10 event highlights of Manchester After Hours – unique access to our city

From newly commissioned musical pieces to the most bizarre children’s television shows, doors will be opened, bars will be filled and the entire city will be given over to celebrate the arts and culture of Manchester. These are our highlights of Manchester After Hours 2016.

D’Arts Festival

This year, the D’Arts festival is taking extraordinary measures to make art approachable. Teams of five will play a battle royale of pub games, but the oches (the line players stand behind) are spectacular pieces of art, commissioned specifically for the festival.

Although only teams can enter, the night will be full of music, drinks and pub games for you and your friends, even if you don’t want to compete.

7pm – 11pm (final at 10pm).
The Whitworth, part of University of Manchester, Oxford Road
Spectators Free (first come, first served). Teams of 5 Players must register in advance £20
@whitworthart @WeAreEngine #DArtsfest

After Hours: SEESAW

presents an interactive, live drawing event at Manchester Museum

SEESAW is an artist-led exhibition, in which you can experience the relationship between sound and image. Based in the Living Worlds gallery, you can see your own work projected into the workspace and enjoy performances scored by sound artist JC.

6.30-10pm Performances at 8 & 9.30
Manchester Museum, Oxford Road
Free
@seesawprojects @McrMuseum

Bad Uncle’s TV Party

Join Bad Uncle for a trip into the weird and wonderful world of children’s television. Presenting the lowest form of entertainment in a place of high learning, showcasing often overlooked, and sometimes bizarre clips and shows.

5.30-7.30
Performance space 2&3, Central Library, St Peters Square
Free (drop in)
@badunclemusic

Unit X

Take a look around 48,000 sq ft of office space which has been transformed into an urban gallery where Unit X present a multimedia exhibition from some of the city’s best up and coming animators, artists, designers, photographers and filmmakers from Manchester School of Art.

6-9pm,
London Scottish House, Mount St
Free
@ProjectUnitX

Sounds from the Stores

Enter a sensory den of sound and vision for a special performance by some of Manchester’s most unique sound artists. Hear newly commissioned pieces inspired and created from the Museum’s wealth of archive material, exploring some of today’s most socially and politically relevant issues.

6-8pm,
People’s History Museum, Left Bank
Free
@PHMMcr @InstigateArts

Neon Sonnets; The John Rylands Library and RNCM light up the bard

John Rylands Library celebrate William Shakespeare with light, music and movement as the Royal Northern College of Music perform original compositions inspired by the Library’s Shakespeare collection.

Performances at 6, 7 & 8pm, John Rylands Library, Deansgate
Free
@TheJohnRylands @rncmvoice

Salford’s Sarsaparilla Sounds

Three of Salford’s top creative institutions collaborate and open their doors for an evening of live music and spoken word. Curated by promoters Fat Out, performances have been chosen to reflect each building’s unique character.

5-7.30pm
Working Class Movement Library, Salford Museum & Art Gallery,The Crescent, Salford
Free
@islingtonmill // @wcmlibrary // @SalfordMuseum

Poetry Night at Chethams

Spoken word poetry, live music, performance and creative workshops sit alongside a new exhibition of nineteenth century poetry, all inside the atmospheric surrounding of the oldest public library in the UK.

7 – 10pm

Chethams Library, Long Millgate

Free

Bebop, Beats & Bass

Walrus basement club transforms for a diverse fusion of bebop, jazz and bass, as local musicians and artists come together for musical journey; from 1930’s jazz and swing through to Neo Soul and hip hop.

9pm – late
Walrus, High St
Free
@WalrusMCR

Seen/Unseen

Seen/Unseen is a debut exhibition by three Manchester based designers Luke Passey, Danny Satchell and Phoenix Luke.

This exhibition presents observations and experiences of underappreciated and ever evolving parts of Manchester’s landscape over the last twelve months.

Our aim is to show some of the city’s forgotten spaces, curious architecture and back alleys,the unloved things that we walk past everyday, the derelict buildings, boarded up windows, the graffiti that you almost filter out as you walk past, the scaffolding which seems so ugly but like a scab pulls away to reveal the new.

See more at: www.manchesterafterhours.com/#seenunseen