Workshops/Tours

Email a Friend Email a friend 

School children creating artworks with coloured paper in the modern and contemporary galleries

Available throughout the year

Choose from a range of activity sessions, all of which:

  • last 1 hour 45 minutes (maximum)
  • include practical activities led by artists/educators
  • are cross-curricular in approach and wherever possible, cross-cultural
  • are based on the permanent collections and often current special exhibitions

Capturing Nature

Students discover how artists have been inspired by nature, research still life, costume, paintings and ceramics and record their responses. In our studio they explore mixed media and experiment with wax trapping techniques.

Gallery Tours

We’ll tailor guided tours of the gallery to your group’s needs. All our tours are led by a gallery educator, who will take you through the building – introducing highlights of the permanent collection, destination galleries and current special exhibitions.
Click for more information

Getting to Know the Gallery

Join our interactive tour, where students will discover the history of our building and a selection of works of art that complement the development and founding of our gallery. A mixture of discussion and engaging drawing techniques will provide a creative basis for future gallery visits. 
Click for more information

Picturing Landscapes

Students research how artists have developed and produced landscape paintings throughout the last century. Observational drawings of Manchester’s ever changing cityscape are collected and explored in our studios using print techniques.
Click for more information

Portraits and Identity

Investigate relationships between people and objects through a range of works of art in our permanent collection and special exhibitions. Critical studies inform analysis. Photography and alternative drawing techniques document observations.
Click for more information

Sculpture with Susie MacMurray

Susie introduces students to traditional and contemporary artwork, using her own processes and the gallery’s collection. Exploring unusual materials and a range of methods, drawing and sculpture become entwined using wire, withies and wool.
Click for more information

Shakespearian Stories

Visit scenes from The Tempest featured in the gallery and explore the recurrent themes that run through the Bard’s plays, such as shipwreck, sorcery, betrayal, revenge, forgiveness and love.
Click for more information

Who’s in the News?

People, power and perception are explored through the cult of celebrity. Debates focus on historical and contemporary issues. Students create unique mixed media montages that transport Victorian depictions of women into the 21st century.
Click for more information