Library Live

Queen Elizabeth II and Manchester Exhibition
2022-05-05 08:00 - 2022-06-30 17:00 UTC | 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 her links to Manchester. This fascinating photographic and video exhibition celebrates the Queen’s life. Included are several photographs of visits the Queen has made to Manchester. In addition to the photographic display, we are showing video clips of her visits to Greater Manchester. These clips, lasting approximately 25 minutes long, have been put compiled by Manchester Metropolitan University’s North West Film Archive, who are one of the Archives+ partners based at Central Library.
Free – drop in – please consider making a donation if you can either online or at one of our cash or contactless donation boxes in Central Library

Polish Heritage Days Exhibition
2022-05-09 08:00 - 2022-06-30 17:00 | 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 celebrate Polish culture, heritage of past generations, and Polish contribution to the cultural, economic, and social life of the United Kingdom.

Together with the Consulate General of the Republic of Poland in Manchester, Polish Centre Wilno Manchester and Artists from Silesian University Art Institute we’re bringing a Polish Poster Exhibition to the Central Library in Manchester. The theme of this year’s PHD and the poster exhibition is the 130th anniversary of the birth of three Polish generals: Władysław Anders, Stanisław Maczek and Stanisław Sosabowski who made a significant contribution to the victory of the Allies during World War II and to the strengthening of the Polish community in Great Britain.

Polish Heritage Days to coroczny festiwal organizowany i prowadzony pod patronatem Ambasady RP w Londynie. Ideą Polish Heritage Days jest promowanie i celebrowanie polskiej kultury, dziedzictwa minionych pokoleń oraz polskiego wkładu w życie kulturalne, gospodarcze i społeczne Wielkiej Brytanii.

Wraz z Konsulatem Generalnym RP w Manchesterze, Polskim Centrum Wilno w Manchesterze oraz Artystami z Instytut Sztuk Plastycznych Uniwersytetu Śląskiego przywozimy do Biblioteki Centralnej w Manchesterze wystawę plakatu polskiego. Tematem tegorocznej wystawy jest 130. rocznica urodzin trzech polskich generałów: Władysława Andersa, Stanisława Maczka i Stanisława Sosabowskiego, , którzy wnieśli znaczący wkład w zwycięstwo aliantów podczas II wojny światowej i we wzmocnienie polskiej społeczności w Wielkiej Brytanii.

Free – drop in – please consider making a donation if you can either online or at one of our cash or contactless donation boxes in Central Library

Every Picture Tells a Story
2022-06-06 08:00 - 2022-08-13 17:00 | 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 to go in front of local listed buildings. The children learned about the history of Central Library and then visited the venue to create their scenes.
Free – drop in – please consider making a donation at our cash or contactless donation boxes

For those who are to come
2022-06-09 08:00 - 2022-06-16 17:00 | 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 as part of the festival. Curated by Eduardo Carvalho and Vanessa Gabriel–Robinson the exhibition presents photographs from three influential photographers that show the different Amazonias within a single Amazonia: Marcela Bonfim, from Rondônia State; Bruno Kelly, from Amazonas State; and Nailana Thiely, from Pará State.
Free – please drop in

Art Assembly: City as Art School Exhibition
2022-06-18 09:00 - 2022-08-03 17:00 | Wolfson Reading Room
Foundation Art and Design Students from The Manchester College have brought the Art School’s ethos of research to the iconic circular reading room with a series of stunning works. Each exhibited board is an insight in to personal research and subject matter, produced in traditional messy art school rooms where students become inspired and have tested the possibilities of ideas, research and practical production.
The exhibition launches on Saturday 18 June as part of a day of Art Assembly actvities and events taking place across 19 Manchester venues, and runs till Wed 27 July. Art Assembly is a one-day festival of art, brought to you by Art Fund with some of Manchester’s leading arts organisations including Castlefield Gallery, HOME, Manchester Art Gallery, The Whitworth and The Manchester College. The theme of this year’s festival is ‘City as Art School’. With new work by Greater Manchester artists popping up around the city, everywhere will become a spot for creative learning.
Visit the Art Assembly website to find out more and download a map for the day.
Free – drop in – please consider making a donation at our cash or contactless donation boxes

