Venture Arts Artists Explore Manchester’s Historic Libraries

Our Cultural Enrichment Programme provides valuable opportunities for arts and heritage organisations to work with our studio artists on extensive projects. We work closely with our artists and venues to co-design a programme which is tailored to each individual, providing unique experiences, skills and knowledge about culture including history, theatre, art and so much more.

In this project artists Francesca Sabor and Josh Brown, spent 6 weeks exploring the historical libraries of Manchester, including John Rylands Library, the Portico Library and MMU’s Poetry Library. Francesca shares her experience in this blog…

John Rylands Library

We visited John Rylands Library and looked at very old books in Italian and English, including The Divine Comedy by Dante, Grimms’ Fairy Tales and Baby’s Own Aesop by Walter Crane. I liked looking at the books in Italian mostly, as my family is Italian.

John Rylands is a really big building and it looks like a church. It opened in the year 1900. Enriqueta Rylands had the library built in memory of her husband, John Rylands. The library is really old but they don’t have much space left for many books so they are making the building bigger. There are statues of both Enriqueta and John Rylands in the library. It looks like the statues are facing each other. I like the John Rylands library because it was interesting to be shown the old books, but we couldn’t touch them as they are so old.  

I think people who like old books would like the library. The library was full of people and they were walking around and looking at the books so it looks like lots of people like the books. It would be nice to go back to the John Rylands Library.  

Portico Library

The Portico Library opened in 1806 so the books are very old. We learned how to clean the books. The staff showed us how to put a book on a cushion and put the book down so we wouldn’t ruin any of the pages. We also learned how to clean the books with a special sponge and how to turn the pages of the book without ruining any of the pages by using the corners of books.

I like the Portico Library because they have lots of types of books and it’s interesting to see the way the books were written in the past. It was hard to read some of the books because they had joined up writing and some of the pages were a bit ruined or dirty. The books in Italian had lots of words I didn’t know because they were written a very long time ago.

I think lots of people would like the Portico Library, especially people who like old books and art exhibitions. I would definitely go back and visit the library again.

Manchester Metropolitan University Poetry Library

This library was much smaller. We met the staff and learned to scan the books and how to put the books back on the bookshelves by looking at the numbers and the letters on each book. I liked looking at the different poetry books. The poetry library was quiet but I prefer libraries with lots of different types books.

The Poetry Library opened in 2021 so it is fairly new and it is great for people who love poetry. When I went to the poetry library the second time I looked at some books in Italian about poetry I liked it because the books had some writing in Italian and English. The poetry library is perfect for people who like poetry books and it also has a children’s section so children can find lots of books they might like.  

To find out more about our Cultural Enrichment Programme and how to get involved, whether as an artist or cultural venue, head here.