Have you visited our collection?

If you have visited the exhibition, online collection, searched for books relating to folklore or East Asia, or attended an event, we invite you to complete our survey here.

It would really help with our evaluation for our funders and help us to improve access to the library.

As a thank you for completing it, you can also enter an online competition for £30 high street shopping vouchers by leaving your details at the end of the survey.

Exhibition

Under Construction, the Portico Experiment

For six weeks we invite you, our visitors, users, and members, to be our guides and take part in this interactive exhibition so we can listen to what you think and have to say!

6th November - 19th December 2024

Exhibition slow preview on Saturday 9th November at 12.30pm

Free entry, no need to book.

Within Under Construction, the Portico Experiment, visitors are invited to explore, Voices from the Wall, a new interactive exhibition on Dacians and Romanians in Britain. Curated by Bronwen Riley.

In November 2023, the Portico received a Development grant from The National Lottery Heritage Fund to design and test plans that would enable the charity to deliver our vision to be the most accessible, sustainable, and dynamic historic library in the UK, and continue to better serve our visitors, users, members, and you.

For six weeks we invite you, our visitors, users, and members, to be our guides and take part in this interactive exhibition so we can listen to what you think and have to say.

There are six interactive stations to complete with opportunities to play, leave your thoughts, ask questions, and discuss collectively. We encourage you to be sincere, imaginative, and bold, but with kindness and understanding.

• What is the Portico Library to you?

• If you could redesign this space, what would it look like?

• What would make you feel more welcomed and included in this space?

• How could the Library stay relevant to you now and in the future?

• How could the Library be more welcoming and engaging towards children and young people?

It’s time to reimagine, rethink and redesign!

Upcoming Events

Abbi Parcell: PhD Writer in Residence

Abbi Parcell (BA MA PGCE) is a butch writer and poet based in Manchester. She explores testimony of lived experience through auto-fictional practice. Her work explores intersections that shape personal identity, considering how internal processes intersect with external perceptions. Abbi focuses on the importance of establishing queer and in particular, lesbian histories, connections and how radical it has always been to simply exist.

She is currently a Writer in Residence at the Portico Library and is completing her PhD in Auto-fiction as Testimony at The University of Salford. Abbi has also worked with The Manchester Poetry Library, The International Anthony Burgess Foundation, Manchester City of Literature, LIRG and The Poetry School London. Her poetry collection Hold Your Metaphors Accountable was released in 2023 and was published by Team Trident Press