The Darker Side of Pink
2022-06-20 08:00 - 2022-07-17 17:00
A Breast Cancer Awareness Exhibition Tour
Patient advocacy group METUPUK, is hosting a pop-up exhibition throughout the venue to highlight the need to improve care and research around secondary (metastatic) breast cancer. The exhibition aims to highlight the seriousness of Metastatic Breast Cancer (MBC) the biggest killer of women under the age of 50 here in the UK – via a powerful display that counteracts other ‘fluffier’, baby pink-branded campaigns. The campaign ‘The Darker Side of Pink’ is a physical interactive mobile and online experience. The Darker Side of Pink features 31 transparent figures, to depict the invisibility of the disease – one for each woman who dies every day from Metastatic Breast Cancer. Each figure contains a QR code that plays a video from a real-life woman living with secondary breast cancer, explaining the struggles and issues they face. Filmed only last year, some of these brave women unfortunately have died from the disease, becoming a statistic they spoke about whilst also campaigning for change, to benefit others. Many of these videos are incredibly emotional, as befits the seriousness of the topic.
METUPUK is a self-funded charity and the only patient advocacy group in the UK focussing on secondary (metastatic) breast cancer. Founder Jo Taylor created the group in 2016 to campaign and promote the issues affecting those diagnosed, highlighting the red flag signs and symptoms, access to drugs, treatments, and clinical trials. The volunteer-led organisation works to push and promote issues affecting those with a particular focus on tackling the backlog of care for patients as well as awareness of this invisible disease.
FACT: 31 women die every single day of Metastatic Breast Cancer.
Free – please drop in

Documenting Demolition: A Community Evidencing Project of Manchester’s LGBT+ Centre
2022-07-12 09:00 - 2022-09-12 17:00 | Wolfson Reading Room
The LGBT+ Centre (previously known as The Gay Centre) is located on Sidney Street, off Oxford Road and is the longest continuously running LGBT+ Community Centre in the UK. ‘Documenting Demolition’ is a photographic exhibition of the Centre’s final months before the groups moved out and the building was demolished to make way for a brand new LGBT+ Centre, now known as The Proud Place. The photos record the various user groups, staff and volunteers, as well as some of the building’s quirky details. These will be displayed alongside some original ‘love letters’ written to the old Centre from its ‘lovers’.
The project is part of a longer-term design and research project into Manchester’s LGBT+ Centre building undertaken by Emily Crompton, an architect and academic at Manchester School of Architecture. The project was created in partnership with The Proud Trust, the charity which manage the Centre, and architectural photographer Sally-Ann Norman.
Free – drop in – please consider making a donation if you can either online or at one of our cash or contactless donation boxes in Central Library

Who Built Wythenshawe? The Forgotten Story of Ernest & Shena Simon
2022-08-08 08:00 - 2022-09-03 17:00 | Ground Floor
This exhibition traces the story of Wythenshawe during the twentieth century. From a humble collection of small villages, Wythenshawe was developed as a garden city to re-house the tens of thousands of families previously forced to live in Manchester’s inner-city slums in well-built and spacious neighbourhoods amidst green surroundings. Alongside illustrating Wythenshawe’s history, the exhibition tells the captivating lives of Ernest and Shena Simon who played a critical role in Wythenshawe’s development. The Wythenshawe we see today would not have existed without the great energy and inspiring altruism of the Simons. They paved the way for the creation of Wythenshawe in 1926 by purchasing and donating Wythenshawe Hall and its surrounding parkland for the people of Manchester. Yet their role in pushing for a garden city, their wider work in improving the social conditions of working people across Manchester and their fascinating personal lives, are largely forgotten. There is little in the way of memorials to the Simons, but their legacy runs deep, as we hope this exhibition will reveal. Drawing on historical research, documentary photographs, old maps and original records from the archives, this exhibition illustrates many notable moments in the history of Wythenshawe as Manchester’s garden city.
Exhibition Launch. Henry Watson Music Library. Monday 15th August 11am.
Free – drop in – please consider making a donation if you can either online or at one of our cash or contactless donation boxes in Central Library

