April —June, 2020

Quarterly

Events, Exhibitions & Treasures from the Collection Quarterly NOTE FROM April—June, 2020 THE LIBRARIAN

Features ‘We lived in Houghton-le-Spring,’ writes Jessica Andrews in her Portico Prize 4 Library News winning novel, Saltwater, ‘an old colliery James Moss town comprised of a Kwik Save, a Greggs and a library full of gory crime novels.’ 5 Workshop Experience Substitute Kwik Save for Sainsbury’s Louise Hewitt and Houghton-le-Spring sounds similar to , given The Portico’s 6 Exhibition endlessly entertaining collection of What it is to be here: Victorian crime novels. Colonisation and resistance Announced 23 January, Jessica becomes the youngest recipient of the 7 Event Listings prestigious award with a book described by Portico Chair, Lynne Allan, as being 10 Library Treasures ‘full of optimism…a tender tribute to Dr Esther Gómez-Sierra women across generations and an important exploration of women’s lives 12 Interview with today.’ Andrews, along with the five other Glen James Brown shortlisted authors, received annual Joe Fenn honorary membership and it’s great to see so many of them using the Library 13 Adopt-a-Book as a place to write and research. Martin Siebert If you’re looking for a quiet spot to read or a refuge to escape the daily rush of 14 Volunteer’s Story the city, why not consider joining the Filine Wagner Library as a member and become part of The Portico’s 200-year-old history? We have beautiful spaces to work in, WiFi and access to daily newspapers and journals, plus a café for your caffeine, Cover Image cake and wine needs. By joining you’ll Christine de Pizan (1364 – c. 1430) illustrated also be supporting the Library’s important by F. W. Fairholt, The archaeological album: or museum of national antiquities, Thomas charitable activities. You don’t have to be Wright, 1845. a member, though, to access the Library Opposite or get involving in our exciting public Plates illustrative of the researches and programme of events and exhibitions operations of G. Belzoni in Egypt and Nubia, Giovanni Battista Belzoni, 1820–22. – please read on to find out more. All written material, unless otherwise stated, is the copyright of The Portico Library. Dr. Thom Keep Librarian Designed by Birthday Printed by Jump North If you would like to place an advertisement in our next edition, please contact [email protected] 3 LIBRARY NEWS WORKSHOP EXPERIENCE

The start of 2020 has brought exciting group about what they would keep and On two afternoons in November 2019 gave the children and their parents a opportunities to share our collection and what they would change at The Portico I ran a mini Garden Centre Monsters choice of some stories to be read to heritage with people beyond the Library’s Library and about the books and artworks workshop project, supported by Lydia them. From this the children could create walls and to learn what the region’s on display. SCRROLLS, a ceramic Burke from Venture Arts. a Garden Centre Monster or invent their residents want for The Portico’s future. sculpture by Venture Arts artist Barry I was offered these workshops due own monster. Many of the children On 1 February we joined local community Anthony Finan, was presented as the to the fact that some 3D pottery figures and parents chose to make their own group Let’s Keep Growing for a creative award for the Portico Prize 2020, won that I have made were on display at The monsters, which I thought was pretty ideas session with young people at by Jessica Andrews with her debut novel Portico Library as part of an exhibition interesting. Longsight Library, allowing many who’d Saltwater. “Second Nature: What is ‘nature’ As we completed the monsters I talked never heard of The Portico to explore a Also in February, we were visited anyway?”. The figures are called The to the children and parents about what selection of our 18th and 19th-century by members of Back on Track, a local Garden Centre Monsters. I was inspired they wanted to call the new creatures nature books and illustrations. The learning centre for adults going through by my voluntary work at Hulme for The Portico. We decided on “the images they found will form a new mural a period of recovery or rehabilitation. Community Garden Centre and Beatrix Wild Bunch”, a group of metropolitan in their community alleyway allotment, Plus, we embarked on a new collaboration Potter’s stories to make my own garden monsters who live in the Library itself, inspiring pride in the local area and with The Happy Museum Foundation, centre characters and stories. some of whom are related to the Garden sparking conversations around the who help museums and archives My first workshop was quiet due to Centre Monsters. city’s history. respond to the challenge of creating a really bad weather. Since it was quiet It was at the end of these two sessions Another of our partners, Venture Arts, more sustainable future. Through a series some of the Library staff decided to I thought that this is what I actually wanted supports people with learning disabilities of workshops and public activities, this come over and try my workshop project. to do as a career: run my own workshops to create and share new artworks. Having project aims to embed the values of I told them all about my monsters and because I enjoyed it and I felt alive. The included several Venture Arts artists in cooperation and compassion that the even demonstrated how to make them. Portico is a sweet little gallery; with the recent Portico exhibitions, we were vast majority of ’s residents It was really good fun. dome over you it feels like you are in a thrilled to welcome a group tour for their share in all the Library’s work. My second workshop was a very busy lantern. It has a gentle atmosphere and studio users on 13 February. Our visiting session. I first told each of my groups I hope to volunteer here in the future. Exhibitions and Programmes Assistant James Moss about my Garden Centre Monsters and Apapat Jai-in Glynn chatted with the Exhibitions & Programmes Curator then showed the children where they Louise Hewitt were located in the exhibition. Then I Artist at Venture Arts

Right Right Members of Back Play-doh models on Track at The made at Louise Portico Library. Hewitt’s Garden Centre Monsters workshop.

