Events List
Resisting Mining Book Club
FREE | BOOK ONLINE
EXHIBITION HALL AND ONLINE
Join us for the latest edition of London Mining Network’s Resisting Mining Book Club with author Françoise Vergès.
Come What May, We're Here to Stay
FREE | BOOK ONLINE
MAIN HALL
Join journalist and historian Taj Ali for a special author panel celebrating the launch of his book Come What May, We’re Here to Stay. This timely discussion explores the rich history of South Asian activism in Britain, from anti-colonial movements to ongoing struggles against racism.
Manchester Literature Festival presents Sarah Hall: Burning Snowflake
£10 | SOLD OUT
LIVING WORLDS
Award-winning author Sarah Hall delivers the 2026 Faber Lecture: Burning Snowflake. The natural world is burning. Time is running out. You know the story. So what possible role could something as flimsy as fiction play?
UKYCC PowerShift
FREE | BOOK ONLINE
THE TOP FLOOR
Hope. Unity. Action. Collaborate and learn with other young people on how to engage more actively in the issues you care about. The UK Youth Climate Coalition is taking over the Museum’s Top Floor for a full day, as they bring their Powershift conference to Manchester.
Haha! Britain, with The Mothers' Bridge of Love
FREE | BOOK ONLINE
TOP FLOOR CLASSROOM
A discussion about belonging, home and identity, as part of The Mothers’ Bridge of Love’s (MBL) Haha! Britain book tour.
Collection Bites: Sperm whales - science, history and deep sea stories
FREE | BOOK ONLINE
RESEARCH STUDIO
This talk will look at the history, biology, and enduring mystery of the sperm whale, from its central role in the whaling industry to what scientists are still finding out today.
Collection Bites: Manchester Pride
FREE | BOOK ONLINE
MEET IN THE WELCOME AREA
Celebrate Manchester Pride with us! Join us for a closer look at some of the stories from our collections interpreted through a queer lens.
Family Collection Bites Archaeologist for the Day!
FREE | BOOK ONLINE
BASEMENT EDUCATION SUITE
Find out how archaeologists care for objects and use clues and evidence to describe them and uncover their stories.
Learning to repair with the Manchester Library of Things
FREE | JUST DROP IN
EXHIBITION HALL
Pop in to meet the team behind the Manchester Library of Things, who will be joined by a skilled repairer demonstrating how you can fix common repair issues with household appliances.
Family Collection Bites: Zoo Do You Think You Are?
FREE | BOOK ONLINE
BASEMENT EDUCATION SUITE
Meet some familiar animals close up and use your skills of deduction to decide who their closest relatives are.
Family Collection Bites: Egg Detectives
FREE | BOOK ONLINE
BASEMENT EDUCATION SUITE
Grab your magnifying glasses and get cracking with Egg Detectives this summer!
Meet the Manchester Library of Things
FREE | JUST DROP IN
EXHIBITION HALL
Pop in to meet the team behind the Manchester Library of Things and take part in activities for all ages exploring how borrowing, sharing and repairing can save you money and help build stronger, greener communities.
Collection Bites: Indo-Greek numismatics and colonial imagination
FREE | BOOK ONLINE
RESEARCH STUDIO, FLOOR 2
How Indo-Greek coins shaped Western understanding of the ancient Indo-Greek kingdoms.
Family Collection Bites: Gotta Match ‘Em All
FREE | BOOK ONLINE
BASEMENT EDUCATION SUITE
Video games are full of creatures inspired by real animals, but can you work out which is which?
On creativity and being Chinese - panel conversation
FREE | BOOK ONLINE
KANARIS THEATRE
In this panel, four creatives come together to talk about their creative practices and the intersection with their Chinese heritage, in a conversation moderated by Zoe Li.
'At a very Chinese time in my life' - ESEA writers conversation
FREE | BOOK ONLINE
KANARIS THEATRE
Zoe Li, from The Juniper by the Sea, the UK’s first East and South East Asian bookshop, will chair a lively conversation with East and South East Asian (ESEA) writers.