Salford and Cheetham Hill - iconic photos from the 1950s and 60s
2022-09-15 08:00 - 2022-09-30 17:00 | First Floor Exhibition Hall
This unique collection of photographs shows aspects of life in Cheetham Hill and Salford in the 1950s and 60s. There are images of whit walks , shops, factories, schools, family snaps, products and fashions of the period. There are also photo’s of the diverse migrant communities who came to live in Cheetham Hill and their ancestors. There are over 12,000 images in the collection. Many can be seen here: www.salfordandcheethaminfocus.co.uk
Free – drop in – please consider making a donation if you can either online or at one of our cash or contactless donation boxes in Central Library

The Prostate Gap
2022-09-15 08:00 - 2022-10-29 17:00 | Lower Ground Floor Exhibition Space
Photographer Ian Smith presents this exhibition with the objective of raising awareness of prostate cancer in the under-represented. It focuses on the lack of understanding of how prostate cancer affects minority groups. The message is aimed at the general public to dilute the stereotyping of ‘the under-represented section of the population – groups with cultural differences, BME, gay and trans women communities.’ Individuals that live with a social stigma as well as a life changing illness.
Free – drop in – please consider making a donation if you can either online or at one of our cash or contactless donation boxes in Central Library

Sex Pistols in Manchester - Exhibition
2022-10-07 08:00 - 2022-12-31 17:00 | First Floor Display Cases
On 4 June 1976, the Sex Pistols played for the first time in Manchester at the Lesser Free Trade Hall. The gig is seen as the catalyst for the Manchester music scene which followed. Paul Welsh was the only person there on the night taking photographs, which have since been sold world-wide through Getty Images. However, this is the very first time all the photographs taken on that night have been shown to the general public.
Free – please consider making a donation to support our Library Live cultural programme either online or at one of our cash or contactless donation boxes in Central Library

From Millworkers to Millennials: Jean Hobson
2022-10-14 08:00 - 2022-12-17 17:00 | First Floor Exhibition Hall
From Millworkers to Millennials: paintings, drawings and screen prints by Jean Hobson

When Jean Hobson started drawing Manchester’s old buildings in 2007, she did not realise she was charting a pivotal moment in the City’s history.

This new body of work explores the story of Manchester’s second renaissance. It looks at how the city’s rich architectural heritage shares its space with the bold new buildings which make the city such an exciting place in which to live, work and relax.

Jean takes an original and colourful look at Manchester’s vibrant transformation, she hopes visitors will take a fresh look at their surroundings, appreciating the past and celebrating the present.
Free – please consider making a donation to support our Library Live cultural programme either online or at one of our cash or contactless donation boxes in Central Library

Manchester Loving Earth Project - Textile Exhibition
2022-10-28 08:00 - 2022-11-29 17:00 | Ground Floor
This exhibition of over 70 Loving Earth Project textile panels will be at six city centre venues in Manchester. Central Library is one of these venues and has 10 panels on display.
Each panel is individually crafted and depicts places, creatures and other things that the maker loves, but which are threatened by growing climate crisis and destruction.
More than 200 panels were displayed at COP26 in Glasgow and this Manchester exhibition will take place during COP27 in Egypt. Go to Archives, City (lending) and Music Libraries to see 2-3 panels in each location.
Also look out for leaflets about the whole city centre trail and a Reflections Book for your comments on the exhibition as well as the growing climate crisis.
Free – please drop in
Please consider making a donation to support our Library Live programme, either online or at one of our cash or contactless donation boxes in Central Library

BBC100 in Greater Manchester
2022-11-12 08:00 - 2022-12-31 17:00 | Archives+ Ground Floor
This year the BBC celebrates its centenary. Archives+ has partnered with the BBC Archives and Greater Manchester’s ten archives services to select interesting local items from the BBC’s radio and TV archives. You can explore the new content on the Greater Manchester Place interactive at Archives+ showing content for each of the ten local authorities. The exhibition is supported by local and online activities around Greater Manchester.
Free – please consider making a donation if you can either online or at one of our cash or contactless donation boxes in Central Library

Rooms of Our Own
2022-11-14 08:00 - 2023-01-03 17:00 | Lwr Ground Floor – Manchester Histories Hub
A National Lottery Heritage Funded project to reveal the hidden ‘herstory’ of the Pankhurst Trust. Delivered in partnership with Manchester Histories. This exhibition displays the Pankhurst Trust’s organisational archive, now preserved for the public to access for the first time in Archives+. It will also premier a film Is the Fight Over? made by four young creatives in response to the archive.
Free – please drop in