4 | The Portico Library | Apr—Jun, 2020 5 EXHIBITION EVENTS LISTINGS

Free public preview: Thurs 23 April, 6–8pm April 2020 marks 250 years since Lieutenant James Cook arrived, uninvited, onto Gweagal shores at Kamay (Botany Bay) in what is now Australia. For the local Aboriginal people and Torres Strait Islanders, this event changed everything, dispossessing them of their homes, lands and governance for An Italian Tomb Raider: Don Quixote at The Portico the benefit of the newcomers and those Giovanni Belzoni’s Egyptian – Weds, 8 April 2020, 6:30–8pm far away in Britain. What it is to be here: Adventures, 200 Years On Tickets: £5 Colonisation and resistance considers how this process of colonisation and – Thurs, 2 April 2020, 6:30–8:30pm Following a period of research at The First Nations people’s resistance to it Tickets: £6 (includes wine and nibbles) Portico, Dr Esther Gomez-Sierra leads continue to this day. a discussion on the character of Don 200 years after the publication of Quixote, using books from The Library’s The Portico Library’s collection includes Belzoni’s seminal book of adventures, collection to animate the session. first editions of Cook’s journals, historical Egyptologist Dr Campbell Price reflects maps and related documents that record on his methods and discoveries, and the first of these encounters from the their subsequent reception in Europe. point of view of the colonisers. For this exhibition, we share the words of present- day Aboriginal people and Torres Strait Exhibition Tours Islanders through the Uluru Statement from the Heart (2017). This ground- British Sign Language breaking artwork calls for constitutional with Jennifer Little reforms “to empower our people and – Sat, 6 June 2020, 11:30am–1pm take a rightful place in our own country”. Free, Drop-in We will also present materials documenting a unique relationship that is now being Audio-described with forged between First Nations Australians Moments that Made Manchester Film screening: The Madness of Ann Hornsby of Mind’s and the people of Manchester: in 2019, – Sat 4 April, Sat 2 May, Sat 20 June King George became the first Eye Description Services 2020, 10am–12pm – Thurs, 9 April 2020, 6:30–8:30pm UK institution to unconditionally return – Mon, 15 June 2020, 5:30–7pm sacred artefacts to their traditional Tickets: £13 Tickets: £6 • Concessions: £4 Free, Drop-in custodians in Australia. The objects These 2-hour sessions will uncover the Alan Bennett’s Oscar-winning comedy are going . famous and the lesser known stories drama depicts the harshness and behind Manchester’s Radical history, hypocrisy of 18th-century mental health exploring the lives of Friedrich Engels, treatments. See it in the Manchester’s Elizabeth Gaskell, Alan Turing, the original Georgian library alongside our Chartists and others. Full information exhibition ‘Talking Sense: The changing on our website. vocabulary of mind and brain’

6 | The Portico Library | Apr—Jun, 2020 7 Please visit www.theportico.org.uk/events EVENTS LISTINGS for further events and information

Bookbinding: A Crossed Film Screening: TERROR What it is to be Speared Your Family in Australia: public Structure Notebook NULLIUS by Soda_Jerk – Thurs, 14 May 2020, 6:30–8:00pm drop-in session – Weds, 22 April 2020, 10am–4pm – Thurs, 7 May 2020, 6:30–8pm Tickets: £4 – Sat, 30 May 2020, 12:30–3pm Tickets: £60 (includes lunch) Tickets: £4 Free for students & unwaged Free Free for students & unwaged A one-day workshop with experienced Dr Ian Henderson of the Menzies Manchester residents comprised some local bookbinder, Barry Clark, to create Highly acclaimed political satire and Australia Institute explores the of the first people to be sent as convicts an A6 crossed structure notebook – a eco-horror road movie TERROR significance of the relationship between to Australia in the 1700s. Find out if your useful, non-adhesive binding developed NULLIUS offers a re-writing of Australian Australia’s first Governor, Arthur Phillip, family members were among them at this by renowned binder Carmencho Arregui. cinema and an un-writing of its national and Bennelong, the first Aboriginal man free public drop-in. mythologies. brought to England.

