Mapping Manchester's Quiet Spaces 2017-2018 :
promoting positive mental health through nature-based art activities & exploring our city from the point of view of sound levels and their effect on our health and well-being.
We worked with different partner groups and individuals to discuss and share our experiences of noise and stress in the city, and how we navigate the city to seek out peace and quiet. We ran a research project to capture some data about how sound levels are experienced and their impact.
Participants learned practices of deep looking, deep listening and mindful walking as well as skills in digital photography, field recordings, and mindful drawing. You can access our blog posts for this project in the main BLOG section of this website and also see more detail about workshops with our partners below. Check out some of the sounds that we recorded on our Listen page and read the poetry created by our Creative Writing Group.
 Waking up to SnowTaking some time out to enjoy the transformed landscape Rae went to Pomona Island for a walk... |  Celebration EventWriter Nigel Wood talks about our creative writing sessions and the Poetry Anthology |  Skyward Wisteria29th May 2018 - a group outing from St Luke's Art Project to Parrs Wood Environmental Centre for a day of quiet drawing. |  Jason Minsky talk at St Lukes Art PrJason speaks about laying a lawn at the Greenroom |
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 Torquay, Devon early morningDawn Chorus in Cornwall |  Dawn ChorusFor International Dawn Chorus Day 2018 we gathered at the Parrs Wood Environmental Centre at 2.30am and sat together in the woods listening... followed by a dawn walk to different habitats in their grounds, then a steaming cup of tea in the greenhouse and fascinating discussion. |  Blossom FallingA spontaneous walk from St Luke's to Ardwick Green's to see this year's Cherry Blossom 1st May 2018 |  Quiet Space CollageThis Annette Ebanks' Collage from the Pool Arts Workshop 19/4/18 |
 canal walkWinter Canal Walk 13/2/18 Sound & Feeling Sampling exercises to explore our relationships to sounds in the city as we went from the city centre out to Bridgewater Canal |  SHARING EVENTMapping Manchesters Quiet Spaces SHARING On Tuesday 19th December please come along at EITHER 3pm or 6pm and hear about St Luke's Art project: Mapping Manchesters Quiet Spaces project, exploring how sound affects mental health. See some of the art work that's been created and hear from some of the participants through poems, stories, sounds and images . We ll have some seasonal refreshments for you too, all in the beautiful setting of St Luke's Church. The event is Free and lasts about 1 hour |  winter sound walk 2017Listening and collecting words for the Quiet Spaces Poetry Group. Places are limitted please contact us asap if you would like to attend |  thistle and drawingA rainy day at the Growing Together Project inspired the group to do some close attention drawing, click here to see the stunning results |
 Cotton Field Wharf, New IslingtonA family of swans came to join our sound sampling workshop at Cotton Field Wharf |  Exhibition, British LibraryCheck out our new CONTEXT page for inspiration and resources from other great projectsC |  sharingFLYERhorizJoin us at St Luke's Art Project for a sharing event and see the work on the project so far Tuesday 19th December 3pm or 6pm |  Whitworth ArtAn afternoon amongst the trees in whitworth park and gallery, sampling sounds, drawing trees, walking, looking and listening. Check out our blog and gallery posts. |
 Mapping!Send us your ideas for Quiet Spaces in Manchester - these could be indoors or outdoors. Tell us where it is and what you like about it. email us |  Angel Meadows Sound DrawingSound Walks and Sound Drawing in Angel Meadows, North East of the City Centre |  Site of Church Angel Meadows |  Meditative Drawing Workshopsthe first meditative drawing workshop at St Luke's 19.9.17 |
 Creative WritingWe are holding creative writing workshops on the theme of quiet spaces every Tuesday 6-7pm - Just turn up at St Luke's Neighbourhood Centre. With Nigel Wood |  QuestionnairesPlease help us to research some of the effects of sound in our urban environments on our mental health -go to our questionnaires. |  fleeting flowers...observational drawing study for painting, wellington rd allotments. |  canal listening exercisefollowing the route of the canal we stopped at intervals to do a 1 minute listening exercise where we wrote down every sound we could hear, then categorised them according to whether they were natre, human or technological sounds. This is one of Murray Schafer's '100 exercises in listening and sound making' |
 castlefield canal basina winter walk away from the busy christmas shoppers took us along the canal path into castlefield, manchester |  MMQSflyer |  waterside viewsdrawing as seeing, highfields park |  sound recording highfield parka summer walk into high field country park, recording the sounds of wildlife on the edge of the city |
 manchester central library |  canalside walk |  drawing sounds |  Awards for AllThis project is funded by TLC-St Luke's and Awards 4 All |
Arrival at the Growing Together Project, Highfields Ecological Allotment Project, 10/10/17, World Mental Health Day 2017