Living in a Material World – Materials That Made Medicine
2022-12-08 09:00 - 18:00 | Performance Space
The Art Gallery and Museum Studies MA course at The University of Manchester will be hosting an exhibition on the materials that improved medicine, in collaboration with the Museum of Medicine and Health. Join us and explore how these materials improved sterilisation and effected social change. For more info, visit our Instagram page @materialworldexhibiton
Free – please make a donation to support our cultural programme at one of our cash or contactless donation boxes or online

In the City - Exhibition
2023-01-07 08:00 - 2023-03-29 17:00 | First Floor Display Cases
In The City is a collection of Manchester images taken by photographer Richard Davis over the last 35 Years. The exhibition centres around Richard’s love of art, music, culture and football. From the heady days of Madchester, right through to the dynamism of the present day, the excitement and diversity of city life helping to inspire and motivate his work. Hulme plays a major role throughout the exhibtion; it’s where Richard set up a studio and darkroom in his Charles Barry Crescent flat during the late 1980’s. The area became a rich source of creativity and a backdrop for many of his photographs. The exhibition also highlights the many books, records and films that influenced his approach to photography.
About Richard Davis…Richard Davis (born 1965) is a British, social documentary and portrait photographer, based in North West England. His work has been promoted and exhibited by the British Culture Archive and renowned photography publishers, Café Royal Books. A series of Davis’ photographs of Hulme Crescents, from the 1980’s are currently held at the John Rylands Research Institute and Library which is part of the University of Manchester.
This exhibition is free, but please consider making a donation to support our Library Live programme if you can, either online, or at one of our cash or contactless donation boxes in Central Library

The Streets of Our City: Manchester Town Hall Photographers' Collection
2023-01-16 08:00 - 2023-03-18 17:00 | First Floor Exhibition Hall
The Town Hall Photographers’ Collection is a large photographic collection held in Archives+ Central Library, ranging in date from 1956 to 2007. The collection consists of tens of thousands of images, covering the varied areas of work of Manchester Corporation and latterly, Manchester City Council. The photographs were taken by staff photographers, who were tasked to document the work of the Corporation/Council departments and in doing so, captured many aspects of Manchester life and history, including significant changes to the Manchester landscape. The collection includes many different formats from glass negatives, to slides, prints, CDs and even a couple of cine films. What is especially exciting is that the majority of these images have never before been available in a digital format and therefore have only ever been seen by a handful of people. A team of dedicated staff, volunteers and students from Bridge College, Loreto College, Manchester College and Pure Innovations are currently working on the systematic digitisation of the negatives held within the collection. This exhibition represents the result of their work to date.
Do you recognise any of the streets or buildings? Would you like to share a memory you have of visiting somewhere in one of the images? We have limited information about these images and welcome your input to complete the information about each image. When visiting the exhibition, please use the book displayed at the beginning of the exhibition to record your memories and knowledge.
We are building a new images website. Could you take five minutes to tell us what our local image collection means to you and what features would you like to see on the new site? https://smartsurvey.co.uk/s/ERELJ7/
This exhibition is free, but please consider making a donation to support our Library Live programme if you can, either online or at one of our cash or contactless donation boxes in Central Library

Legacy of ’67-A voice for Queer Stories
2023-01-26 08:00 - 2023-03-31 17:00 | Wolfson Reading Room
In 1967 the law in England and Wales changed to partially decriminalise homosexual acts between men in private. This was followed by further legislation relating to the age of consent, the role of LGBTQ+ people in the armed forces, improved partnership, inheritance, and adoption rights, that have positively affected the lives of LGBTQ+ people. However, at the same time we’ve also seen the rise and fall of Section 28, which outlawed the ‘promotion of homosexuality’ by local authorities and we’re currently seeing the demonisation of trans people and a profound backlash against liberalisation.
For the last twelve months IAP:MCR has been capturing the stories of people who have grown up between the ‘60s and the ‘80s to find out how these changes have affected them. This testimony will soon be deposited with Archives+ at Central Library. The IAP:MCR team has also conducted original research of contemporaneous source material to explore the changing attitudes towards LGBTQ+ people in general society.
A display of this original archive material, ranging from Central Library’s own copy of the Wolfenden Report, Campaign for Homosexual Equality Manchester branch newsletters and editions of the Mancunian Gay magazine. IAP:MCR has commissioned visual artist Jez Dolan to respond to this project and he has produced a series of eight original works that will soon be on display in the Reading Room alongside the archives. This project has been made possible with support from the National Lottery Heritage Fund.
Jez Dolan is an artist living and working in Manchester (UK). His practice underlines the intersections between queerness, sexuality, identity, and memory. He works across multiple platforms including drawing, performance, printmaking and most recently painting. https://www.jezdolan.com. Jez’s work is held in a number of public and private collection internationally including: the British Museum, Bury Art Museum, the (UK) Government Art Collection, the Leslie Lohman Museum NYC, the Schwules* Museum Berlin, the Walker Art Gallery Liverpool and others.
This exhibition is free, but please consider making a donation to support our Library Live programme if you can, either online or at one of our cash or contactless donation boxes in Central Library

