Artefacts of Interaction

✨ Preview: Fri 5 Sept, 6–8pm

We’re proud to be part of Artefacts of Interaction, a powerful new exhibition co-produced by artist Will Belshah alongside collaborators Alana Lake, Jaymus and Venture Arts artists Ben Goring and Jennie Franklin.

Together, this year the group have created four large-scale paintings through a series of workshops held at the new Arches space at HOME. These works are more than collaborative: they’re a meeting point of five artists’ personal histories, creative investigations, and radical vulnerability.

The exhibition dives into the places where neurodivergence, substance use, and artistic practice overlap. It asks how lived experience shapes creativity – from queerness, to how different bodies move through the world, to art as a space for connection, recovery, and reflection.

There was no script, no need for polish. Instead, the artists embraced openness and honesty, creating works that are raw and deeply expressive. Here, creativity becomes a way of surviving, and collaboration becomes a way of building community. Recovery isn’t shown as an endpoint, but as an ongoing practice of listening, making, and being together.

This project was initiated by Portraits of Recovery and delivered in partnership with HOME and Venture Arts, as part of Recoverist Month 2025 – a programme that places lived experience at the heart of art and reimagines narratives of substance use and recovery.

At Venture Arts, we work to remove barriers in the arts, champion neurodiversity, and put learning disabled and neurodivergent artists in the lead.

EVENT

Artist-led Workshop with Will Belshah: Artefacts of Interaction
📅 Saturday 6 Sept 2025, 11am–1pm
📍 The Arches, HOME

Join Manchester-based artist Will Belshah for a hands-on workshop exploring art as a space for connection and recovery.

Inspired by Artefacts of Interaction, this session invites participants to co-create a large shared painting. Working together on one canvas, you’ll paint alongside and over each other’s marks, blending ideas, styles, and stories into a single evolving artwork.

Will’s practice spans history, mythology, technology, queerness and neurodiversity, using layered symbolism and adaptive techniques to uncover hidden narratives and invite collective reflection.

The workshop is informal and welcoming: drop in at any time, contribute in your own way, or simply enjoy a cup of tea and conversation.

An event for Portraits of Recovery’s Recoverist Month: Sept 2025 – placing lived experience at the heart of an annual, month-long arts programme that re-writes narratives on substance use and recovery.