Things to do in March 2016: Miniature towns, Wonder Women & FutureEverything

Polly Checkland Harding
A miniature cinema

The Creative Tourist Cultural Calendar. This month: Wonder Women and FutureEverything return.

Wonder Women. The annual festival returns with a packed programme over ten days, featuring art, film, exhibitions, debate, guided walks, fashion, and much more, all celebrating female ingenuity. Jointly organised by Creative Tourist and our friends at the People’s History Museum, the full listings and details of events will be announced in the new year. Various venues, Manchester, – 13 Mar

FutureEverything. For 20 years, FutureEverything has looked at big questions facing society through the lens of art and digital culture. The 2016 festival will feature a two day conference, new commissions, and world class performances that use art and invention to help us rethink resources and navigate our unknown future. Various venues, Manchester, 30 Mar – 2 Apr

Laura Ford: Sculpture and Drawings. Laura Ford describes her work as sculptures dressed as people who are dressed as animals, as they meld together ideas of childhood memory with a disturbing edge. This exhibition brings together Ford’s earlier work together with new sculptures. Abbot Hall Art Gallery, Kendal, 11 Mar – 25 Jun

La Town. Exhibited in the 56th Venice Biennale in 2015, Cao Fei’s atmospheric exhibition La Town takes us on a tour of an alternate reality, constructed from miniature models handmade by the artist herself. Centre For Chinese Contemporary Art, Manchester, 4 – 27 Mar

Eduardo Paolozzi. A display of graphic works, still vibrant and fresh today, by this iconic UK pop artist. Yorkshire Sculpture Park, 12 Mar – 12 Jun

Summer. Autumn. Winter. Spring65 performers – including 15 pregnant women – come together for Quarantine’s groundbreaking quartet of theatre, which premieres at HOME. HOME, 22-26 March, 2 & 3 April

Hinterland. A world premiere public event at St Peter’s Seminary, launching Scotland’s Festival of Architecture. At night, audiences will walk through the semi-ancient woodland to discover the ruined seminary buildings, re-animated with monochromatic light installations. Scotland, 18 – 27 Mar

Unfold. The first ever solo UK exhibition by Japanese artist Ryoichi Kurokawa, this is a major new commission merging complex scientific data with digital virtuosity, developed in collaboration with astrophysicists in the renowned CEA Institute in Nantes. FACT, Liverpool, 11 Mar – 12 June

We Have Your Art Gallery. Tate Liverpool is taking part in a unique experiment that sees the gallery’s main special exhibition spaces given over to an open source project. Turner Prize winners Assemble, Tate Collective, and Tate Liverpool are working collaboratively to develop a process that will revolutionise how museums and galleries programme for and with young people. Tate Liverpool, 7 – 31 Mar

Inside Out. This group exhibition has the aim of looking at the shared aesthetic concerns of outsider artists, and to consider their potential for confronting the difficulties of being in the world. Castlefield Gallery, Manchester, 4 Mar – 24 Apr

Culture Guides

Cinema

Northern flicks, sci-fi masterpieces and some brand new film festivals feature in this month’s cinema preview.

Exhibitions

Spring weather might be dragging its feet a little, but the world of exhibitions isn’t slowing down with new shows popping up everywhere to greet the new season.

Families

With two weeks off school and the sun finally rearing it’s head, April is the month to have fun with family and friends and make some amazing memories in readiness for summer term!

Jen Calleja

Literature

Books are most definitely back, with a whole host of live events by writers local as well as international, from pop-up performances to regular reading series, plus some hybrid festival specials and online launches allowing access wherever you happen to be.

Music

From Father John Misty to The Flaming Lips, The Waeve to Big Thief, here are the gigs on our radar for early spring.

Theatre in Manchester and the North

Theatre

You’ll find everything from work-in-progress scratch nights to multi-award winning musicals in this month’s theatre guide.

Classical Music

We preview the standout classical music events and venues in Manchester and the north.

Food and Drink

Get ready for spring and summer with the best restaurants and bars in Manchester and the North.

Tours and Activities

From indie markets to bit-sized meditation, spoon carving workshops to gallery tours, here are the headlines in the world of tours and activities.