One of Manchester’s best-loved attractions has unveiled highlights of its packed 2023 programme.
The Science and Industry Museum has announced another stellar year of major exhibitions, significant new displays, exciting gallery updates and engaging holiday activities exploring ideas that change the world.
Alongside 2023’s events, activities and exhibitions, the museum’s restoration programme will continue, seeing essential work carried out to preserve, protect, restore and redevelop its globally significant industrial heritage buildings thanks to substantial new national investment.
NEW WORLD PREMIERE MAJOR EXHIBITION
Operation Ouch!
Opening 21 July in the Special Exhibitions Gallery
Dive headfirst into the digestive system for an unforgettable journey of super-sized science, unfiltered adventure and giggle-worthy gore in the Science and Industry Museum’s upcoming world premiere blockbuster exhibition, Operation Ouch!, which will see the hit CBBC children’s TV series brought to life.
Travel like a poo in a voyage to discover where our food goes when we eat. From bowels to gallbladders, explore the role of each organ in the digestive journey, figure out how food can fuel us, investigate the funniest bodily functions and goggle at glorious grossness in this hands-on, rib-tickling exploration of the science inside us.
Based on CBBC’s award-winning show, Operation Ouch!, expect interactive experiences, amazing objects from the Science Museum Group’s collection, and appearances from world-renowned doctors, who will be on hand to guide audiences through this lively, interactive and playful adventure to better understand our brilliant bodies.
The exhibition is being developed by the Science and Industry Museum and produced in collaboration with BBC and 141 Productions, part of All3Media’s Objective Media Group.
Tickets for Operation Ouch! will go on sale in April. Sign up to the museum’s newsletter to be the first to find out more and book.
Of the exhibition, Dr Chris and Dr Xand say: “Come along and get digested at the Science and Industry Museum. It’ll be absolutely disgusting!”
Dr Ronx said: “I know, like me, that there are hundreds of children fascinated by the inner workings of the human body, so it makes sense that we would dedicate a whole exhibition to the subject.
“From saliva, boogey, bile and poo, adults and kids alike will be enjoyably disgusted and fascinated by this exhibition. We hope they will come away with encyclopaedic knowledge to show off to their friends!”
NEW DISPLAY
Stephen Hawking at Work
Opening May in the Revolution Manchester Gallery. FREE
Take a look inside the office of one of the world’s most celebrated theoretical physicists. Stephen Hawking at Work will explore Hawking’s remarkable life as a scientist, science communicator, and as a person who lived with motor neurone disease through an intimate display of significant items from his office, the contents of which have been acquired by the Science Museum Group.
Highlight objects on display include a rare copy of Hawking’s PhD thesis, his wheelchair and a wager he signed when challenging his peers to the Black Hole Information Paradox bet. These important items provide insights into a scientist who challenged perceptions of theoretical physics with a playful, imaginative and social approach to work.
ONGOING MAJOR EXHIBITION
Turn It Up: The power of music
Open now until 21 May 2023 in the Special Exhibitions Gallery. Tickets £8 adults, £6 children/concessions
World-first exhibition, Turn It Up: The power of music, will continue to explore the science of music’s mysterious hold over us and how it drives us to create, perform, feel and share. It offers a wealth of multi-sensory experiences through specially commissioned interactive installations and immersive activities, as well as opportunities to create unique sounds. Explore never-before-seen musical inventions, hear first-hand accounts from renowned musicians and uncover cutting-edge research – all with the aim of showing that we are all innately musical and bringing to life the science behind music and what the future holds for melody making.
GAMING EXTRAVAGANZA
Power UP
Open weekends and school holidays. Tickets £8 adults, £6 children/concessions
Open every weekend (and seven days a week during school holidays) throughout 2023, this ultimate gaming experience welcomes players to revel in the very best video games from the past five decades. Get hands-on with over 160 consoles and hundreds of games for an immersive journey through the history of gaming and rediscover childhood favourites like Sonic the Hedgehog and Super Mario, or get to grips with some of the latest developments in virtual reality.
A section dedicated to the Manchester-based people and companies who have changed the face of the city’s gaming industry is also available to explore for the first time.
Events planned for school holidays later in the year will also support youngsters to discover the STEM skills behind video game creation through the lens of Manchester’s digital and technological industries.
REVOLUTION IN PROGRESS
Work on the museum’s multi-million-pound restoration programme will continue throughout 2023.
As well as ongoing work to restore the historic listed Power Hall, the Science and Industry Museum has been awarded £14.2million of national capital funding by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) to complete further urgent repairs and improvements over the next two years.
This work includes repairs to the Grade II listed New Warehouse roof, gutters, windows and masonry, and further essential conservation work in the Upper Yard, to the Gantry structure and to the Grade I listed 1830 Warehouse and 1830 viaduct. These works will start later in the year, with the museum remaining open throughout. Although some areas, including the Power Hall, will remain temporarily closed, there is still a packed programme for visitors. The museum will also be taking inspiration from the site’s live engineering projects to host construction, technical and heritage skills-themed activities for all ages from autumn.
OTHER NEW DISPLAYS
In early 2023, updates will be made to some of the displays in the museum’s Revolution Manchester gallery, enabling visitors to explore the city’s status as an innovator of modern-day travel as well as its revolutionary role in the country’s creative industries.
The expanded displays will shine a spotlight on the stories of pioneering Mancunians and ideas that have started life in the city and gone on to impact people and places across the world.
Whether it’s with pistons, pedals, wheels or wings, Manchester engineers and designers have transformed the way we move. Their ideas kick-started some of the world’s most innovative journeys and continue to impact how we get around today.
The updated display will explore this through key objects from the Science Museum Group’s collection, including 19th century workers’ wage tins from Liverpool Road Station, and dive deep into the people and companies behind some of the city’s most dynamic innovations, such as Ancoats-based aeroplane manufacturers, A V Roe and Company, who produced many of Britain’s most important 20th century aircrafts.
Manchester’s skilled engineers, experimental broadcasters and trailblazing musicians have also shaped how ideas have been shared, and further updates to the displays will explore the city’s revolutionary creative industries.
From pioneering printing technologies to leaders in the world of journalism, and trend-setting regional reporting to the latest techniques used in virtual broadcasting, the updates will reveal the people, ideas and objects that changed the way current affairs are consumed.
Manchester’s reputation as a place where music and performance are done differently will also be explored through some of the city’s most iconic producers, bands and venues. The story of independent Manchester-based music label, Factory Records, will be highlighted alongside that of its co-founder, Tony Wilson. Objects on display will including an early pressing of Joy Division’s Unknown Pleasures album as well as 1980s era signage from iconic music venue, Band on the Wall, where many of Manchester best-loved bands have performed.
There will be plenty more to do, see and explore during the year at the Science and Industry Museum, including special one-off events and further holiday activities. The family-favourites Experiment Gallery and Textiles Gallery will also continue to bring science to life and explore how Manchester’s identity is woven in with the cotton industry,
Check the museum’s website or sign up to its newsletter to be among the first to receive announcements about the programme.
For more information about what is on at the museum and to book tickets in advance, visit the museum’s website (www.scienceandindustrymuseum.org.uk) or call 033 0058 0058.
