As part of Manchester International Festival 2025 (MIF25) Creative Manchester held an event on 15 July celebrating the Platform’s collaborations, research, and partnerships with Factory International, Manchester City Council, and English National Opera.
The event, held at Aviva Studios, featured three sessions exploring the intersection of research and the arts and brought together researchers, artists, and cultural leaders.
The showcase opened with a session on the research of Creative Manchester’s Innovation Fellows who shared insights from their work with Manchester City Council and Factory International.
Dr Hannah Curran-Troop addressed workforce diversity and talent development in the creative industries, alongside Manchester City Council representative Sarah Elderkin. Dr Tasos Asonitis and Gabby Jenks ( Factory International ) presented their work on a CreaTech project in collaboration with Factory International’s Digital Team, which researches digital skill gaps for artists and people working in the creative industries and will result in a toolkit for new digital artists that facilitates access to new technology supporting creative processes.
The second session spotlighted the "First Breath" PhD research project.
Postgraduate researchers Leanne Cook and Lizzie Lagan, alongside their Principal Investigator Prof Pamela Qualter, discussed the impact of arts-based activities on the emotional and social development of preschool children and their parents.
The final panel, Tuning into Opera , marked the launch of a new initiative between and The University of Manchester. As ENO prepares to establish a new base in Greater Manchester by 2029, Tuning into Opera is new research and engagement initiative from English National Opera and The University of Manchester, exploring what it means to have a national opera company based in Greater Manchester.
The session explored the future of opera in the region through community engagement and cultural dialogue. It began with a welcome by ENO Artistic Director Annilese Miskimmon and an introduction to the research plan of Tuning Into Opera by Research Associate Dr Kamila Rymajdo.
This was followed by an in-conversation with Manchester-based electronic opera makers Devon Bonelli and Joshua Inyang (Space Afrika), as well as an interview with the Pulitzer Prize-winning composer of Angel’s Bone , Du Yun.
The event concluded with a poetic summary and reflections of the afternoon, delivered by Young Identity artist Saf Elsenossi (SAF-S2E).
In keeping with MIF25 ’s theme to ’Dream Differently’ the Creative Manchester Showcase was a joyful celebration of the innovative and interdisciplinary research facilitated by the Platform and our partnerships with external stakeholders from across Greater Manchester and beyond.
