Artists’ tour and talk,
Saturday 1 February, 1 – 2pm

Join artists Michael Beard, Frances Disley, Harry Meadley and Lesley Thompson, for a unique insight into the experimentation, research and process behind their new exhibition Thumbs Up.

They will be joined by members of the Castlefield Gallery and Venture Arts teams to give a tour of the display to share how working alongside each other, over an extended project development period, has helped them to find meeting points between their interests and shaped the work presented in the exhibition.

Admission: Free, please register for eventbrite tickets. The tour will be relaxed and seating will be provided.

Panel discussion
Saturday 1 February, 2.30 – 4pm

Join Frances Disley, Harry Meadley with University of Salford academics: Dr Catherine Thompson, Lecturer in Cognitive Psychology, Michael Lomas, Lecturer in Environmental Psychology and Professor Philip James, Professor of Ecology, who have provided consultancy and advice for the Thumbs Up exhibition.

This discussion will offer a unique insight into the experimentation, research and process behind the new exhibition Thumbs Up, in consideration of the insight and expertise they have drawn on to influence the work they have produced and the methodologies and theories that have shaped the exhibition presentation.

The event will also be captured live, through sketch, by Leslie Thompson who will be documenting the panel session.

Admission: Free, please register for eventbrite tickets. The panel discussion will be relaxed and seating will be provided.

Vinyasa yoga with Fran

To reflect the themes of the exhibition, which include making use of the gallery spaces in new and more flexible ways, there will be two introductory Vinyasa yoga sessions at Castlefield Gallery, led by yoga expert Francesca Giacomozzi, Flow with Fran.  

Lunchtime yoga
Wednesday 5 February, 12:30pm – 1:15pm (45mins)
£7.06 per person

Lunchtime yoga
Saturday 22 February 2020, 12:30pm -1:30pm (1hr)
£7.06 per person
Book a place on either course via Eventbrite.

Venue for all events: Castlefield Gallery, Manchester

Events produced and curated in collaboration with Castlefield Gallery, Venture Arts and University of Salford Art Collection.

Peer to Peer opened to great acclaim on 17 October 2019 in Liverpool – read a review in the Fourdrinier here.  The exhibition having previously shown at  St George’s Hall and Open Eye Gallery Liverpool has now travelled to the Shanghai Center of Photography.

The exhibition showcases work by 14 photographers from the UK and China, nominated by experts in the field. Peer to Peer was curated by University of Salford Art Curator Lindsay Taylor, with Thomas Dukes (former curator of Open Eye Gallery) and indepedent curator Serein Liu.

An integral part of the project is new commissions offered to two of the artists by the University of Salford Art Collection.  The selected artists are Anna Ridler and Wu Yue. Both artists receive £5000 to make new work for the University Art Collection.

Exhibition dates: Sunday 8 December 2019 – Sunday 9 February 2020
Venue: Shanghai Center of Photography, Shanghai, China

An exclusive range of products is currently on sale at Salford Museum and Art Gallery and have been co-designed by residents from Victoria Square in Ancoats, the Many Hands Craft Collective, Wythenshawe’s Cross Acres craft group and residents from the John Atkinson and Hawkshaw Court in Salford, all in collaboration with artist Sally Gilford and musician, Ben McDonnell. The work produced formed part of a large series of creative events, Together We Move, programmed by local producer Liz Wewiora.
 
Together We Move was inspired by and in response to the recent commission and Salford Museum and Art Gallery exhibition, Everything I Have Is Yours by artists Eileen Simpson and Ben White (Open Music Archive). This recent ambitious film and sound work, looked back to the first decade of the UK pop charts (1952-1962). The work was developed with and featured Salford and Greater Manchester residents, who played in bands in the 1950s and early 1960s.
 
This has formed the inspiration for the products currently on sale at the Museum and Art Gallery. The local residents took part in a programme of creative workshops in print and sound, responding directly to music and sounds featured in Everything I Have Is Yours.
 
The workshops took place at the residents location and Islington Mill. From screen printing to visual scores and collage, participants had the opportunity to design and create original artwork which explores their experience of music from the first 10 years of the pop charts.
 
Everything I Have Is Yours and the Together We Move programme were co-commissioned by Film and Video Umbrella, Contemporary Art Society, University of Salford Art Collection and Castlefield Gallery with Salford Museum and Art Gallery.
 
The Together We Move programme is supported by:

and Castlefield Gallery Commissioning Patrons, Jo and Allan Melzack.

Community partners:

Between the Earth and the Sky

.Extended Gallery Guide
Between the Earth and the Sky
New Adelphi Exhibition Gallery
28 January – 25 July 2025

Between the Earth and the Sky presents artworks that consider transitory places and moments we might encounter in nature: from the final moments of a sunset on the horizon, to the first droplets of rainfall after a drought, to the ebb and flow of a coastal tide. These ‘in-between’ places offer us a moment to pause and reflect on our relationship with the natural world, in all its beauty and mystery.

