Manchester School of Art students collaborate with Manchester Art Gallery on major new exhibition

Students from Manchester School of Art have contributed to a major new exhibition at Manchester Art Gallery, offering new perspectives on the gallery’s historic furniture collection as part of its ongoing Taking Stock collections review.

Opening on 26 March, Won’t Sit Still celebrates the gallery’s furniture and lighting collection, presenting pieces gathered over more than a century of collecting. The exhibition also reflects several years of work reviewing and rethinking the collection as it prepares for the future.

The collaboration builds on a long relationship between Manchester School of Art and Manchester Art Gallery, which share a historic connection. The School of Art was originally founded in 1838 in the basement of the building that now houses the gallery.

For this project, 21 second year students from Fine Art and Fine Art and Art History responded to the gallery’s furniture collection through a live brief set by the gallery. The project was originally developed in 2024 as part of a teaching unit led by Dr Anne-Marie Atkinson, Lecturer in Fine Art and Art Theory and Practice, who supported students to develop and deliver their work in collaboration with the gallery. The brief invited students to immerse themselves in the collection and consider broader questions about cultural value, including why objects are preserved, how collections reflect the societies that create them, and how historic objects can remain relevant today.

Working closely with the gallery’s curatorial and public engagement teams, the students explored the collection, carried out research and developed new artistic responses inspired by the objects they encountered.

“We know our art and design collections are powerful catalysts for student inspiration and creativity, but the gallery gains just as much from working with student artists,” says Kate Day, Learning Manager for Young People at Manchester Art Gallery.

“There are so many ways to understand a collection, and it is incredibly valuable for us to work with people who bring new perspectives to the objects we care for. When the students explored the stores they asked questions shaped by their own creative practice and art historical research, as well as the issues they care about personally.”

Their work forms part of the gallery’s wider Taking Stock project, a long term programme reviewing more than 50,000 items in Manchester Art Gallery’s collection. The initiative aims to better understand the collection, identify gaps in representation and explore how historic objects can be interpreted through contemporary perspectives.

As part of the collaboration, students produced new artworks responding to the collection and its context. These responses were presented in a well attended public one day exhibition at Manchester Art Gallery, which attracted around 200 visitors, giving students the experience of delivering their first commissioned work in a major civic gallery, with many of the participants now continuing their practice as emerging artists.

“Working on the Won’t Sit Still exhibition was an exciting opportunity to engage with and be inspired by the Manchester Art Gallery curators and archives,” says student Jen Huck. “Collaborating on a live brief helped build my confidence as an artist and strengthened our professional relationship with the gallery. It’s really rewarding to see our work included in a longer exhibition.”

Day says the conversations that took place during the collaboration helped shape aspects of the exhibition itself.

“Together we discussed representation, including the visibility of women, queer histories and colonial histories within the collection. We also explored how exhibitions can invite audiences to look at objects differently and engage with them in their own way.”

Elements of the students’ work will now feature within Won’t Sit Still, including a film documenting their responses and research process. Their ideas and perspectives have also contributed to the thinking behind the exhibition display, demonstrating how outside voices can play a role in the review of a major public collection.

“You can see those conversations reflected in the exhibition, from the playful introduction wall that encourages visitors to look at furniture in new ways to digital interpretation that allows people to explore the objects on their own terms,” Day adds.

“The display acknowledges that the gallery does not have all the answers, but it can open up important questions, especially when we work with other creative people across the city.”

Won’t Sit Still opens at Manchester Art Gallery on 26 March and runs until 28 March 2027.