Breastfeeding and Wet Nursing Pop-up studio with Gang of Five The Chanteuse at The Portico Manchester Libraries Festival in the Ancient World – Sat, 9 May 2020, 10am–11am – Fri, 29 May 2020, 6:30–8:30pm – Thurs, 11 – Sat, 13 June, 2020 – Weds, 6 May 2020, 6:30–8pm relaxed / autism-friendly, Tickets: £25 (buffet included) Free 11am–3pm, All welcome Tickets: £5 For this intimate event, The Chanteuse The Portico Library will be hosting a Free for students/unwaged Free (Lucy Hope) performs a repertoire of range of different events as part of the Across human history, societies have This local collective will create an songs with lyrics by authors including Manchester Libraries Festival. Keep up attached importance to behaviours and interactive pop-up studio making art for Kasuo Isiguro, Arthur Rimbaud and to date with the festival programme at expectations around the visibility of all! Create your own artworks and display Leonard Cohen. A buffet of selected The Portico on our website. breastfeeding. This talk by Dr April them in our exhibition space. Look out French cheeses and wines is included. Pudsey offers a social and emotional for another event with GOF in June. history of breastfeeding in Antiquity.

8 | The Portico Library | Apr—Jun, 2020 9 LIBRARY TREASURES

Don Quixote at The Portico with gusto into this author’s psyche with her Cervantes biography. The treasure trove that is The Portico All these books can be read at The holds a number of surprises for those Portico, some uniquely: for instance, the interested in Don Quixote and its author, volume of Lardner’s Cyclopedia. Various Miguel de Cervantes. The Library plays editions of the novel itself are also an intriguing part in the literary transmission available; interestingly, that which even of what has been considered the first and the Spanish Inquisition found acceptable ultimate modern novel. was, at times, amended in the later Numerous authors have been English translations. Some of these entranced by the mock-chivalric copies include beautiful illustrations by adventures of Don Quixote’s fictional Gustave Doré and Ernest Marriott. hero and the real-life exploits of its heroic It is a privilege to be able to dive author. Laurence Sterne’s The Life and into this treasure and explore its Opinions of Tristram Shandy understood readership at The Portico. The newly Cervantes’s literary innovations and restored Stranger Books might throw upped the ante with prophetically some further light into this matter. The Monty-Pythonesque absurdism. Henry available borrowing records point to a Fielding admired the novel so much that reading public interested in Spanish he wrote Don Quixote in England – a culture; and sometimes past readers political comedy which expanded the have left us tangible traces: a chapter story to include an array of English entitled ‘The Cradle and the Grave of characters. While Dyonisius Lardner – Cervantes’ in John Hay’s Castilian Days the then-phenomenally famous scientist appears to be the most read in the and compiler – dedicated considerable book… space in his Cabinet Cyclopedia to the facts of Cervantes’s life, the passionate Dr Esther Gómez-Sierra and shrewd ‘Mrs Oliphant’—Margaret Researcher Oliphant, a real-life Jo March—plunged

To discover more about Don Quixote and its author, please join us for Esther’s lecture ‘Don Quixote at the Portico’ on Wednesday 8 April. All welcome – see page 7 for more information.

Left and Opposite Illustrations by Gustave Doré in The History of Don Quixote by Cervantes, 1863.