International Mother Language Day 2023 – Manchester City of Literature Exhibition
2023-02-01 08:00 - 2023-03-31 17:00 | Lwr Ground Floor – Manchester Histories Hub
Throughout February and March, we are delighted to be working with Manchester City of Literature who have an exhibition available to celebrate International Mother Language Day, showcasing our international connection to the other UNESCO Cities of Literature and celebrating Manchester’s work at home. Manchester Histories Hub
The exhibition is free and is the second exhibition to be situated in the Manchester Histories Hub on the Lower Ground Floor of Central Library. Drop in any time during February and March to see these amazing exhibits…
AL-USRA WAL-SUFRA: FAMILY AND FEASTS
There is an exciting exhibition from Ali Al-Jamri, Manchester Multilingual City Poet, who worked with artist Rosie Stanley to create a dollhouse to inspire writing for last summer’s Liverpool Arab Arts Festival. The dollhouse was to provide inspiration for young people from two Arabic Saturday schools to read poetry and write their own in Arabic and English. The poems you will see in the dollhouse at the exhibition are all written by children at the Liverpool Arabic Centre and Manchester Arabic School.
LA VILLE D’APRÈS: VISIONS ARTISTIQUES DE NOTRE FUTUR URBAIN
In 2020, the hardship caused by the COVID-19 pandemic across the world’s population stimulated discussion about how cities would function post-COVID-19. Angoulême in France, a sister UNESCO City of Literature with a rich history of celebrating comic books and graphic novels, launched a competition to find those visions, hopes and fears of a post-COVID world from other UNESCO cities.
For International Mother Language Day, ten entries have been collated from other UNESCO Cities of Literature, along with a brief insight from the artists about their work.
MULTILINGUAL FILM EXHIBITION
A playlist of films from Manchester and other sister UNESCO Cities of Literature will be shown, including the ‘Made in Manchester’ poem based on Zahid Hussain’s poem, comprising of 65 languages, and different translations of Manchester Multilingual Poets, Anjum Malik’s ‘This Here’ and Ali Al-Jamri’s ‘In Prisms of Knowledge’.
Outside of Manchester, we will be playing films from Nottingham, Tartu and Reykjavik, all UNESCO Cities of Literature.
WORDS FROM THE CHILDHOOD HOME: A CHAIN POEM FOR INTERNATIONAL MOTHER LANGUAGE DAY 2023*
‘Words From the Childhood Home’ is a brand new, exciting, multilingual chain poem written by nominated poets representing UNESCO Cities of Literature to celebrate International Mother Language Day 2023.
Manchester City of Literature invited our fellow UNESCO Cities of Literature to nominate a poet to respond to Anjum Malik, a Manchester Multilingual City Poet who writes in Urdu and English.
*From Monday 20th February
For full details of the exhibition, click here.
For the full line up of events for International Mother Language Day 2023, click here.
Free Exhibition – please drop in

