What Kind of City at Whitworth Art Gallery

Artist Suzanne Lacy is known for her disruptive and socially motivated work. Often, this is because of the real changes implemented as a direct result of the pieces. Her 2013 performance Cleaning Conditions, made The Whitworth art gallery reassess the wages they were paying cleaning staff and raise them. The artist now returns to this Oxford Road based gallery for a project that interrogates how art can help people create a vision for a more equitable city. What Kind of City is an opportunity for art to implement social change.

Over a four day summit, multiple organisations will be coming together to discuss, workshop and share ideas around how community centred strategies can encourage people to become more creative and active citizens. Like a lot of Lacy’s work this summit aims to bring together an intersectional mix of communities, activist groups, artists and those whose voices are often sidelined, to shed light and share thoughts openly on some currently pressing social issues.

Each day of the summit will have a different focus around a key area of concern. On the first day, the 23rd March communities in Manchester are invited to share their proposals for creatively addressing Youth Agency. On the second day the topic of choice is Ageing and Intersectionality. On the 25th March there will be workshops and discussions around Borders and finally, on the last day, the topic of discussion will be Social Cohesion.

Add your voice to the conversation or turn up and listen to what others have to say by signing up for a free place in the summit. The full schedule of round tables, talks discussions and workshops will be released nearer the time.

This four day event coincides with the artists exhibition What Kind of City, which is currently at the Whitworth till the 10th April. It brings together artefacts, photos, recordings and films from different projects that could help change the way we feel and think about social boundaries, representation and borders.