The new season, titled Felt, launches Saturday 25th October, and is centered around two new exhibitions, Just Browsing and We Dream of Our Freedom. Both ask audiences to experience art in new ways, through feeling, wearing, using, creating and playing.
This new season follows a period of reflection on post-Covid recovery in the arts and proposes an alternative to the formality of traditional gallery experiences that hold art at a distance.
Across sculpture, film, ceramics, textiles and wearable artwork from eleven incredible artists, Just Browsing demonstrates new methods of engaging with art, and features objects that don't necessarily need to follow the formalities of the gallery. We Dream of Our Freedom from Lou Miller will transform the Bluecoat’s gallery into a community studio, inviting audiences to create and add their responses to the exhibition.
Once we think about touch, browsing and creating as a way to understand artworks, new and exciting possibilities present themselves in the gallery.
Felt Season Launch
Sat 25 October, from 11am | Free, drop in
See the exhibitions for the first time and take part in creative activities in the gallery, such as screen printing, zine making and more, led by artist Lou Miller.
Just Browsing
Sat 25 Oct 2025 - Sun 8 Feb 2026
Just Browsing is a group exhibition that allows audiences to browse and interact with tactile works of art. The exhibition borrows from the retail area around the Bluecoat’s gallery to offer an experience of art that can be touched, worn and bought to take home. Artists in the exhibition use textiles, ceramics, and scent to connect with audiences through a variety of ways.
The exhibition features works and products from artists Bruce Asbestos, Ffion Evans, Garth Gratrix, Ivy Kalungi, Lou Miller, Sufea Mohamad Noor, Lewis Prosser, Ben Saunders, Daniel Sean Kelly, Chester Tenneson, and Carla Wright.
We Dream of Our Freedom, by Lou Miller with Children from St Vincent de Paul Primary School
Sat 25 Oct 2025 - Sun 8 Feb 2026
Manchester based artist and activist Lou Miller has collaborated with children from St Vincent de Paul Catholic Primary School in L1 to ask children about their vision of freedom. The resulting exhibition transforms the voices of children aged 8-11 into a powerful banner to be read by adults and children alike. Miller, whose practice has a strong collaborative focus, and explores themes of community, work, health, and social change, has penned a response to the children. We Dream of Our Freedom transforms the gallery into a community studio, and invites audiences to share their own ideas of freedom and respond to the children’s vision.
We Dream of Our Freedom is part of Our Freedom: Then and Now, a UK-wide, locally-led arts and creative programme from Future Arts Centres, which is producing 60 new pieces of work reflecting on what ‘Our Freedom’ means to local people and their communities, following the 80th anniversary of VE/VJ Day.