From its origins as the beating heart of the Industrial Revolution to its standing as a global capital of music, radical politics, and contemporary innovation, Manchester has always been a city that invents, challenges, and transforms. That restless creative energy is nowhere more evident than across its world-class exhibition spaces.
Whether housing centuries of fine art or pioneering immersive digital design, Manchester’s galleries and museums do far more than archive the past—they actively interrogate the present and shape the future. If you’re navigating the cobbled canals of Castlefield or the vibrant streets of the Northern Quarter, this guide provides the essential preview to exploring Manchester’s rich cultural canvas.
L.S Lowry Exhibition
The largest collection of L.S Lowry‘s work has to be on display at his namesake gallery, and The Lowry boasts its most comprehensive selection ever. Lowry’s so-called ‘matchstick men‘ populate his paintings based on locations around the North West where he spent most of his life, especially Pendlebury, Lancashire, and often evoke a familiarity in northerners, whether through the industrial landscapes they portray, or familiar activities such as ‘Going To Work‘ or milling around a ‘Market Scene‘.
Smithsonian Starstruck: An Immersive Experience is a fully interactive, 3D virtual reality experience that begins at the Smithsonian’s Whipple Observatory before launching visitors into space aboard the world’s most powerful telescopes.
Developed in close collaboration with the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, Starstruck transforms astronomical data and imagery into a breathtaking exploration of the universe. Blending cutting-edge immersive technology with authentic science and cinematic storytelling, Starstruck brings the cosmos within reach like never before.
Ukraine: Our Ordinary Lives
Spanning the period since the 2022 invasion, IWM North’s Big Picture Show uses powerful real-life stories to highlight the experiences of 15 young Ukrainians, exploring their lives as they try to find normality, living their ordinary lives through extraordinarily challenging times. Told through their own social media posts, their stories are shared through images and footage capturing the reality of what everyday life is like for young Ukrainians caught up in war.
It forms one of six ‘Big Picture Shows’ on permanent display at the museum and is a 360-degree immersive experience projected onto the 27-ft high walls of the main exhibition space, and plays once daily.
Put Your Foot Down II
A curious artwork that is only complete once gallery visitors walk across it is coming to Salford Museum & Art Gallery this September. Put Your Foot Down II is a temporary pathway constructed from dozens of blocks of florists’ foam, commonly known as oasis.
Salford artist Maisie Pritchard is inviting visitors to travel the tactile path, leaving behind footprints and other marks. As more people take part, the imprints left behind on the spongy dark green material start to overlap, merging with one other. In this way, people’s interaction creates an ever-evolving landscape shaped by collective movement.
And there’s more to the experience than simply the joy of taking part. The installation forms part of Recoverist Month programme of exhibitions, performances and creative events. Led by arts organisation Portraits of Recovery, the annual event places the arts at the centre of conversations about substance use and recovery every September.
The artwork asks visitors to consider recovery as a shared act of moving forward – a journey shaped by connection, change and detours along the way.
People’s History Museum
Manchester’s People’s History Museum is the UK’s only museum entirely dedicated to sharing the stories of the revolutionaries, reformers, workers, voters and citizens who strive(d) for change. We recommend checking out the entire collection at PHM as it’s ever-growing and truly fascinating. From suffragette banners and badges, to political posters and artwork, the PHM tracks the political and community history of Manchester, focusing on those who have, and still, fight for justice and equality.
Manchester LGBTQ+ History Trail
Discover more than 80 years of Manchester’s LGBTQ+ history with a 22-stop heritage trail across Spinningfields, charting key moments from 1941 to the present day. Beginning on The Avenue outside The Oast House and continuing through to Spinningfields Square, visitors can follow the timeline through the decades or start in the present day and journey back through the city’s rich LGBTQ+ heritage.
The trail is connected by colourful ‘rainbow rivers‘ inspired by the curves of the River Irwell, guiding visitors through the neighbourhood to the striking Spinningfields Pride installation in Hardman Gardens.
Lily Parr display
Lily Parr – one of football’s first female superstars – has her own permanent museum display dedicated to her life and legacy. It features never-seen-before photographs of Lily and her teammates – which were found in an old suitcase hidden in a loft for four decades.
Emerging in the 1920s as part of Preston’s Dick Kerr Ladies, Parr scored nearly 1000 goals in a three-decade career. She played in some of the world’s first women’s international matches and was a trailblazer for women footballers the world over
MYTHIC REINVENTION: Celebrating 50 Years of Costume and Craft
Launching on 16th September 2026 and running until 15th November 2026, MYTHIC REINVENTION: Celebrating 50 Years of Costume and Craft forms a central part of the Royal Exchange Theatre’s 50th anniversary programme – ‘A Homecoming’. It will bring the theatre’s extraordinary costume archive to life through a free public exhibition, curated by international award-winning designer Leslie Travers.
Leading up to the exhibition launch, ‘Exchanging Stories‘, a series of live industry conversations, will look back at the venue’s exceptional history across design and craft, exploring the origins of the venue’s unique space and the theatre’s commitment to championing new work and its key role in shaping the UK’s theatre ecosystem.
Human Natures
Using objects from the Museum’s natural history collection, Human Natures explores stories of overconsumption and overexploitation of animals, plants and minerals. It looks at the consequences this has for climate, biodiversity and people but it also shares inspiring examples of individuals and organisations taking action to live in balance with nature.
At Home with the Pankhurst Family
Ever since No.62 Nelson Street was saved from demolition in the 1980s, the Pankhurst Centre has endeavoured to protect and preserve this important historical building and ensure the story of Emmeline Pankhurst is told to inspire and motivate the next generation of radical activists.
