Educational Project #2 (adult programme): Concluding Panel, “Role of Aesthetics in (re)-Shaping a Cosmopolitan Manchester”

Manchester Museum, The University of Manchester

Panelists include: Dr. Piotr Bienkowski, Deputy Director, Manchester Museum, Professor of Archaeology and Museology, University of Manchester; Jaheda Choudhury, member of Sphere, educator, and co-producer, “Mixing It Up”; and Andrew Stokes, Chief Executive, Marketing Manchester, Chairman, Manchester Pride Ltd., & Acting Chair, queerupnorth. Moderated by Alpesh Patel, producer, “Mixing It Up”

This panel will include a lively conversation among artists, university and museum professionals, and representatives from local marketing bodies on the role of aesthetics in (re) shaping the city of Manchester as it sheds its “industrial” persona. In particular, the panel topic will be filtered through the following viewpoints: audiences, artists, institutions, temporary festivals, and marketing.

What are the challenges of simultaneously elevating the city onto a “global” stage and also celebrating the “local”? Can events such as the Manchester International Festival and organizations such as Marketing Manchester simultaneously bring in new visitors into the city whilst incorporating “indigenous,” Mancunian subjects?

And, how can differences of gender, race/ethnicity, class, faith and sexuality within Manchester be most effectively mobilized towards creating a new model of a “cosmopolitan” city?