Collection Bites: Neolithic bodies. Fragments, landscapes and identities
FREE | BOOK ONLINE
RESEARCH STUDIO, FLOOR 2
In this Collection Bites, you’ll meet a 5,000-year-old clay fragment from the Neolithic Vinča culture. We’ll use fragments as storytellers about belonging and whose bodies we imagine as whole.
Meet the Manchester Urban Diggers
FREE | JUST DROP IN
MAIN HALL
A celebration of the work Pinc College students have created over the past year. An independent Specialist College for Creative Studies, Pinc College is based on the Museum’s Top Floor.
Collection Bites: Charles Darwin's Theory of Evolution Contextualised
FREE | BOOK ONLINE
RESEARCH STUDIO, FLOOR 2
Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution did not emerge in isolation. This talk will focus in on the social, political and scientific climate of the mid 19th century and how this impacted on Darwin’s early life and studies.
(Re)imaging faces: restoring humanity through art, archaeology and science
FREE | BOOK ONLINE
KANARIS THEATRE, FLOOR 2
Join the Museum’s Curator of Egypt and Sudan, Dr Campbell Price to explore research on the human face from art, medicine and engineering perspectives.
Dan Hicks: Monuments Will Fall
£5 | Book online
KANARIS THEATRE, FLOOR 2
Join Dan Hicks in conversation with Sadia Habib, to mark the release of the paperback edition of Every Monument Will Fall.
(Playful) Common Ground: Universal Experiences of Play and Learning
FREE | Book online
KANARIS THEATRE, FLOOR 2
Play is something to be cherished throughout our lives, around the world and across time. Join us for a play-based workshop and story sharing session to consider how play effects how we learn throughout our lives.
Curating China, with Manchester China Institute
FREE | Book online
TOP FLOOR CLASSROOM, FLOOR 3
What are the impacts of blockbuster exhibitions about Chinese history? Led by Jessica Harrison-Hall, Keeper of Asia at the British Museum, this talk will focus on two case studies of blockbuster exhibitions: Ming 50 years that changed China and China’s Hidden Century.
Islamic China: An Asian History
FREE | Book online
For more than a millennium, Islam has been a Chinese religion, and native-born Chinese Muslims have played important roles in their homeland—as butchers, merchants, and farmers; diplomats, scholar-officials, and royal astronomers. Yet the Muslims of China have often been understood as inherently foreign, incompatible with Chinese culture.
Rian Thum discusses his new book, recapturing the ordinariness of Chinese Muslims and offers a fresh view of Islamic China.
Decolonise!: deconstructing the nostalgia of colonial Hong Kong
FREE | Book online
24 January 2025 marks 185 years since Britain's initial occupation of Hong Kong.
Dr. Law Wing Sang will unpack the history of Hong Kong, how colonial power operated and why many Hongkongers miss the colonial legacy.
Collection Bites: Museums and the Gothic Novel
FREE | Book online.
SEMINAR ROOM, TOP FLOOR
In this Halloween special edition of Collection Bites, you will be transported back through time, as we look at how museums, and the increasing access to historical artefacts piqued the interest of Victorian authors to inspire some much loved gothic novels.
Collecting and Displaying China at the Oriental Museum
FREE | Book online.
KANARIS THEATRE, FLOOR 2
Experience a heartfelt, personal story of migration and self-discovery as Yuk-Lan Chan brings to life From Old Bean Grows Bak Choy. Set between Hong Kong and the UK, this intimate solo performance shares Chan’s experiences of the struggles and discoveries that come with starting anew.
The Weird and Wonderful Anatomy of Birds
FREE | Book online.
RESEARCH STUDIO, FLOOR 2
Discover the weird and wonderful anatomy of birds in the October edition of Collection Bites. In this talk, you’ll find out everything from how birds breathe with their bones, to why dinosaurs didn’t sing, and what on earth the ‘Lateral Magnocelluar nucleus of the Anterior Nidopallium’ could possibly be for!