Whitworth Art Gallery

The Whitworth Art Gallery is part of the University of Manchester. It houses internationally significant collections of fine art, textiles and wallpapers in what is a building of contrasts, a visual expression of the two principal phases of the Gallery’s construction and development. An Edwardian red brick and terracotta façade dating from the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries conceals an open-plan, Scandinavian-style modernist interior created during the mid- to late 1960s. Whitworth Park, which stands alongside, was laid out at the same time as the Gallery. A new extension to the building, has been designed with the idea of physically and visually reconnecting Gallery and Park to create a lively social and cultural hub and a green oasis in Manchester’s urban landscape. This volume traces the history of the Whitworth as a space to house growing and eclectic collections and outlines its future plans.