What's on

North West Mixtape

Performance Space

Join us for this closing event 'North West Mixtape' in which selections of archive audio from the Unlocking Our Sound Heritage project are celebrated. We've spent the last three years digitising, cataloguing and clearing the rights for over 4000 recordings from archives across the North West region. This event pairs an audio-visual showreel of key […]

Word Central

Performance Space

WORD CENTRAL RETURNS TUESDAY 31 MAY 2022 James Hartnell is a poet, newspaper columnist and writer who has been published globally. He is presently editor of Current Accounts, the international magazine of Bank Street Writers, and is a regular contributor to Worktown Words, the writing arm of Live from Worktown, a major community project in […]

Shadow Girl

Shadow Girl is a new adventure story about a girl called Sabrina, who has a vivid imagination. It is a playful and adventurous show about friendship, growing up and discovering what it means to be brave. Sabrina is growing up fast, but her parents haven’t noticed yet. Feeling invisible and alone, Sabrina hastily forms a […]

Sunday Funday: A Royal Celebration

Performance Space

Enjoy a free, fun packed afternoon with lots to do for all the family as we come together to celebrate the Queen's Platinum Jubilee. There wil be Jubilee themed art and craft family workshops with artists Caroline Coates and Simone Frater-Russell throughout the afternoon. Family film screening starting at 1pm, plus popcorn! Free face painting […]

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 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 […]

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 and academics, as well as performances from theatre groups and a talk from Manchester Histories Patron, David Adetayo Olusoga OBE. To view all the events […]

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 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 […]

The Wicked Problem from Ergon Theatre

Performance Space

What would you put first, the planet or your family? Set in the year 2061, the audience act as jury for the trial of an individual who has broken a climate law created by the new authoritarian green government, Ergon. The jury will hear from witnesses across the globe and Greater Manchester before deciding whether […]

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 city’s harbour. This dramatic action thrust the city onto the global stage and put it at the forefront of an ongoing and bitter culture war. […]

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 of activism on migration will be at the fore-front of this event, looking at how this activism may need to further evolve in the future. […]

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 poverty he left a country with little climate impact to work in a UK industry with high climate impact. This climate impact would be damaging […]

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 artists create their very own climate cartoon! Free – booking required