This engaging and immersive exhibition explores the extraordinary achievements of the Pankhurst Family in the house where they lived and where the very first meeting of the Women’s Social & Political Union took place in 1903.
Inhale Me, Exhale You
Unspoken feelings and moments of desire. This piece belongs to a wider series called ‘Desire Me.’ It aims to translate unspoken feelings and moments of desire that occur between us.
The focus is on longing, on reaching out and on instances of hopeful touch that happen in the early stages of a relationship. It seeks to capture the essence of sensations you get in your stomach that are so hard to verbalise, but that we all know and feel.”
You can see this artwork in HOME Arches Windows on Whitworth Street West.
Everything and Nothing: what makes a 220-year-old library?
The Portico Library is going through a rapid change. This exhibition explores the idea of the Portico as a box holding memories; a place to look back in time at 220 years and a place to imagine what a library could be like in 10, 50 and a 100 years’ time. Reconnecting with past colleagues, members, and users, the team has selected the things that tell us forgotten stories from one room.
Explore the adventures, the mystery, the fun and sad stories the Portico has witnessed. There’s also a chance for visitors to take part in the Time Capsule project, writing a memory of the Portico on a postcard that will be stored in the Portico archive to be opened in the year 2076.
Worn: the life within clothes
Worn showcases the breadth of Manchester City Galleries’ fashion and dress collection through a ‘slow fashion’ lens with a focus on the lifecycle of clothing. The exhibition highlights pieces that have been mended, altered, customised and recycled, revealing evidence of wear and examining the longevity, preservation and consumption of clothing and the notion of value through human connection, history, memory and storytelling.
Power Up
Play the very best video games from the past five decades and try out over a hundred different consoles in this ultimate hands-on gaming experience. There’s something for everyone, from Pong to Pacman, Sonic to Street Fighter and Mario to Minecraft, plus a selection of games created in Manchester.
Face off against friends and families in multiplayer showdowns, rediscover your childhood favourites and test out some of the latest virtual reality experiences. Game on!
Won’t Sit Still
Won’t Sit Still is a vibrant celebration of the gallery’s furniture and lighting collection, shaped by over a century of collecting and recently reimagined through a comprehensive collection review. This exhibition invites visitors to explore the historic and contemporary collection, revealing stories that resonate with many of the contemporary concerns we have today.
The exhibition unfolds across four distinct zones:
- Super-concentrated furniture display – A bold, colourful arrangement of furniture pieces presented in dense blocks, echoing the way the collection is stored behind the scenes.
- Experimental wall – A playful and unexpected approach to displaying furniture, encouraging new ways of seeing familiar forms.
- Fine Art meets the home – Selected artworks from the gallery’s collection show interior spaces contextualising the furniture as functional objects and acting as a springboard to provoke conversations about the home.
- Zones for study and rest – Thoughtfully designed areas invite visitors to pause, reflect, and engage more deeply with the collection.
Beneath the Great Wave: Hokusai and Hiroshige
Step into Japan’s floating world and explore the art of Hokusai and Hiroshige, two visionary artists whose images have shaped how we see nature, landscape and everyday life. Beneath the Great Wave brings together exceptional ukiyo-e prints from Edo-period Japan.
Ukiyo-e — meaning “pictures of the floating world” — were colourful woodblock prints that captured scenes of travel, nature and popular culture during a time of peace and creativity in Japan’s history. From towering waves and rushing waterfalls to quiet roads and distant mountains, these works reveal moments of beauty, drama and movement that still feel strikingly modern today.
Supermedium: Kelan Andrews and Petra Szemán
Slip through layers of celluloid animation into an exhibition that asks what it means to animate: to bring life to human-scale animatronics, or to a digital avatar crossing candy-coloured landscapes. Supermedium will showcase commissions and existing work by Kelan Andrews and Petra Szemán, alongside items from the legendary Manchester animation studio Cosgrove Hall Films Archive.
The artists’ new works are developed in dialogue with the archive that is home to items from some of the UK’s most iconic and beloved hand-drawn and stop motion animations – Danger Mouse (1981-92) The BFG (1989), The Wind in the Willows (1983-90) and Postman Pat (2004 to 2008) to name just a few.
Portrait of Black Britain
Cephas Williams’ powerful photography exhibition documenting contemporary Black Britain returns to Manchester. In Portrait of Black Britain, Cephas Williams explores the question: ‘What does it mean to be Black, living in the UK?’
The exhibition profiles a range of Black people living in the UK, highlighting the different roles people play in our community. Focusing not just on high-profile people and success stories but on as many people from as wide a range of society as possible, Portrait of Black Britain aims to make more Black people visible and to offer the next generation and wider society a holistic picture of the African diaspora in the UK and the 21st century.
To See and Be Seen by Conor Collins
Conor Collins’ first solo exhibition is born from a deep exploration of the Queer Up North archive, responding to stories, people and moments found in the archive. Here, identity is not fixed or easily defined. It is something shaped daily: performed, protected, revealed, and sometimes concealed.
Visibility runs through the work as both liberation and risk. To be seen can be powerful. It can also be dangerous. Within this tension, people still created, performed, loved, and refused to disappear.
Royal Northern College of Music
Beneath the Royal Northern College of Music sits a museum packed with more than 300 historic musical curiosities. You can trace centuries of instrument-making here, featuring big names like Stradivarius alongside stranger pieces like a cast of Chopin’s hand and a pocket-sized violin. Kids can follow a self-guided tour to spot carved animals, while digitised recordings of RNCM students let you experience the collection through sound.
You can also catch live performances at the venue, including Ballet of Lights, which reimagines classic fairy tales like Sleeping Beauty through dance and fibre-optic costumes. Next time you head down Oxford Road, forget looking up for a minute and explore the unusual musical history waiting underneath your feet.
