Opening this month

4 November-April 2010

An exhibition highlighting Manchester's contribution to television history and assessing the cultural impact TV has had on the city.

Highlights include a journey through the living rooms of past decades, thematic sections on youth culture and popular music and displays paying tribute to people from Manchester who have made significant contributions to television history.

The exhibition opens on the day that the region's Winter Hill transmitter switches from an analogue to a digital signal.

Cost £28,000
Supports/partners BBC North, ITV Granada, BBC Future Media & Technology, North West Film Archive, Digital UK, Ideas Foundation, Sumners, University of Salford
Curators Paul Luckraft (Urbis), Phil Griffin
Exhibition design Gemma Milton, Kayleigh Hannah, Samantha Withers (Manchester Metropolitan University) working with the curators


7 November-2 January 2010

The Wigan artist James Lawrence Isherwood died in poverty in 1989, but his work has become increasingly popular in recent years. This exhibition features works collected by local man William Higham and has been developed in partnership with one of Higham's nephews.

The 50 works, which are being displayed in public for the first time, include some of Isherwood's trademark subjects, including townscapes and portraits of local women.

Cost £3,000
Funder Wigan Leisure and Culture Trust
Curator Martyn Lucas (WLCT)


14 November-23 January 2010

A celebration of the way contemporary artists deal with rural landscape and the urban environment. Those represented include Jordan Baseman, Dalziel & Scullion, Boyle Family, Richard Long, Andy Goldsworthy, Toby Paterson, Alex Heim and Torsten Lauschmann.

Cost Minimal
Keeper (fine art) Jennifer Melville


18 November-14 March 2010

Dieter Rams has designed hundreds of products for German electronics manufacturer Braun, including audio equipment, calculators and shavers. He has also created furniture for Vitsoe. Rams's work has challenged perceptions of domestic design and his ethos has had a lasting influence on today's designers.

Cost N/A
Supporters Dieter Rams Circle of Friends, Vitsoe
Curator Alex Newson (Design Museum)
Exhibition design Bibliothéque


21 November-30 January 2010

A solo exhibition of works by Marcus Coates that explore the relationships that exist across the human, animal and material worlds. It has been inspired by Charles Darwin and uses sounds from the naturalist's birthplace in Shrewsbury, where Follow the Voice was shown earlier this year.

Cost N/A
Main funder Arts Council England


21 November-20 February 2010

This is the biggest art exhibition that Plymouth City Museum and Art Gallery has held for 15 years. It presents an overview of the career of the Devon-born Reynolds.

The painter's early portraits give an insight into mid-18th century Plymouth and the area's professional class, who were the bulk of his clientele. The University of Plymouth has led the research for the exhibition and loans have been secured from regional museums as well as the National Trust and the National Portrait Gallery in London.

Cost £135,000
Funders Plymouth City Council, Renaissance in the Regions, Heritage Lottery Fund, Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art
Exhibition team Judith Robinson, Maureen Attrill, Emma Philip, Neil Wressell, Joanne Clarke, Catherine Wallace


28 November-28 February 2010

In 1990, Cheltenham bought the library of Emery Walker, the engraver and printer who was also involved in the arts and crafts movement. His library features private press books and associated material from a range of private presses in Britain, Europe and America.

Guest curator Su Billington is using the collection to look at the process of creating a typeface, and assessing the quality of material used by private presses in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and how these have influenced contemporary typefaces.

Cost £500
Funder Cheltenham Borough Council
Curator Su Billington