What's on
Ongoing

The Door Opened: 1980s China

Lower Ground Floor Exhibition Space

One can argue that nostalgia is the strongest emotion, a pure mixture of wistfulness and melancholy. Adrian Bradshaw, an English photographer, brings that sense of yearning into full focus in […]

150 years of the Together Trust

Wolfson Reading Room

The exhibition tells the story of the Together Trust’s 150-year history in Manchester and the north west. It charts the development of this disability charity from its origins as a […]

A Northern Life – it’s not all about Margaret

First Floor Display Cases

Welcome to the wonderful world of local artist Lorraine Rudyard. Lorraine creates three-dimensional sculptures using recycled materials and vintage finds. Her work is colourful, humorous, warm and engaging, and reflects […]

Queen Elizabeth II and Manchester Exhibition

Archives+ Ground Floor

This June marks the 70th year anniversary that Queen Elizabeth II has been on the throne. To celebrate this, we host an exhibition to celebrate her life so far, and […]

Polish Heritage Days Exhibition

First Floor Exhibition Hall

The Polish Heritage Days is an annual festival organised and run under the patronage of the Polish Embassy in London. The idea behind Polish Heritage Days is to promote and […]

Every Picture Tells a Story

Archives+ Ground Floor

Heritage Schools (part of Heritage England), Archives+ and artist Lorraine Rudyard, have created an exhibition working with 12 year-5 classes from Manchester schools. The schools have created figures for scenes […]

Manchester Histories Festival 2022

Performance Space

Manchester Histories Festival are delighted to be returning to Manchester Central Library. Throughout the festival, the library will play host to a series of events featuring talks from environmental activists […]

For those who are to come

Wolfson Reading Room

For those who are to come presents the diverse faces and colours of Amazonia. The exhibition was first shown at COP26 and is now in Manchester for the first time […]

David Adetayo Olusoga OBE

Performance Space

On Sunday 7 June 2020, protestors marching to support the Black Lives Matter movement in Bristol tore down the statue of slave trader Edward Colston and threw it in the […]

Climate Change is a Race and Migration Issue

Performance Space

This panel presentation and discussion will look at the history of migration, and how environmental refugees have always been there but have been increasing drastically over recent decades. Manchester’s history […]

GHOORNI – a Disastrous Cycle by Ayna Arts

A powerful drama performance about a young person piecing together their grandfather’s arrival in the UK from Bangladesh in the ’70s, when due to the colonial legacies of conflict and […]

Create Your Own Climate Cartoon

A short, illustrated behind the scenes talk by professional cartoonist Polyp, revealing what goes into creating one of his climate cartoons, followed by a hands on workshop session helping aspiring […]