MIDWEEK COLUMN WEDNESDAY 17 JUNE 2026
- STEVE COOKE AATA
- 2 minutes ago
- 8 min read
An oasis of positivity celebrating the creative arts with previews, reviews, interviews, and recommendations.
MIDWEEK COLUMN WEDNESDAY 17 JUNE 2026
Previews: Cartwheel Arts Messages of Hope Community Exhibition, Manchester Collective: Patterns in Repeat and Blissful Bumps Quilted Floor Blanket-Making
Review: A mesmeric Toad Lane Concert at St Mary in the Baum plus Ebor Gallery Frank Exhibition
Cartwheel Arts Messages of Hope Community Exhibition
Preview by Steve Cooke
As part of the Darnhill Festival 2026 taking place on 4 July 12-4pm, Cartwheel Arts are inviting local people of all ages to submit artwork for a community window exhibition celebrating hope, pride, and positivity in Heywood.
The exhibition will showcase artwork created by local people of all ages, celebrating hope, kindness, community and connection. Submitted artwork will be photographed and displayed in windows across Darnhill during the festival
They would like you to share this opportunity with anyone you think may be interested. If a group would like to take part but would benefit from art supplies, they may also be able to provide items such as paper and coloured pens.
For more information and to submit, please contact bailey@cartwheelarts.org.uk
Manchester Collective: Patterns in Repeat
Preview by Steve Cooke
“Rhythm begins with the body” in this evening of contemporary experimental music with four titans of the genre
An opportunity to embrace a bold and colourful sound world as Manchester Collective bring to life work by titans in contemporary experimental music. For these women, music is an embodied, grounding experience. It’s in the vibrations of our vocal chords, and in our heartbeats.
Classical music wasn’t big enough to contain Meredith Monk. Best known for her vocal acrobatics and influencing the likes of Björk, her work stretches into choreography, filmmaking and theatre. Here, the Collective perform a rare treasure: the flickering instrumental piece Backlight.
Improvisation, human connection and Black culture are at the heart of Cassie Kinoshi’s practice. She darts between spaces: London’s thriving jazz scene and Berlin, leading bands as a saxophonist, and composing for theatres such as the Globe. This vibrant mix of influences flows through her brand-new piece for mixed ensemble.
Often taking meditative singing as her starting point, Cassandra Miller taps into music that lies deep within us. Perfect Offering was penned in the throes of illness, exploring the passage of time while our body remains inert.
Cassie Kinoshi’s new work is commissioned by Manchester Collective with support from their Commissioning Club.
Standard: £25 Affordable:
Concessions 50% Discount
Aviva £10 Tickets
A booking fee of £1.50 applies to all tickets.
Doors open - 7pm, Start - 7.30pm on 30 June in The Hall, Aviva Studios, Water Street, Manchester, M3 4JQ
Anyone under the age of 14 must be accompanied by an adult 18+. No babes in arms.
Running time: 85 minutes + interval
Accessibility features available for this event: Wheelchair Access
Blissful Bumps Quilted Floor Blanket-Making
Preview by Steve Cooke
Yet another admirably innovative activity from the wonderful Touchstones Rochdale Team.
Touchstones are inviting pregnant women from Rochdale to go along to Derby Street family hub to create a patchwork quilted floor blanket over ten weeks.
Working with textile artists and a range of inspirations from the Touchstones collections this is an opportunity for pregnant women to relax through the meditative process of creativity.
No experience is necessary – the session is supported by a seamstress who can help with the sewing!
Members from the perinatal team will also be available to chat about anything pregnancy-related and beyond.
Book below, or email creativecommunities@yourtrustrochdale.co.uk with any questions or for support to attend.
Please attend every session at 1pm the full dates are:
Thursday 18 June
Thursday 25 June
Thursday 2 July
Thursday 9 July
Thursday 16 July
Friday 17 July
Friday 24 July
Friday 31 July
Friday 7 August
Derby Street Family Hub, Derby St, Heywood OL10 4QJ
Situated in a purpose built facility, Derby Street Best Start Family Hub offers a welcoming and safe environment for families with children aged 0–5 years. There are excellent indoor and outdoor play facilities and a variety of sessions for children with parents and parents only, including an active parents forum and play sessions for children to develop their own social skills.
