Events, Exhibitions & Treasures from the Collection
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
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 Mosley Street, 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 Manchester’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 Manchester Museum 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 home. 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.