Workshops/Tours

Educator with group drawing in the galleriesAvailable throughout the year

Choose from a range of activity sessions, all of which:

  • Last 1 hour 45 minutes (maximum).
  • Include practical activities led by artists/educators
  • Are cross-curricular in approach and wherever possible, cross-cultural
  • Are based on the permanent collections and often include current special exhibitions


Workshop for Autumn 2009 - Its so Surreal

To coincide with our Special Exhibition, Angels of Anarchy: Women Artists and Surrealism, 26 September 2009 – 10 January 2010.

We take you and your students on a surreal journey around the gallery using the exhibition’s key themes and works from our permanent collection to explore Surrealist concepts and develop students’ analytical and critical thinking skills.


We really enjoyed the exhibition and workshop last week - I think that the students really got a lot out of it.
We're hoping that we might be able to find some time to come again on a self- directed visit before the exhibition ends - there was too much to see in one go. It really is an excellent exhibition - we're so lucky to have it in Manchester.

Tutor, Tameside College

Cost: £65 (20 student’s maximum).

Find out more about It's So Surreal.

Thinking Visually

Open your eyes, follow the artist’s gaze and engage your senses to explore ways of seeing, feeling and understanding. Working individually and collaboratively, students use objects to create dialogue, discover meanings and form their own interpretations of images and artefacts in the gallery.
Find out more about Thinking Visually.

Events and Activities

Take part in a wide range of events, from guided tours to hands-on workshops.
More information about Events and Activities

Gallery Tours

We’ll tailor guided tours of the gallery to your group’s needs. All our tours are led by a gallery educator, who will take you through the building – introducing highlights of the permanent collection, destination galleries and current special exhibitions.
More information about Gallery Tours

Picturing Landscapes

Use the gallery’s collections to research how artists have developed and produced landscape paintings throughout the last century. In the studio students collect and explore observational drawings of Manchester’s ever-changing cityscape using print techniques.
More information about Picturing Landscapes

Portraits and Identity

Investigate relationships between people and objects through a range of works of art in our permanent collection and special exhibitions. Critical studies inform analysis. Photography and alternative drawing techniques document observations.
More information about Portraits and Identity

Sculpture with Susie MacMurray

Practising artist Susie MacMurray introduces students to traditional and contemporary artwork, using her own artistic processes and the gallery’s collection. Students explore unusual materials and a range of methods. Drawing and sculpture become entwined using wire, withies and wool.
More information about Sculpture with Susie MacMurray

Who’s in the News?

Explore people, power and perception through the cult of celebrity. Debate historical and contemporary ideas of fame and notoriety. Students create unique mixed media montages that transport Victorian depictions of women into the 21st century.
More information about Who’s in the News?

Masterclasses

Masterclasses provide a wonderful opportunity to meet the artist, share their passion and explore their process and methodology.  They are aimed at young people aged 14-19. All artists in this series have work on display in Manchester Art Gallery.
More information about masterclasses

To make a booking or for further information please contact us.
Tel: 0161 235 8842
Fax: 0161 235 8899