Derby Street Best Start Family Hub offers the Family Journey Programme, a series of 12 workshops shaped to support families at the different stages of your child’s development, such as weaning, potty training and going to nursery.
Derby Street Best Start Family Hub has Derby Street Day Care Nursery and Nursery School on site.
A mesmeric Toad Lane Concert at St Mary in the Baum
Review by Dr Joe Dawson
This mesmeric Toad Lane Concert at St Mary in the Baum was the 1,188th since taking over from Rochdale council in 2001.
As one wit piped up at the end of the recital, ‘it’s amazing what you can do with a pretty little wooden box and half a dozen strings, isn’t it?’ It was amazing indeed in the hands of Richard Haslam, the Derbyshire-born classical guitarist who gained a post-graduate degree at the RNCM with Australian guitarist Craig Ogden in 2017, having previously graduated from Hull in 2013. He teaches privately in the Bury area and as an instrumental tutor Trafford Music Service.
Richard has given recitals as both a soloist and with a variety of ensembles. He has performed Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez with Derby Concert Orchestra and Salford Symphony Orchestra and will perform it again on Saturday November 14th of this year with Todmorden Orchestra.
The pretty little wooden box with merely half a dozen strings produces a fraction of the volume of say the resident 8’ Challen Grand Piano’s 88 keys supported by roughly 220–230 strings. The audience had to adjust their expectations somewhat in the huge acoustic space of St Mary in the Baum, but their rewards for concentration and focus were considerable.
Variations on a Theme of Handel by Mauro Giuliani was a delight, beginning with a deceptively naïve theme and moving through charming developments of the melody and accompanying harmonies. Finger-picking the broken chords yet allowing a melody to sing out called for immense skill, which Richard pursued flawlessly.
Lagrima, Adelita and Sueno by Francisco Tarrega were elegant late-nineteenth century pieces in similar vein. By now the delicate tones were beguiling and soothing, summoning up sunny days and moody and reflective nights.
Gary Ryan’s contemporary Lough Caragh conjured up a reflective Irish ballad style, but with the intense Benga Beat he broke the mould; born out of world music styles with vocal fragments from the player and rhythm patterns tapped on the case, it produced a spellbinding cacophony. Great fun.
Bagatelles 2, 3 and 4 by Oldham-born composer Sir William Walton were fine examples of the uptake of guitar music in the twentieth century, particularly through players like Julian Bream who inspired composers such as Walton, Tippett and Britten to take the ‘pretty little box’ seriously.
We ended with a Latin American finale of the attractive Valseana and Jongo by contemporary Brazilian Sergio Assad (b. 1952) … that proved worthy additions to the repertoire.
The Queen’s Award-winning Toad Lane Concerts every Wednesday at 12.30pm at the Grade 1 listed church of St Mary in the Baum, Toad Lane, Rochdale, OL16 1DZ. Entrance fee is £6. Contact 01706 648872 for further information.
Ebor Gallery Frank Exhibition Review
By Mark Rothwell
Three artists, one gallery space and several exhibits comprising a film, sound, two dimensional and three dimensional works, such as church pews, a bedroom dresser and three Zoetropes, are observable or audible in an exhibition titled Secret Geometries at Ebor Studio on William Street in Littleborough.
The artworks are made by a range of practitioners, namely Laura Moxon-Groves, Jack-Victor Westerdale and Stephen Cranston.
Moxon-Groves’s Zoetropes are made up of cylinders with small, regular vertical slits and, on the inside of each one, illustrations in black ink on paper across 360 degrees. The Zoetrope is regarded as the forerunner of film and animation originally patented by William F. Lincoln in the United States in the 1860s.
One Zoetrope features beautifully wrought human figures, another a made up character, part chick, part human and influenced by such artists as Hieronymus Bosch, in a world of fantasy realised by a former University of Salford student now resident in Todmorden. As Moxon-Groves says, “I use metaphorical and figurative imagery to reconstruct reality”.
Jack-Victor Westerdale has an animated film projected on a white wooden brick structure hung on a wall titled Romancing the Stone, created this year, 2026.
