Top 5: Highlights at the 2025 Manchester School of Art Degree Show

The Manchester School of Art Degree Show 2025 is underway, showcasing the next generation of creative, inspiring graduates across architecture, art, design, digital arts, fashion and performance courses at Manchester Met.

This year’s degree show Bloom opened with a private view on Fri 6 Jun, which saw over 3,000 people attend to celebrate the incredible work of the university’s creative graduates. The work on display covers a wide range of impactful themes and concepts while utilising a myriad of technical skills from virtual reality to ceramics and from graphic design to medieval metalwork.

Here are just a few of the must-see highlights of this year’s showcase.

Spice for Life
Independently written, directed and crowdfunded by BA Filmmaking student Saleem Miah, the standout film Spice for Life follows the story of a young man (Adam Hussain, Coronation Street), growing up in foster care, who overcomes cultural divide and discovers the transcendent joy of human connection when he and his foster parent (Lila Lomax, Hollyoaks) begin cooking together.

Saleem said: “Growing up as a British Asian in foster care is not something that is really covered in film or even widely talked about but I think it’s an interesting, uniquely British experience. I grew up in foster care from the age of seven and a lot of the families I was placed with were culturally different to me. It’s one of the main themes of the film and it’s a unique experience but I also think it’s a universal story because it’s about the mother and son relationship, just in an unconventional way.”

The Art Machine
Billed as a provocative, searing satirical commentary on the explosive rise in generative AI and the creative vacuum at its core, Fine Art student Kit Oisin’s The Art Machine calibrates a self-inking analogue stamp mechanism to print out an endless loop of art-related jargon.

Kit said: “The Art Machine is a rumination on my relationship with art, reflecting on my own issues with overproduction while also satirising trendy art writing and generative AI.

“In a culture that values mass production without risk, The Art Machine may be the ideal artist. Thankfully, the work around it gives a more hopeful view of where we’re headed. What I’m showing is a look at where I’ve been, a vision of where I’m going, and a love letter to the culture I’m in.”

Empower the Dolls
Elsewhere, BA Product Design and Craft undergraduate Astrid Davis presents a captivating series of wearable medieval-inspired chainmail designs. Titled Empower the Dolls, her project features clothing hand-forged from mild-steel and copper using historic blacksmith techniques.

Astrid said: “Empower the Dolls initially started off with looking at how you can suit up and protect yourself from oncoming attacks emotionally from society. Then, the idea developed into looking at our relationship with our bodies, particularly transfeminine people, and how you can physically cover up to conceal your insecurities and vulnerabilities. I wanted to create a conversation and bring to light the personal everyday struggles of people with gender dysmorphia.

The Unseen Network
Other highlights of Bloom include The Unseen Library, a community book swap initiative created by Interior Design student Molly Wrigley, developed with an ethos of connecting people through literature.

Molly said: “I have explored the link between loneliness and overconsumption, creating a community book swap library that is dedicated to connecting individuals with each other as well as their environment. It proposes the question, ‘What if we reconnected through reading?’”

Ceramics by Amy Bradnock
Amy Bradnock, a talented Fine Art student who has been chosen for the Venice Fellowships Programme, showcases her spellbinding ceramic works, rendered as collapsed organic shapes designed to explore the transient, kinetic nature of identity.

Amy said: “I always want to engage with material with my hands and I think working with clay feels quite personal. I had never used ceramics before I came to Manchester Met so it was quite a new process for me.

“I’m quite excited. I’ve never shown these larger ceramics to the public before, because they take quite a long time to make.”

For more information and to see all the artists featured in Bloom, click HERE.