New acquisitions from renowned printmaker Christiane Baumgartner (presented by the Contemporary Art Society, 2023/24) sparked the theme for this exhibition; her intricate woodcut prints suspending us in the final minutes of a setting sun. Further contemporary works by Jessica El Mal, Darren Almond, Liang Yue and Mishka Henner similarly take us through rainfall, moonlight, coastal tides, and even into outer space, respectively offering thoughtful reflections on time, place, and memory.

Further works are drawn from our print collection, some not displayed for many years and newly reframed for this exhibition. Landscape artists Derek Wilkinson, Betty Connal and Phil Greenwood take us from the mist of a winter’s day to a bright sky full of cumulous clouds; and abstract artists Bridget Riley, Peter Green and Charles Bartlett explore pure colour, shape and form inspired by their natural surroundings.

In addition, new work by two of our School of Arts, Media and Creative Technology staff members explores direct relationships with local landscapes, considering the places where history, present and future might co-exist. Alex Nelu navigates the vast histories and topographies of the West Pennine Moors, and Josh Turner maps personal and existential experience onto local post-industrial and rural landscapes.

1) Christiane Baumgartner
Nordlicht – 6.08pm (2018)
Woodcut on Japanese Koso paper

Christiane Baumgartner is best known for her monumental woodcuts based on her own films and video stills, exploring themes of time, place and memory. These works are selected from a set of four prints presented by the Contemporary Art Society in 2023.

Many of Baumgartner’s prints take the form of sequences of images illustrating the same scene, captured moments apart. Nordlicht 6.08pm is from a group of works that recorded the sun setting through a wooded landscape, over a period of nine minutes; Prometheus I-III capture different views of the setting sun at the horizon. The fleeting moments of light are slowed down and captured in the time and labour-intensive process of woodcut printing: “Translating a still image into a woodcut makes the work a powerful instrument demanding an emotional, retinal and physical response. Through my selection and transformation of a single frame, I create a unique woodcut that brings experience and weight to an otherwise unexperienced moment.”

Baumgartner lives and works in Leipzig, Germany. She has exhibited extensively internationally, and her works are held in over fifty public collections including the British Museum, London and the Museum of Modern Art, New York. She is represented in the UK by Cristea Roberts Gallery, London.

2) Jessica El Mal
Spring Rain 09.12.22 (1) & (2) (2023)      
Cyanotype print

Jessica El Mal is a British-Moroccan artist and curator, with a particular interest in ecology, globalisation, and migration. Her work addresses global structures of power through critical research, multidisciplinary project and collaborative approaches.

Spring Rain draws contrast between the perception of rain in Manchester – where the regular wet weather is often a cause of annoyance – and Morocco – which experiences an annual drought, worsened each year by climate change.  Whilst undertaking a roof-top cyanotype printing workshop (a type of printmaking using sunlight) in Morocco, the session was interrupted by unexpected rainfall, signalling the end of the dry season. Far from a cause for frustration – as the papers became splashed with rain – the rainfall was a welcome sign, and the prints became a visual record of the raindrops.

Jessica has exhibited work in the UK and Europe including Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool, Manchester Museum, and MAMA Rotterdam. The Spring Rain cyanotypes were originally commissioned for the collaborative touring project Hybrid Futures in 2022-24, and were jointly acquired by the University of Salford Art Collection, Grundy Gallery, Blackpool, and Touchstones, Rochdale.

If you require further information about the display, please contact the Art Collection Team at artcollection@salford.ac.uk

Monday 16 September – Fri 20 December 2019
New Adelphi Exhibition Gallery, University of Salford

He was a wild one brings together British music photography from the 1950s & 1960s, from the archives at Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool and the University of Salford Art Collection.

The works in this exhibition have been selected by local residents from across Greater Manchester; all of whom were young people during the era. Working with Creative Producer Liz Wewiora, members of the Cross Acres Community Centre and the Many Hands Craft Collective have researched and discussed the archive images through a series of workshops; and have shared their personal memories and recollections of the vibrant music scene of their youth.

Photographs from Open Eye Gallery include works by Harry Hammond and the F Beat Archive. London-born Hammond (1920 – 2009) was the primary photographer for the New Musical Express (NME) magazine from the early 1950s – covering every trend from swing, jazz and skiffle to ballads and calypso. He quickly embraced the emerging rock-n-roll scene and became best known for this body of work, capturing the iconic energy, fashion, styles and personalities of the time.

From the University of Salford Art Collection, photographer Harry Goodwin (1924 – 2013) followed a similar trajectory. Born in Fallowfield, Manchester, Goodwin worked as a scene-shifter at the BBC Manchester Studios, alongside photographing beauty pageants and boxing matches. This led to an opportunity in 1964 to join BBC’s Top of the Pops as a photographer, where he captured almost every single Top 30 Act until 1973. Through the following decades he continued to capture some of the biggest acts of the time – including The Beatles playing at the Apollo, Manchester, and Blondie headlining at the University of Salford’s Maxwell Hall.

We invite you to share your own recollections of the era, or more recent music memories.

Together We Move:

This exhibition is part of Together We Move, an ongoing community engagement programme which celebrates Everything I Have is Yours – a new artists’ film commission by Ben White and Eileen Simpson (Open Music Archive) currently on display at Salford Museum & Art Gallery (until 3^rd Nov). The film, co-commissioned by the University of Salford Art Collection, looks back to the first decade of the UK pop charts (1952 – 62).