In the City Exhibition – Talk by Richard Davis
2023-02-01 18:15 - 19:30 | Performance Space
In The City is a collection of Manchester images taken by photographer Richard Davis over the last 35 Years. Join Richard for this talk about the exhibtion that centres around Richard’s love of art, music, culture and football. From the heady days of Madchester, right through to the dynamism of the present day, the excitement and diversity of city life helping to inspire and motivate his work. Hulme plays a major role throughout the exhibition; it’s where Richard set up a studio and darkroom in his Charles Barry Crescent flat during the late 1980’s. The area became a rich source of creativity and a backdrop for many of his photographs. The exhibition also highlights the many books, records and films that influenced his approach to photography.
About Richard Davis…
Richard Davis (born 1965) is a British, social documentary and portrait photographer, based in North West England. His work has been promoted and exhibited by the British Culture Archive and renowned photography publishers, Café Royal Books. A series of Davis’ photographs of Hulme Crescents, from the 1980’s are currently held at the John Rylands Research Institute and Library which is part of the University of Manchester.
This talk is free (‘book now’ below), but please consider making a donation to support our Library Live programme if you can, either online, or at one of our cash or contactless donation boxes in Central Library

British Ugandan Asians at 50 Exhibition
2023-04-15 08:00 - 2023-05-13 17:00 | Archives+ Ground Floor
Exhibition to mark the 50th Anniversary of the Ugandan Expulsion, highlighting the experience of British Ugandan Asians and the many volunteers who helped them.
In August 1972, Ugandan President Idi Amin ordered the country’s Indian and Pakistani communities to leave within 90 days. Many of the displaced were British citizens and, as a result, around 28,000 people emigrated to the UK, where the community has gone to make a disproportionate impact on the economic and social life of Britain.
To mark the 50th anniversary, British Ugandan Asians at 50 (BUA@50) has recorded oral histories to capture the recollections of those who were residents of resettlement camps, or who volunteered to help with the reception of the expellees during the crucial early months after their arrival. The volunteers formed part of an extraordinary response involving 63 voluntary organisations that, at its peak, staffed sixteen reception and resettlement camps across the UK.
This touring exhibition retells the story through period photographs, oral history footage, press clippings and memorabilia relating to the Expulsion and resettlement. It will include excerpts from the interviews.
British Ugandan Asians at 50 (BUA50.ORG) – is a programme of the India Overseas Trust with the support of The National Lottery Heritage Fund. It honours not only a largely unknown part of the history of British volunteering heritage, but an extraordinary historical episode that helped shape modern Britain’s diversity.
Free – drop in- please make a donation to support our Library Live cultural programme at one of our cash or contactless donation boxes in the venue, or online

50 Years of Rock Photography
2023-04-15 08:00 - 2023-06-30 17:00 | First Floor Exhibition Hall
Jill Furmanovsky : Photographing the Invisible
For the last 50 years, Jill Furmanovsky has been photographing music’s greatest icons. Now for the first time, Jill has created a fascinating retrospective featuring some of her most famous works as well as hidden gems from her extensive archive.
Guest curated by Noel Gallagher and photo-historian Gail Buckland, the exhibition which is presented by Rockarchive.com features over 100 images including subjects such as Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Miles Davis, The Police, Bob Marley, Chic, The Rolling Stones, The Clash, The Cure, Amy Winehouse, Stevie Wonder, The Pretenders and Beyonce, to name just a few.
Highlights include ‘meditations from the pit’ that capture the sheer joy and exuberance of live photography, intimate on-the-road shoots carried out for the music press of the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s and fashion-inspired portraiture from The Face era. Through the exhibition, visitors will be witness to Jill’s unique relationship with her subjects including more reclusive subjects such as Jeff Buckley, Eric Clapton and Bob Dylan, as well as open-armed collaborations with Chrissie Hynde, Madness, and her greatest muse, Oasis, for whom Jill has included a section of previously unseen images. Contemporary content includes photographs taken in her year as Abbey Road’s artist-in-residence in 2017 and shots from the Glastonbury Festival featuring Stormzy and Billie Eilish.
Bringing the stories behind some of the imagery closer, an audio tour narrated by Jill and some special guests will be available for visitors to access through their own headphones.
Free – please consider making a donation to support our Library Live programme if you can, either online, or at one of our cash or contactless donation boxes in Central Library

The Year of Polish-British Cooperation on Breaking the Enigma Code
2023-05-02 08:00 - 2023-05-30 20:00 | Lower Ground Floor Link
This exhibition celebrates the Polish-British cooperation in breaking the Enigma code, marking the 80th anniversary of Polish codebreakers coming to the UK. The Enigma code was a nightmare for secret services all over the world. It was an unbreakable code granting Germany a tremendous military advantage. ‘Enigma’ means puzzle or secret in Greek. This is how German engineer Arthur Scherbius named the portable electromechanical encrypting machine he constructed. But one Polish mathematician broke the unbreakable code and a new era in the history of cryptology had begun.