11 INTERVIEW WITH GLEN JAMES BROWN ADOPT-A-BOOK

The £10,000 Portico Prize is awarded biennially to the book that History of the Origin and Rise Venice’s historic buildings rather than best evokes the spirit of the North of England. Glen James of the Republic of Venice by constructing new ones. In the early 15th Brown’s debut novel Ironopolis was one of six titles shortlisted W. C. Hazlitt, 1858. century, the Doge’s Palace burned down for 2020. Glen spoke to Portico Library Kitchen Manager Joe Fenn for the third time. The most influential about his work, the North and Northern writing. A recent visit to the Lagoon City and its architect of the day, Palladio, suggested ancient 1000 year old buildings prompted a complete rebuild in the new style of the Can you describe Your book is very Finally, did you find me to search for more information in The Renaissance (a plan of which still exists Ironopolis in your own localised. How do similarity amongst Library’s collection. Happily, there are in their archives). But the city fathers words? conceptions of the the shortlist? Is there over 100 relevant titles and the one I thought better of it, opting to restore and fancied – an account of Venice from preserve the work of previous Ironopolis takes place in broader region of the a common theme in 1858 by English lawyer and writer William generations. Today we can get a feeling a huge fictional post-war North factor into your Northern writing? Carew Hazlitt – was discovered in the of the life and the ideas of Venetians in housing estate over the writing? I think it’s the same hidden corner of the reading room. past centuries, instead of enduring just course of sixty or seventy Identity-wise I don’t think anywhere. It’s people. If Finding all four volumes suffering from another Palladian house behind the next years, from its peak in the I can escape it. The social a writer is worth their salt old age, meaning the bindings had bend in the road! This echoes Ruskin’s 1960s to its more recent and political forces of the they can make characters become so brittle that they disintegrate opinion about Venice’s architecture; decline. It follows three region have shaped my come alive. If you want to on opening and are in urgent need of another fabulous must read in our Library generations of residents politics and worldview: write about the North, repair, I sponsored their restoration to titled The Stones of Venice, which has whose lives overlap the Thatcher years, the you make sure that the enable future readers to enjoy them. also recently been adopted. and is told from six decline of shipbuilding characters are not just I could not wait to study the volumes When the restoration of Hazlitt’s book perspectives, all tied in Newcastle and other ‘Northern’ but they’re and I have to say they make very is complete, these books should be at the together by different industries elsewhere. It real characters who entertaining and informative reading. The top of the research list of study for the threads. made sense for me to put just happen to be in the language of those years is so rich and contemporary traveller. I hope they will What is your my book somewhere in North. If you look too colourful, it felt like being given a poetry be available for the summer. closely at anything like relationship to the North so I could lecture or enjoying an opera in Verona. explore those issues and that it just becomes a The author emphasises the effective Martin Siebert those stories–is try to think of something mess of contradictions. workings of a very sensible group of Portico Library member the book semi- new or relevant to say. politicians, who work tirelessly to protect autobiographical? Right I believe everything you From The Stones of Venice, Vol. 3, write – every single ‘The Fall’ by John person, character, Ruskin, 1853. With illustrations situation – is you. Some by the author. part of you, or reflection Opposite of you. So, in that respect The Portico Prize it’s all me. But it’s also shortlisted authors. From left to right: about imagination and Graham Caveney, trying to find what is true Jessica Andrews, Benjamin Myers, for everybody. So, there’s Adelle Stripe and little bits of stuff, twisted Glen James Brown. Ray and turned. Robinson not pictured.

12 | The Portico Library | Apr—Jun, 2020 13 VOLUNTEER’S STORY ADVERT

I still remember more or less stumbling But there was a whole other world into The Portico Library whilst on my way to discover literally hidden behind the to the neighbouring Art Gallery when I Portico’s clock: up in the attic, the Library’s first visited Manchester back in 2013. archive slumbers. I was entrusted to As an art historian with a keen interest survey and inventory a recent acquisition in architecture and working in special from a former member of The Portico collections, how could I not be amazed who was actively involved with the main by such a place? and book committees for around two Around a year ago I left Switzerland, decades. Going through the materials, where I had been living for quite I gained first-hand insights into the some time, to settle permanently in processes of what seems a pivotal time in Manchester. To become acquainted which a lot has been done to change the with my new environment, The Portico Library from a more exclusive institution seemed an ideal place for me to to a lively place of exchange. But the volunteer. With its Georgian roots and engagement with the archive allowed for the busy programme of exhibitions and much more than only satisfying my events around its collections, the curiosity. In conjunction with The Portico, Library allows one to engage with both and with the Library’s great support, I Manchester’s vibrant social and literary undertook a diploma in Archives and history and with the city’s contemporary Records Management at The University cultural life. My expectations were more of Liverpool, which has paved my way than fulfilled. Since my very first day I to finding a job in the archival world. was retrieving books in preparation for exhibitions or upon request for members Filine Wagner or readers. Volunteer

Right Filine Wagner and Freddy Hankin in The Portico Library’s Reading Room.

14 | The Portico Library | Apr—Jun, 2020 The Portico Library Market Street 57 Mosley Street N Manchester M2 3HY Piccadilly Gardens 0161 236 6785 www.theportico.org.uk S

Opening Times Monday & Friday: 9:30am – 4:30pm New York Street Tuesday – Thursday: The Portico 9:30am – 5:30pm Library Chorlton Street Saturday: Charlotte Street 11am – 3pm

View up-to-date Sackville Street temporary closures Mosley Street on our website. Portland Street Princess Street

Central Library

St. Peter’s Sq

We want to make The To enter the Library, Portico Library welcoming please press the intercom for everyone, but there is button next to the green lots more to do to make door on Charlotte Street. our 200-year-old listed Parking is available building accessible. In nearby. 2018, we commissioned an Access Audit, Currently, there are 32 supported by the National steps from the main Lottery, and are working entrance to the library and towards implementing its no lift. A stairlift is available recommendations. via a portable ramp and there is a step-free toilet in the next-door Berlitz language school. Staff are always available to help.