Museums & Music

'Wonderland by the Waves' at Manchester Central Library

On Friday evening I visited the Manchester Central Library for the opening of 'Wonderland by the Waves' an exhibition curated by students (my friends!) from the University of Manchester. Working in tandem with Arts Management students, a team of MA Art Gallery and Museum Studies students created 'Wonderland by the Waves', an exhibition exploring local history and the traditional Mancunian summer holiday to Blackpool. 

In response to 'Wonderland by the Waves' the Arts Management students created a lovely opening night entitled 'Manchester Wakes: Workers at Play'. The evening was deemed a success with great attendance on the opening evening. I would say that there did not seem to be enough emphasis that the evening was to open an exhibition. It felt as if the team involved in the event portion of the project may have run away with themselves slightly as there was little to no advertisement of the actual exhibition on the night. 

However, the evening was very enjoyable, with appearances from award-winning performance poet JB Barrington and monologues from Jennifer Reid and John Bartley. The Oldham Youth Wind ensemble welcomed people into the library with seaside themed tunes before Levy Uke Up ushered in a seaside singalong with accompanying ukeleles! 

The exhibition itself may be a little tucked away but includes some gems from Blackpool's holiday heyday including treasured photographs and original tram tickets, swimming caps and brochures. The free sticks of Blackpool rock ushered in memories of British seaside holidays as you browsed the classic British 'staycation'.

Salford-born performance poet, JB Barrington, gave a lively and humorous performance of his original poetry, some of which had been created specifically for the event. Some pieces were performed with the accompaniment of students from the RNCM, giving a classical touch to a very modern poet. 

The evening was broken up by performances from The Cosmo Singers from the University of Manchester as well as the Kadenza/Bolton Clarion Choir (below). The Kadenza/Bolton Choir gave a rousing performance of songs from Manchester's industrial past including 'July Wakes' and 'Bolton Mill Lad'. The Cosmo singers made a particular impression with their stunning performance of Deep River by Micheal Tippett followed by an unexpected but humorous depiction of 'The Drunken Sailor'.

The Cosmo Singers from the University of Manchester

The Kadenza/Bolton Clarion Choir