The Art of Research
29 Oct 2024
Our University Research Platforms, Creative Manchester, Digital Futures, Healthier Futures, and Sustainable Futures, produce research that contributes to and affects our wider society.
Explaining our research
If you visit Manchester, it will be hard to miss the incredible murals, patterns and colours that light up the streets. Manchester is bursting with creativity, and it’s clear that street art culture is an important and creative way to channel important messages.
Our university research platforms influence and create impactful outputs that affect our local community and beyond. Communicating these important messages and using a new medium to translate our research impacts was a fantastic opportunity to mark the University’s Bicentenary.
Teaming up with Art Battle MCR and GRIT Studios, we collaborated with four of the UK’s top street artists to help us deliver this. Each artist collaborated in a creative workshop with their platform, discussing each area's vital work and interdisciplinary nature and understanding what they truly represent.
Creative Manchester X Cookie Love
Creative Manchester’s research themes focus on Creative Industries and Innovation, Creative and Civic Futures, and Creativity, Health and Wellbeing.
Digital Futures X Oskar with a K
Digital Futures research themes focus on Societal Challenges, Cross-cutting capabilities and Institutional Challenges.
Healthier Futures X All Weather Artist
Healthier Futures research challenges focus on Healthier lives, places and systems.
Sustainable Futures X Becki Miller
Sustainable Futures research challenges focus on Health, Net-Zero, Equity, Skills, Resilience and Resources.
Universally Manchester Festival
On Saturday, 4 June 2024, we joined the Manchester Universally Festival to deliver the live creation of each platform's artwork.
We want our local community not only to feel but also to see the impact of our research. Inviting our local community, staff, and students to join us for the event allowed our audiences to be part of the art’s creation.
Families were invited to participate in the art by spray painting their mini murals using repurposed spray paint bottles.
The artworks are now being displayed across campus, most recently at THE World Academic Summit and at the upcoming Festival of Social Sciences.
Find out more about the project.