If you would like to attend the launch of this exhibition, with Special Guest Sir Dermot Turing, on Thursday 18 May, 5.30 – 7.45pm, please email wilnomanchester@gmail.com
Free – please drop in

"You can see me, but I don't exist"
2023-06-03 08:00 - 2023-06-30 17:00 | Wolfson Reading Room
While photographing refugees in France, Belgium, Austria, and Sweden in 2018, Alan Gignoux noticed that a recurring theme among them was the gradual erosion of self, resulting from prolonged periods of living at the fringes of society. Similarly, he heard many of them talk of being invisible both to the immigration bureaucracies and to the wider societies in the countries in which they were seeking asylum.
He was particularly struck by the words of a young Afghan man in his final year at school who was seeking asylum in Sweden: “You can see me, but I don’t exist.” The young man was awaiting a response to his third and final appeal for permission to remain in the country and was expressing frustration at the way in which the asylum process had suspended him for years in a no man’s land of enforced separation from Swedish society. Borrowing its title from the young man’s words, this UK-based project aims to explore the dehumanisation experienced by people seeking refuge. Working with a camera obscura, Gignoux used a long exposure to blur the identity of the refugees whom he photographed while leaving the background in focus. This intentional blurring has a practical purpose as many people seeking refuge live in fear of the authorities and prefer to remain unidentifiable. However, it is simultaneously intended to be a visual metaphor for the corrosive impact of the asylum-seeking process on people.
Gignoux wanted to include the refugees’ voices in the project and so he invited the people whom he photographed, as well as other refugees who wanted to participate, to write a creative response to the blurred portraits.
Their creative writing was developed in workshops led by experienced poets. Working together as a group, or individually, the people addressed the themes that the portraits explore.
Alan Gignoux worked with Everything Human Rights, a community group offering a variety of services with the aim of promoting the wellbeing and integration of migrant ethnic minorities living in Wigan borough. The writing workshop leader was poet Ambrose Musiyiwa.
The free to enter exhibition is a collaboration between Alan Gignoux and Manchester Central Library. Image Copyright: Alan Gignoux.
To mark the launch of this free exhibition, you are invited to attend the opening event in Central Library’s Reading Room on Friday 2 June at 6:30pm. Reserve a place for this here on eventbrite
Free exhibition – just drop in – please consider making a donation to support our Library Live cultural programme either online or at one of our cash or contactless donation boxes in Central Library. Thank you.
“You can see me, but I don’t exist” was made possible by a National Lottery Grant awarded by Arts Council England

Discovering Manchester: Wildlife & Nature
2023-07-07 08:00 - 2023-10-06 17:00 | First Floor Display Cases
Wildlife is always just a walk away wherever you are in Manchester and the beautiful countryside that surrounds it. This exhibition showcases the creative talents and passions of our Central Library staff members. We hope to inspire you to explore and enjoy the many areas of Manchester’s natural beauty, and to discover and appreciate hidden gems in and around Manchester, whilst considering the impact of conservation and rewilding efforts in the local area.
Free – drop in
Please make a donation to support our Library Live cultural programme at one of our cash or contactless donation boxes or online

Manchester College Students: Responses
2023-07-10 08:00 - 2023-09-09 17:00 | Wolfson Reading Room
Foundation Art and Design Students from The Manchester College have brought the Art School’s ethos of research to the heart of our iconic Wolfson Reading Room. Each student has developed a personal body of work which has initially been inspired by one of the books from Central Library. The boards exhibited are an insight into personal research and subject matter, produced in traditional messy art school rooms where students become inspired and have tested the possibilities of ideas, research and practical production. These fresh, innovative Art School Creatives will continue their practices in: painting, drawing, film, photography, textile design, animation and site-specific work; progressing on to degree courses in the city and beyond. This exhibition will coincide with MIF (Manchester International Festival) and continues till 2 September.
To see more exciting innovative work and research, follow the Instagram link: #foundationartanddesigntmc
If you would like information about the Foundation Diploma course, please contact: Fiona Donald fdonald@tmc.ac.uk
Free – just drop in
Please make a donation to support our Library Live cultural programme at one of our cash or contactless donation boxes or online

