Lost & Found: Museums at Night
07 May 2013
A mystery tour, a people’s museum: an exhibition in a night on 16 and 17 May at Manchester Museum, Whitworth Art Gallery and Manchester Art Gallery.
This May, Manchester takes part in Museums at Night. With Richard Wentworth leading proceedings, the city’s museums and galleries stage a series of events over two evenings that celebrate the depth and diversity, the weirdness and the wonderfulness of the things that people are compelled to collect.
On Thursday 16 May, bring something curious to a collections booth at either Manchester Museum or Manchester Art Gallery, and in so doing create a people’s museum – your object will be “acquired” by the institution. On the same evening, take a mystery bus tour of Manchester. You won’t know where you’re going or why; all you need to know is that your bus follows a circuitous route devised by the artist Richard Wentworth.
On Friday 17 May, see the fruits of your collective labour. Richard Wentworth creates an exhibition in a night at Whitworth Art Gallery; the objects donated the previous night the raw materials for Wentworth’s show here. Watch one of Britain’s most successful artists at work; see how he uses the raw materials you supplied and take advantage of the other music and performance that brings the Whitworth to life late into the night.
We can’t tell you exactly what Museums at Night will entail, but we can tell you that you will be with like-minded souls. Like them, you might collect things in order to make sense of the world – or find your place within it. You might be cynical. You might be curious. You may end up finding without searching.
* Disclaimer: All objects donated to Manchester Art Gallery and Manchester Museum must be owned by the person donating them, and will not be returned. Photographs or representations of objects will also be accepted. All objects will be taken to the Whitworth Art Gallery on Friday, 17 May to be used as part of Richard Wentworth’s exhibition, although not all may be used in the final exhibition. We regret that we cannot accept very large objects or objects made of organic/perishable material.
Share your collections as part of our #lovecollecting campaign
As part of our celebration of Museums at Night, we’d like you to share your pictures of the artefacts, objects or things that you collect. Here at Manchester Museum we’re very proud of our collections, which range from insects to shabtis. And we’re sure that our visitors not only love our collections as much as we do, but probably collect things themselves – whether books, tins and stamps or furniture, comics or stickers.
In May, Manchester’s museums and galleries celebrate Museums at Night with a series of events focused on collecting and collections. In the run-up, we’d like to uncover the things that you collect or are inspired by when you visit our venue. Every day from Tuesday, 30 April until Friday, 18 May we will Tweet and Instagram images of objects from our collection that staff here are particularly proud or fond of. We won’t be alone. Other museums and galleries will do the same – but what we’d really like is for you to join us.
How to share your object as part of #lovecollecting
It’s easy to take part. Just Tweet or Instagram an image of an object that you own, collect or that you’ve seen in a museum or gallery using the hashtag #lovecollecting and @MuseumsatNight.
Tell us what the object is, where it is and why you like it (we’ve put a couple of examples up – find them using the #lovecollecting hashtag).
The best will be collated onto a Pinterest board, and two of those will win tickets to take a mystery bus tour of Manchester on Thursday, 16 May, a tour created by the artist Richard Wentworth especially for Museums at Night. You can also come in and donate an object to either Manchester Art Gallery or Manchester Museum on 16 May – find out more here.
Please help us share a love of collecting, and uncover the unsung collections both inside our venues and across the city by taking part in #lovecollecting.