Breathing   S  p  a  c  e  s

Today is possibly the most exciting day of the year... Despite the relentless rain, and all the other things afoot in the world right now... Today I planted my first seeds of the year! This is always a thrilling activity, that lifts my spirits and warms my heart, and means that the growing season has begun. From now until the summer I will carry folded up packets of seeds in my back pockets, swap them with friends, aim for sequential planting (never that good at that somehow)

We have arranged a tour of the current exhibition at the Portico Library on Tuesday 24th March which is all about the vocabulary used around Mental Health. Participants who attend TLC Art & Drop-in Projects can join us at the steps of Manchester City Art Gallery at 1.45pm on 24th March for the tour, we will walk down to The Portico together. Please contact us to book your place on Talking Sense: The changing vocabulary of mind and brain. stlukesmanchester@gmail.com Alison mob

Two weeks ago today we set out on our first Ardwick Art Walk. It was the end of Storm Ciara and we were swept along, hailed on, chilled to the bone, yet our resilient walkers remained focused on the task at hand - noticing and recording the different ways that nature survives and even thrives in the urban environment. And here are some of those images: Thanks to Brian for his photos which partly document the walk and show us in action and part record the nature resilience thr

If you were wondering what the benefits of walking were, look no further than our discussion today at Church of Nzarene where we are starting all of the Ardwick Art Walks: There was a lot of skills, local knowledge and experience in the room and plenty of creative and considered responses to the theme of Nature Resilience from the artists. What a fab team! Get in touch if you would like to book onto any of the upcoming walks: Tuesday 25th February - Found Words Walk with Nige

Light changes everything. In photography the same subject can look completely different in different lights. When we set ourselves a brief to photograph something or somewhere, or someone we sometimes have to be very patient to wait for the circumstances to come together to create the image we want. Other times we have to catch the moment as the light falls in a particular way. A few weeks ago the Plum Blossom started to come out in my garden. In the early morning I saw the g

Today was our first Ardwick Art Walk - on Photography led by Rae. Despite the last gusts and hail of Storm Ciara a small group of us still stepped out on our first walking activity. Heading out from the new drop-in at Church of Nazarene we walked down Plymouth Grove looking our for signs of the power of plants to overcome the urban environment. We didn't have to go far. There was green plant life everywhere - in the cracks in the pavements, in the dying trunks of cut down tre

There are various conversations going on at the moment in Manchester about finding Nature-Based-Solutions to Urban Resilience... What this means is that Manchester, like all towns and cities is facing a crisis in the face of increased climate change (bringing more extreme weather conditions as well as flooding etc), growing pollution from over-use of cars and vehicles, other problems associated with dense populations, limited resources etc. Many scientists and governments are

TLC Art Walks in Ardwick: Nature Resilience Join us to discover our new drop-in venues and art studio in Ardwick , We will walk together using four different routes over the four walks looking for signs of nature resilience in the urban environment. Each walk will be lead by a different artist and will focus on a different art-form (photography, creative writing, drawing and stitching). Dates for Walk: 11th Feb - Rae Story - photography - bring your phones, tablets or cameras