Wallpaper wildcard at The Whitworth

The insider guide to family holidays and things to do with kids – here, an exhibition of wallpaper at the Whitworth, one of Manchester’s most dynamic art galleries.

Don’t climb the walls during the holidays. Watch them, courtesy of The Whitworth Art Gallery, which hosts the summer’s most talked about show: Walls Are Talking. As the name suggests, it’s all about wallpaper – but rather than looking at its cosy, domestic history, the exhibition illustrates how artists have subverted it for artistic purposes. Alongside 30 international artists such as Sonia Boyce, Niki de St. Phalle, Michael Craig-Martin and Damien Hirst you’ll find commercial samples, such as a Spice Girls paper, digital designs projected onto walls (stand in front and you become part of the pattern) and a few risqué offerings (note that one room isn’t suitable for the under 18s but you’ll easily be able to march your teens past that one). You can read up on the exhibition in Guardian critic Jessica Lack’s review elsewhere on our site.

The gallery itself is worth a visit, a fusion of Victorian red brick design and mid-century modernism framed by the swaying trees of the Whitworth Park. Inside, Thomas Demand’s Ivy wallpaper crawls across every inch of the park-facing South Gallery. Outside, Gustav Metzger’s Flailing Trees (originally commissioned for Manchester International Festival) sets the tone for a gallery that comfortably treads the line between high and popular art. It’s worth noting that the Whitworth’s textiles collection is second only to the V&A, while its historic British watercolours are hung in park-side galleries in thoughtful, intriguing displays.

Elsewhere, the gallery’s programme of activities for children continues to expand (there’s nothing quite so gratifying as seeing the floors covered with kids painting and drawing). The place has its own award-winning café, too, run by chef-turned-entrepreneur Peter Booth. Both is a foodie who loves local produce and quite likes kids, too (he adjusts his seasonal menu for young palates). Just down the road, and part of the Alfred Waterhouse-designed university campus, you’ll find The Manchester Museum. Its graphic novel-style summer show features objects collected by Charles Darwin, such as a finch ensnared during the voyage of The Beagle. Permanent exhibits include a full-size T-Rex (rargh), more Egyptian mummies than you can shake a scarab beetle at (woo) and the skeleton of Maharajah, an Asian elephant with a Mancunian past (aw…). Read more about the museum over in our Close By section. The Whitworth Art Gallery. Until 30 August. Free entry. Manchester Museum, open daily. Free entry.

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Listen to Nick Merriman, Director of Manchester Museum, talk about the ‘Batman’ wallpaper that’s currently on display at the Whitworth Art Gallery (and below, a picture of him in his childhood bedroom):

Images (top to bottom): Niki de St Phalle, Nana, 1972;  Sindy, 1966, machine-printed from surface roller, courtesy Whitworth Art Gallery; The Mammals Hall at Manchester Museum, Steve Devine; Audioboo courtesy Whitworth Art Gallery/Steve Devine; Nick Merriman as a child, courtesy Nick Merriman; Batman, 1966, machine-printed wallpaper manufactured by Crown Wallcoverings, Ltd., courtesy Whitworth Art Gallery.