Stephen Cranston has a range of exhibits. One, The Shepard Lord, Pentaptych, 2016, is a collage that borrows from the sixteenth century Isenheim Altarpiece. There are five windows in the whole, framed composition, four rectangular - three portrait, one landscape - and a semicircle.
Each window has a different subject, some related others not, thus a pair of hands, a tusked animal and, somewhat disconcertingly, a frog like creature with a human mouth, are all depicted with a colourful palette too.
Other works include a Bedroom Dresser in a nod to Tracy Emin’s bed, church pews, another two framed collages and sound.
Indeed gallery attendees participated in a group spoken word recording of simple sentences that may form the basis of a sound piece similar in idea to previous recordings Cranston has made such as those aired in the gallery space.
One sound piece, Evocation 2, required family and friends to recite three palindromic sentences assembled in a process Cranston also deploys in his hand cut collage work.
The exhibition closes on the 20th June 2026. For general enquiries, such as gallery opening times, email info@eborstudio.co.uk or telephone 01706 551001.
RECOMMENDED
Wednesday, 17 June 2026
Toad Lane Concerts - Rochdale's Weekly Music at Lunchtime
This week we have - Jasmine Ai Higgs soprano (RNCM) & Logan Ferris piano (Manchester University)Running every Wednesday, Music at Lunchtime is a weekly live classical music concert series that has been going since the 1960s. The sessions were initially run at the old Rochdale Art Gallery by the local authority, but since May 2001 have been run by volunteer-enthusiasts and artistic director, Dr Joe Dawson.
£6
Phone: Dr Joe Dawson 01706 648872
Doors open 12noon, concert starts 12.30pm - 1.30pm
St Mary in the Baum, Toad Lane/St Mary's Gate, Rochdale OL16 1DZ
Thursday, 18 June 2026
Visit Fireground Museum
Join us at Fireground this week to discover Greater Manchester's firefighting story.
Fire museum attractions are on show inside the museum including our collection of historic firefighting artefacts from the 18th century to present day, plus home-made refreshments in the new Fireground Café, and souvenirs from our fantastic new gift shop! We have a wide choice ranging from toddler to collector.
Under 4s Free, Children (aged 4-15) £6, Seniors £6, Students £6, Adults £8, Family (4 people) £24.
Phone: Fireground 01706 341219
Visit: https://www.fireground.org.uk/ Thursday, Friday & Saturday from 10am - 4pm
Thursday, 18 June 2026
Reading Group - Smithy Bridge Library
Read, share and discuss a range of fiction and non-fiction in our reading group.
3rd Thursday of every month. A monthly group that meets to discuss a chosen title and have a general chat about their shared love of reading.
Free
For adults.
No need to book, you can just turn up.
1.30pm - 3pm
Smithy Bridge Library, 121–123 Smithy Bridge Road, Littleborough OL15 0BQ
Thursday, 18 June 2026
Lego Club - Spotland Library
3rd Thursday of every month. Come and join our Lego Club and build your own Lego creations in our themed sessions.
Free
For families with teenagers and children aged 5 and above.
No booking required, you can just turn up.
3.30pm - 5pm
Spotland Library, Ings Lane, Rochdale OL12 7AL
Friday, 19 June 2026
Father's Day craft - Littleborough Library
Make a ‘super spinner’ or a ‘magic card’ to give to a special person this Father’s Day.
Free
For families with children aged 3 and above. Young children may need assistance from an adult, and all children should be supervised, please.
No need to book, you can just come along.
3pm - 4.30pm
Littleborough Library, Hare Hill Park, Littleborough OL15 9HE
Saturday, 20 June 2026
Lego Club - Littleborough Library
Every other Saturday during term time. Join our free club and get creative with Lego. Suitable for all the family.
Free
For families with children aged 2 years and above. Lego club sessions are aimed at children aged 5–12 and their parents or carers. Duplo is available for younger children.
No need to book, you can just come along.
All children are welcome to join in and enjoy some creative play with Lego.
Each session, the children will be given a theme, followed by time to let their imaginations run wild and build.
11am - 12pm
Littleborough Library, Hare Hill Park, Littleborough OL15 9HE
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