Special thanks to:

Open Eye Gallery for their partnership and archive loans, Northward Housing & Age UK for supporting the community engagement programme, and University of Salford student Ruby Ramelize for her support during the workshops.

#hewasawildone   |   #togetherwemove

The Together We Move programme is supported by:

and Castlefield Gallery Commissioning Patrons, Jo and Allan Melzack.

Community partners:

This 9 week online masters level course is aimed at art curators who would like to update or expand their knowledge and understanding of digital curation, as well as anyone who wants to gain a deeper understanding of the processes underpinning the practice of digital curation in the context of contemporary art, and the technical elements that inform its concepts, language and techniques.

You will be guided through the advanced aspects of digital curation from the perspective of presenting and preserving contemporary art, with a view to curating contemporary art work in digital environments.

On successful completion of the course you will be awarded 30 credits towards on Masters Qualification in Digital Curation, 1 further module will be advertised in January, successful completion of both modules will lead to the award of PGcert in Digital Curation.

For further details visit the course page.

What projects have you done?

Starting the year off with an attempt at crowdfunding to fund the publication of my degree work Flags. This was a really useful process as I learnt a lot about funding of this type, and I made a lot of useful connections. The most useful part of this process was the reflection that was necessary to present a clear project proposal, this reflection taught me a lot about the work that I hadn’t previously considered.

After the unsuccessful crowdfunding I went straight in to working on my current ongoing project Our Summer (working title) which focuses on exploring the tensions of the transitional period between childhood and adulthood, with a particular focus on how these socio-political issues can be manifest within landscapes. My main interest as a practitioner is of the relationship between the individual and the landscape, contemplating the effects each have on the other. Our Summer is in some ways a figurative sequel to Flags, yet it feels much more refined. I have chosen to adopt a long-form approach to this work as it suits my meditative processes in both how I think about the body of work and the equipment I use to create it. My approach includes contemplating literature that is in some way reflective of the socio-political intricacies of being a child, especially in the context of the adult world of responsibility. I will continue to develop this work until I think it is ready to start being moulded into a photobook for submission to publishers.

I had the pleasure of visiting Venice for a month as part of the steward-research fellowship with the British Council. During my time in Venice I observed how individual psychology seemed to reflect the ecological issues that are at the forefront of local campaigning. In a project called Catch Your Breath I photographed the various instances of people who adopted space to take a moment to relax, away from the heat and density of people within a city that seems to be bursting at the seams. I plan to make this project into a limited run artist book, the photographs displayed on a foldout map, accompanied by an essay which delves into the anthropomorphising of a landscape in an attempt to represent the urgency of the ecological issues of Venice.

I have also spent more time writing this year, continuing to write for Redeye (The Photography Network) whilst also being published on The Double Negative for an essay reflecting on a touring exhibition.

What exhibitions or events have you been involved with?

I haven’t been involved in much this year as it has been a year dedicated to developing my practice. I’m pleased to say I have got events that are planned, such as a solo show penciled in for February 2020 at The Old Courts in Wigan. I am also planning a member led event for Redeye which will revolve around a contemplation of our interaction with landscape, how can we create a reading of a location that is informed by our individuality? As I mentioned previously, I got a fellowship in Venice for a month to work at the Biennale, from which I have a new body of work and plans for a group exhibition.

Three things that you’ve learnt:

1. I have become much more aware of art both as a practice and a way of expressing the intricacies of life. Before the scholarship I tended to only look for photography exhibitions, but now I feel much more engaged with all types of work.
2. Failing is great. Of course it is good to be successful in artistic endeavours, but some of the experiences that I have learnt most from are when I put everything I had into a project and it failed. The point of failure allows you to reflect. Often you have nothing to lose, so even failure can be beneficial when it enables you to take a step back from your normal practice.
3. Writing is so beneficial. Whether it’s to make a list of intended aims for a day or to speculatively reflect on life. It can be so useful to stop what you’re doing and take the time to be with your thoughts, both for the ongoing development of projects and general mental health.

What’s the most surprising thing that you’ve done?

Get the opportunity to work as an exhibition steward in Venice. I applied with a lot of doubt as I didn’t think I’d even be considered because of my heavily photographic background. The experience has vastly widened my perspective and awareness of art.

What’s the most significant development in your practice/piece of work that you’ve made?

Embracing the freedom to be poetic and expressive with the imagery that I make. Towards the end of the degree the imagery I was making were very literal interpretations of the locations I was interested in. As I develop thought around Our Summer I have found that the imagery I make forms a gesture towards the subject I’m exploring, to me it represents certain qualities whilst to others the reading may differ. I may explore a deeply personal subject, whilst the expressive nature of the work as a whole will be accessible to a wider audience, not just those who have had a similar experience to myself. I have also found my influences to be expanding from photography and film, it is now heavily based in literature and expanding to poetry.

The New Adelphi Exhibition Gallery will be closed from 4pm on Friday 21 December and will reopen at 10am on Wednesday 2 January 2019.