Curry Mile – A Changing Neighbourhood
2023-07-10 08:00 - 2023-09-30 17:00 | First Floor Exhibition Hall
A documentary photography project spanning 7 years (2016-2023). Photographers Michael Baker & Phil Portus explore ‘present day’ Wilmslow Road, Rusholme, and challenge perceptions of what ‘Curry Mile’ now represents, as opposed to nostalgia & past recollections. The ethnic make-up of Rusholme has changed significantly over recent years. Barber shops, shisha bars & dessert parlours have sprung up, the traditional restaurants are less dominant, Manchester City FC have relocated, and the pubs have all closed. The result poses the question as to whether the term ‘Curry Mile’ is now a misnomer.
To accompany this exhibition, we are hosting a talk with the photographers on Thursday 20 July at 6pm, which can be booked on eventbrite
Free exhibition – just drop in
Please make a donation to support our Library Live cultural programme at one of our cash or contactless donation boxes or online

Paper Piano Exhibition
2023-07-13 09:00 - 2023-10-13 09:00 | Henry Watson Music Library
Paper Piano – A Retrospective
For the last 10 years, Paper Piano have been creating music related artwork and packaging. More recently they have focused on hand-made books; this combination of music and books makes them the ideal label to exhibit at The Henry Watson Music Library.
Paper Piano have worked with many illustrious musicians and bands. Included in the exhibition will be releases that have featured local talent including Mark Hoyle, SPIRIT:level, and Gideon Conn. Near neighbours The Declining Winter also make an appearance as do Motohiro Nakashima and Birds Humming the Beat, both from Japan.
The exhibition will be split into two halves. The first half will focus on Paper Piano music and books, but will also reference one-off works such as “The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists” collage, currently displayed at the Working Class Movement Library, Salford. Highlights include SPIRIT:level’s concrete plinth and The Oreoh!s Pompom EP, two CD’s wrapped up in wool that can’t be played until a pompom is made. The second half is dedicated to the multidisciplinary artist, DJ Goalpost. His work is even more varied and playful and almost impossible to categorize. Things to look out for here include a CD hand sewn into the shorts from a Stockport County football kit and “Don’t Give Up On Us” by David Soulpost, DJ Goalpost’s alter-ego.
Throughout the time the exhibition is taking place there will be a series of events featuring Paper Piano artists and also the opportunity to buy some limited edition artworks.
Free – drop in
Please make a donation to support our Library Live cultural programme at one of our cash or contactless donation boxes or online

Marketing the Manchester Ship Canal 1919-1939
2023-07-29 08:00 - 2024-01-15 17:00 | Archives+ Ground Floor
This new exhibition showcases a range of original publicity material and print adverts created as marketing for the Port of Manchester. This saw a revolution in publicity with modern ideas on typefaces, much more dynamic imagery and bolder use of colour. Manchester Ship Canal Company started using imaginative visual design to sell itself more effectively internationally and encourage industrial growth around the docks.
The exhibition highlights the work of a fascinating array of commercial artists engaged by the Ship Canal Company. Some of the most innovative in their design work were born locally and trained at the Manchester School of Art. Highlights include the ‘ship prow’ painting created by Paxton Chadwick, the futurist designs and humorous sketches of Bert Wilson and the quirky illustrations of John Dronsfield. It also considers the influence of the company’s publicity chief Kenneth Brady who brought new ideas in design and messaging following his appointment to MSCC in 1926. Much of material exhibited was discovered 2021 in the extensive archives Ship Canal Company held in Manchester Central Library. It includes original artwork for some of the widely used designs that have never been displayed publicly before.
Exhibition curated by Martin Dodge (Senior Lecturer in the Geography Department, University of Manchester). Much of his research is currently focused on the historical geography of Manchester’s transport and town planning. He is fascinated by the history of the Manchester Ship Canal and understanding how it transformed the city and the wider region.
Supported by Archives+ at Central Library, The University of Manchester and the Manchester Geographical Society.
Free – just drop in
Please make a donation to support our Library Live cultural programme at one of our cash or contactless donation boxes or online
