Spark #48 Collective Curating
Event
Spark #48 Collective Curating
06 June 2026
11am - 1:30pm
Manchester Museum, M13 9PL
SPARK #48 Collective Curating with Clare Gannaway and Alice Blackwell
What does it mean to make decisions collectively?
Curating can be a brilliant way to bring people together to design ways of being, creating and working together. It can be a joyful, non-hierarchical process in which everyone feels valued and collectively empowered.
In this workshop Clare and Alice will guide participants through a consensus-based method of facilitation to explore values and needs in relation to collective curating. What needs to be agreed and in place before we even start to make decisions together? How do we ensure that everyone’s contributions are valued?
Clare and Alice will facilitate the workshop with the aim of agreeing a set of shared principles to guide a collective curating process. At the end of the workshop you will be encouraged to reflect, and perhaps you will even be inspired to take action with next steps and curate something together…
This workshop is in development, so we’re making it free to attend. This is an ideal opportunity to be part of some emerging ideas and contribute to a creative experiment. Feedback will be very welcome.
About Us
Clare Gannaway is a freelance curator based in Manchester specialising in collective curatorial practice. She is guided by the potential for curating to be a collective act to resist traditional structures and demonstrate non-hierarchical approaches with the potential for wider social impact. Clare has worked in the arts for over 20 years, including roles at the Whitworth, Touchstones Rochdale and Folly digital arts, Lancaster.
Most recently she was Curator: Contemporary Art at Manchester Art Gallery, where, with others, she developed evolving collaborative processes as alternatives to traditional temporary exhibitions, such as Rethinking the Grand Tour, Climate Justice, Get Together and Get Things Done and Sonia Boyce: Six Acts. These processes enabled groups to explore creative decisions, co-authorship and co-creation, who/what is represented and which stories are told, as well as the curating process itself, using radical care and deliberative decision-making to work in more equitable ways. Clare left Manchester Art Gallery in 2023 to develop her curatorial practice independently.
claregannaway.com
Alice Blackwell is a group facilitator, online producer and workshop designer. She supports individuals and groups to reach their full potential through the design, production and facilitation of tailored participatory workshops, both online and in person. Since graduating from an MA in Translation and Interpreting, she has worked in various capacities in the group facilitation and training industry.
She currently works as an independent event producer, facilitator and administrator for a wide range of facilitation professionals. She is a designer and producer of in-person and online events, supporting professional group facilitators with design, technical production, and documentation. Her experience includes delivering participatory events for a wide range of university and government departments, making a meaningful impact in the environmental sector and delivering facilitation training courses for ICA:UK, a world-leading facilitation charity.
Throughout her early life as a member of the LGBT community and as a language & cultures enthusiast, she began to see that each individual holds valuable perspectives made up from their unique experiences. Since moving into the facilitation business she understands that these perspectives, when harnessed well, hold the potential to solve problems, create innovation and alter the direction of peoples’ lives and organisations for the better.
Access Info
The session will take place in the top floor classroom at Manchester Museum. This space is wheelchair accessible.
Please see https://www.museum.manchester.ac.uk/visit-us/access/ for further access info.
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SPARK
The SPARK network was set up by Castlefield Gallery in 2022 to facilitate a Greater Manchester/North West-based network of artists wanting to intervene in the climate crisis. The gallery initiated SPARK in response to the high demand for places on the 2021/22 SUSTAIN programme focussed on low carbon artmaking.
SPARK #46 follows SPARK sessions at Manchester Art Gallery, Rogue, The Birley (Preston), Eccles Friends Meeting House, Manchester Museum, AIR Gallery, Paradise Works, Editional Studio, Cadishead and Little Woolden Moss, Gallery Oldham, the John Rylands Library, Dunham Massey, Lindow Moss, Castlefield Viaduct, Gallery Oldham, The Atkinson, Castlefield Gallery, Northern Roots, Salford Museum and Art Gallery; and a group exhibition and events programme at Rogue Studios.
Castlefield Gallery continues to provide admin and co-ordination support via its Artist Environmental Lead, Jane Lawson, as well as promotional support.
Image credit: Climate Justice Gallery Curation visual minutes by Claire Stringer, More than Minutes (courtesy Manchester Art Gallery)
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