Image: Manchester Art Gallery
Artist Tony Phillips will take part in a talk and question-and-answer session at Manchester Art Gallery on 30 September, focusing on his Manchester etchings and their place within the gallery’s exhibition ‘Escapes’. The event will be held in Gallery 8 from 6.30 to 7.30pm and is listed as free, with advance booking available through Eventbrite.
The evening will begin with a short introduction by Hannah Williamson, the gallery’s curator of Fine Arts. Williamson will introduce ‘Escapes’, a display that brings together rarely seen Victorian landscapes, Old Manchester artefacts and a new acquisition. According to the gallery’s September programme, the exhibition considers these materials through the lens of air pollution.
Phillips’s Manchester etchings feature in the display, linking the artist’s work with the exhibition’s focus on the city and its changing environment. The available programme does not specify the titles, dates or details of the new acquisition, nor does it provide a full checklist for ‘Escapes’.
The event forms part of Manchester Art Gallery’s wider programme of collection-focused displays and public interpretation. The gallery’s newsletter says that a former open store on its top floor closed earlier in 2026 after being created during a major collections move connected with building works. That project offered visitors a behind-the-scenes view of how artworks are stored, cared for and managed.
The gallery describes the legacy of that initiative, ‘Taking Stock’, as continuing in current displays including ‘Won’t Sit Still’ and ‘Escapes’. The same programme also identifies a new loan scheme, ‘Art Works in Schools’, which places art in schools and colleges alongside artist-led sessions for teachers and students. The newsletter credits the National Lottery Heritage Fund and Lottery players with supporting the collections project.
Phillips’s conversation is scheduled within the gallery’s ‘Night At The Gallery’ programme, which will keep the building open from 5 to 9pm on Wednesday 30 September. Other activities listed for the evening include a talk on ‘The Odyssey’ in Gallery 5, a Danish cord-weaving workshop, a life-drawing class, a pop-up romance bookshop and a women-only painting workshop. Those activities are separate from the Phillips event and from the content of ‘Escapes’.
The talk will take place at Manchester Art Gallery, Gallery 8, on Wednesday 30 September 2026, from 6.30 to 7.30pm. The gallery advises visitors to book the free event in advance.
