Contents:
- Editor's welcome
- Paul Waugh: From Rochdale to Westminster
- Rachel Winnard: One in Two Million
- Rochdale Sixth Form College wins at prestigious Further Education awards
- Rev Mark Coleman
- Baillie Street Quarter
- Touchstones reopens with new exhibitions »
- Greater Manchester Fire Service Museum
- Highlights of a Mayoral Year
- Fancy dress posties raise £1,700 for MIND
- John Swinden’s Captain Tom 100 challenge
- Littleborough’s Tackling Minds to become first organisation to work with NHS in prescribing angling
- Keith Hicks retires after 33 years of service at RAFC
- Bid for local digital radio signal
- Carpet Creations celebrates 25 years in business
- Help fill Springhill’s gardens with sunflowers in memory of your loved ones
- Local author reminisces about Rochdale high streets in the 80s and 90s in new book
- After the storm, the healthy hazy days of summer
- Rochdale Heartbeat honoured with Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service
- Ian Jenkins: Forty Years of Making Music
- Hairdressing Trend - Babylights
- Lasting Power of Attorney
- Cupcakes recipe
- Brown’s Cakes celebrates 10 years
- Beauty Feature: Coming back strong after lockdown
- Take a walk at Ealees
Summer 2021Touchstones reopens with new exhibitions
Touchstones Rochdale has reopened its doors, and visitors are being welcomed back with a series of new exhibitions and events.
The town centre venue reopened on 18 May in line with the Government’s lockdown roadmap.
An award-winning arts and heritage centre with an art gallery, museum, and local history centre, Touchstones has three exhibitions running this summer for visitors. In partnership with Imperial War Museums, ‘War’s Other Voices’ commemorates the 80th anniversary of the Battle of Britain last year, with an evocative exhibition focusing on the role of women and art galleries during WW2.
‘What’s Changed?’ focuses on how life has changed during the Covid-19 crisis, mixing first-hand reflections, artwork, objects, and ephemera from across the borough’s nationally significant social history collections.
‘Grayson Perry: The Vanity of Small Differences’ opens on 16 July 2021. This exhibition of six tapestries tells the story of class mobility and the influence social class has on our aesthetic taste. Inspired by William Hogarth’s ‘A Rake’s Progress’, the tapestries chart the ‘class journey’ made by young Tim Rakewell and include many of the characters, incidents and objects Grayson Perry encountered on journeys through Sunderland, Tunbridge Wells and The Cotswolds for the television series ‘All in the Best Possible Taste with Grayson Perry’.
Touchstones’ reopening follows a year’s worth of online activity to help keep residents connected with culture during lockdown, and staff have now worked to ensure visitor safety is a top priority with several Covid-19 safety measures in place and receiving the ‘We’re Good to Go’ certificate.
Mark Doyle, Art Gallery Curator and Collections Manager at Touchstones, said: “We’re delighted to be welcoming people back. We’ve been in regular contact with our visitors during the pandemic and want to make sure they have even more to discover as we reopen, which is why it was important to have these new exhibitions and events in place."
As part of the ‘What’s Changed?’ exhibit, a story of community spirit, childhood, and a simple desire to pass on the gift of creativity is also on show via ‘Middleton’s famous front door’. Throughout the 1980s, Yvonne Malik’s front door at 145 Walker Street in Middleton was a focal point for the local community, eventually making its way into the local public art collection as an item of historical significance.
Now on display 30 years after its removal from Malik’s home, and having been signed by almost 300 local children over the course of a decade, it tells a story of lost communities and neighbourly spirit.
A trained designer - having spent time globally establishing design centres at the request of 20th century leader in British design, Sir Gordon Russell – Mrs Malik, now 84-years old and of Wray, Lancashire arrived in her Middleton home in 1980 and immediately made her mark.
Finding children simply ‘hanging around’ outside her home, she taught them the basics of art and turned her front room into a makeshift classroom for lessons. Her door became a canvas on which they all wanted to make a mark.
Mrs Malik took the door with her to her new Lancashire home before offering it to Rochdale Art Gallery in 1994.
Touchstones Rochdale offers a wide variety of exhibitions in the Heritage Gallery and the Art Gallery’s four gallery spaces including those from the local community, selections from the borough’s impressive art collection and work by contemporary artists.
As well as the changing exhibitions spaces, there is also a permanent museum which aims to tell a potted history of Rochdale.
The museum is ideally suited to visitors with an interest in the history of Rochdale or families.
There are interactive exhibits, films, audios and objects from the borough’s collection on display.
Current exhibitions at Touchstones:
- We Can Do It. War’s Other Voices Tuesday 18 May - Saturday 18 September 2021
- What’s Changed? Tuesday 18 May - Saturday 1 January 2022
- Grayson Perry: The Vanity of Small Differences Friday 16 July - Friday 24 September 2021
Opening times are Wednesday - Saturday: 10am - 5pm & Sunday: 10am - 4pm.
Admission is FREE. Pre-booked visits only.
Touchstones Rochdale, The Esplanade, Rochdale, OL16 1AQ
Tel: 01706 924492