In Greater Manchester
- How money from slavery made Greater Manchester
- The importance of cotton in north west England
- The Lancashire cotton famine
- Smoking, drinking and the British sweet tooth
- Black presence in Britain and north west England
- Resistance and campaigns for abolition
- The bicentenary of British abolition
Global
Legacies: Commemorating the bicentenary of British abolition
Trade and Empire: Remembering Slavery at The Whitworth Art Gallery
Trade and Empire: Remembering Slavery explored the themes of trade and empire, commerce and collecting, and the impact and resonance of slavery and its legacy, in the context of the 2007 bicentenary of the abolition of the trade. The exhibition was co-produced with four guest curators: SuAndi, Kevin Dalton-Johnson, Dr Emma Poulter and Dr Alan Rice, community-engaged artists and/or academic researchers working on the history of slavery, trade, empire and its legacies across the north west.
In their selection of work and their views on how the works should be displayed, the curators brought a stimulating array of new voices into the Whitworth, unearthing many previously hidden stories about objects in the collections. The resulting exhibition included objects from the Whitworth's own collections, alongside contemporary work by black artists and objects from the collections of Bolton Museum and Archive Service, Gallery Oldham, Manchester Museum, The John Rylands University Library Manchester, and private collections around the north west.