What’s on in April?
31 Mar 2025
Welcome to April’s edition of ‘What’s on?’. Here you will find everything you can get involved in for free each month, ranging from cultural, extracurricular and celebratory events and activities.
Events
Manchester 2035 Ideas Lab
Visit our in person and digital Manchester 2035 Ideas Lab – an interactive pop-up exhibition – to make the leap into Phase 2 of Manchester 2035.
- Book your place for your team from Tuesday, 1 to Friday, 11 April 10am to 4pm in Nancy Rothwell Building
Stress Awareness Month training workshops
April marks Stress Awareness Month, giving us the opportunity to learn more about the causes, symptoms and support available at the University for stress.
- Book your place on a workshop in April
Confucius Institute Spring Open Day
Take part in a variety of fun cultural activities, language tasters, sample some Chinese tea and snacks and enter the prize draw.
- Book your place on Saturday, 5 April 2.15pm to 4.15pm at the Confucius Institute
AI training sessions with Digital Futures, NVIDIA and Dell
Digital Futures, NVIDIA and Dell presents to you “NVIDIA AI Day” - a series of activities designed to help you leverage AI in your research regardless of your discipline. Whether you're new to AI or ready to take your skills to the next level, these events are for you.
- Book your place on various sessions on Wednesday, 23 and Thursday, 24 April
Our cultural institutions
Jodrell Bank
- Until Sunday, 27 April: Astronomy Photographer of the Year
Manchester Museum
Various dates (2pm to 3pm): Dadikwakwa-kwa come out to play
Various dates (10.30am to 1pm): Tangram tile workshop
Various dates: Museum Meeple
- Wednesday, 2 April (12pm to 12.50pm): Introductory tai chi qigong session
- Tuesday, 1, 15 and 29 April (11am to 12.30pm): Wild Shared Reading
- Wednesday, 9 and 16 April (6pm to 8pm): Exploring Mixed Race Identities
- Wednesday, 2 April (6pm to 9pm): Official South Asian Heritage Month 2025 theme launch
- Wednesday, 9 April (1.15 to 1.45pm): Collection Bites: Dinosaurs
- Wednesday, 16 April (6pm to 7.30pm): Critical Conversations
- Saturday, 19 April (9am to 5pm): Manchester Museum Celebrates Vaisakhi
- Wednesday, 23 April (6pm to 8pm): Wild Soundscapes
- Saturday, 26 April (2pm to 3.30pm): Wild Talks: Birdgirl
- Monday, 28 April (11am to 2pm): Culture Monday: Elder & Wiser edition
Whitworth Art Gallery
Various dates: Women in Revolt! Art and Activism in the UK 1970-1990
- Wednesday, 2 April (2pm to 3pm): Serendipity: The Afterlife of the Object - A Book Talk with Carol Mavor
- Wednesday, 9 and Wednesday, 16 April (10am to 2.30pm): Easter Holidays at the Whitworth
- Wednesday, 23 April (2pm to 2.45pm): Turner: In Light and Shade Exhibition Tour
John Rylands Research Institute and Library
Various dates (2.15pm to 3pm): Rare Reads
Various dates (11am to 11.30am): Printing Press Demonstration
Various dates (11am to 11.30am): Rylands Discovery Tour
Our community
Religious celebrations and traditions
Saturday, 12 to Sunday, 20 April: Passover (Judaism)
Sunday, 13 April: Palm Sunday (Christianity)
Sunday, 13 April: Theravada New Year (Buddhism)
Monday, 14 April: Vaisakhi (Sikhism)
Thursday, 17 April: End of Lent (Christianity)
Friday, 18 April: Good Friday (Christianity)
Saturday, 19 April: Holy Saturday (Christianity)
Sunday, 20 April: Easter Sunday (Christianity)
Monday, 21 April: Easter Monday (Christianity)
Wednesday, 23 April: St George’s Day (Christianity)
- Read more about religious celebrations our colleagues take part in this April
Awareness days
Sunday, 6 April: International Asexual Day
Tuesday, 22 April: Earth Day
Wednesday, 23 April: St George’s Day
Saturday, 26 April: Lesbian Visibility Day
Groups and societies
Book club
We have two books to choose from in April (we could not decide between them!). You can read either or both. These are Unruly: The Ridiculous History of England's Kings and Queens by David Mitchell and Astral Travel by Elizabeth Baines. We will also recap Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe.
You don't even need to have finished the book (although there will be spoilers!).
Why not head over to our Viva Engage (yammer) group for more reading inspiration!
- Contact Fiona.Lynch@manchester.ac.uk for the zoom link for Friday, 25 April 12.30pm to 1.30pm
Want to feature your event next month?
If your event is free and open to all colleagues at the University, you can advertise it here next month!
Submit your suggestion to uninews@manchester.ac.uk by 25 of each month to feature in the following month. Please send us a short description (max 30 words) and any relevant links you may have too.
Please note that we unfortunately cannot guarantee your submission will feature, but we will do our best to feature as many as we can.
The deadline to feature in May’s ‘What’s on?’ is 25 April. Any questions, just drop us an email!