a launch of a bold and brilliant new manifesto for gender equality in the music industry.
The project sees the premiere of a large-scale and immersive audiovisual installation created by multimedia artist Rebecca Smith, aka Urban Projections, and developed over the past few months with the support of a group of creative women (inclusive) from the North of England.
Running until midnight, expect a phenomenal line-up of some of the best talent the city has to offer including the likes of Girls Don’t Sync and Shannen SP.
Hosted by the lovely lot behind recent Northern Quarter favourite, Feel Good Club, is an incredible community Q+A session with Musica and Ellie Consta, the Artistic Director of Her Ensemble, a superb string orchestra.
The collective formed during the pandemic with an admirable aim to make a lasting positive impact on the gender gap in the music industry, while also creating safe spaces for musicians of marginalised genders.
With delicious bites and drinks available throughout, head over for a wholesome evening of good conversation, good food and, of course, good vibes.
The Portico Library has heaps of super cool free stuff to get stuck into this week including its huge array of ‘Polite’ events and activities that centre around the newest free exhibition, Sit Down & Get Out! The trouble with ‘polite society’.
Whether that’s the ‘Where I’m Coming from…’ discussion on Wednesday, all about how the manners, customs, and expectations we grow up with differ from place to place, or the Getting Better: Mental health, wellbeing and ‘polite society’ talk—this is bound to make you think about politeness in a way you never have before.
End the festival with the Portico Pop-Up Gallery and Art Swap which only has one rule–’make one, take one’–for a great opportunity to nab some new artwork and express your creativity within a safe and friendly community.
For the second of their open sessions, Jez Dolan has worked in collaboration with Short Supply to explore the current Derek Jarman exhibition at Manchester Art Gallery. Led by the director of Short Supply, Mollie Balshaw will use Jarman’s most poignant works as a vehicle to express queerness and how that manifests in his paintings, assemblage and process.
While all materials will be provided, be sure to bring along any other bits and bobs that you’d like to use for your own painting.
- Words:
- Rhiannon Ingle
- Published on:
- Sun 6 Mar 2022
Head to MMU’s Brooks Building to start the week with a brilliant open exhibition of art and culture celebrating the creative talent of Manchester. With donations going toward homelessness charity, Real Change MCR, this is a great way to immerse yourself in the city’s art scene whilst also supporting a great cause.
Featuring a whole host of brilliant artists, photographers, musicians, poets and many more—why not give this one a try?