Manchester Art Gallery is the venue this week for a special garden party to mark both Pride month and the official opening of its brand-new Derek Jarman Pocket Park.
The new urban garden space in front of the gallery’s main entrance, now resplendent with blooms and greenery, is the result of a unique partnership between Manchester Art Gallery and volunteers from Pride in Ageing – LGBT Foundation’s programme for older people. This week will see many of those involved in the project return to the gallery for their very first garden party in the green oasis and to celebrate their achievement.
Drawing its inspiration from artist, filmmaker, activist, and gardener Derek Jarman, the project to establish a Pocket Park at the gallery was devised to complement the Jarman exhibition Protest! which was on show at the gallery earlier this year following a delay of nearly 18 months due to Covid.
Designed and created in association with gardening experts and landscape architects, as well as gallery curators, the park’s creation has been a labour of love for the group of volunteers who are all over the age of 50.
The green-fingered group worked with the artist Juliet David-Drufayard, landscape architects from Exterior Architecture, the community team at RHS Bridgewater, award-winning garden designer Leon Davis, and a gallery curator, to develop the design and planting scheme for the outdoor space that surrounds the gallery.
The unique garden design and planting scheme they came up with references Prospect Cottage, Derek Jarman’s own cottage and garden at Dungeness in Kent, where he spent the last few years of his life working and developing his iconic garden, before dying of AIDS related illnesses aged just 52 in 1994.
The plants used in the garden have all been chosen as plants that will thrive in the urban environment of city centre Manchester, as well as featuring some of the volunteer gardeners’ own favourite plants. The yellow and black structural design of the garden, with its echoes of Prospect Cottage in its yellow and black colour scheme, includes quotes within the design that reflect Jarman’s writing and LGBTQ+ history.
The Pocket Park is already proving to be a hit with Manchester Art Gallery visitors, who can now add plants to paintings as part of their gallery experience.
Plans are being developed to use the new urban garden for a whole range of different year-round activities – both gardening related such as masterclasses in gardening for green-fingered amateur enthusiasts, and other gallery related activities whether that’s outdoor drawing classes, or supporting the gallery’s wide programme of health and wellbeing activities.
Councillor Luthfur Rahman OBE, Deputy Leader Manchester City Council, said: “The volunteers have done an amazing job in creating an oasis of green tranquillity on the doorstep of what is one of Manchester’s most popular visitor attractions. It’s the perfect addition to the gallery which is otherwise surrounded by the sights and sounds of city life.
“As well as providing a new space for the gallery’s community and well-being programmes and for its climate emergency work, it also provides an inspirational place for people to come together, share ideas and spend time in a quiet and uplifting place for nature right in the heart of the city.
“We hope this fabulous new urban garden at the gallery will continue to grow and flourish in recognition of the living contribution to our city of our over 50s LGBT communities, as well as being a reminder and living legacy of Jarman and his peers who fought so hard for an equal and fair society for all LGBTQ+ people.”
The garden contains a number of innovative urban solutions to combat the effects of climate change, including planting to encourage biodiversity, sustainable planters, and other elements that it’s hoped will provide ideas to visitors for them to try and come up with their own green gardening solutions at home.
A sustainable shelter which includes a water feature to re-use rainwater to water the Pocket Park plants has also been incorporated into the garden design.
Commissioned by United Utilities the unique shelter features a green roof that helps slow down rainfall flow by 50 percent, letting the water flow through the steel guttering and into a chain-link downpipe, creating a relaxing and peaceful sound.
