What Time is Now? The Whitaker museum: Sunday 8th November 2026
What Time is Now? will be a one day takeover of creative events and activities at the Whitaker Museum, Rawtenstall
What Time is Now? will be a one day ‘museum takeover’ of participatory research events and activities at the Whitaker Museum, Rawtenstall as part of the UK wide Being Human festival https://www.beinghumanfestival.org
Hosted by the research network ‘What Time is Now?: New Temporalities in an Era of Endings’ this event will facilitate new public responses to the unique collections of the Whitaker Museum and bring to new audiences aspects of the ongoing research of this cross-institutional network.
What Time is Now? is a network of artists, historians and museum professionals convened by Dr. Brigid McLeer, Manchester School of Art, Manchester Met University and Professor Claire Langhamer, Director, Institute for Historical Research, University of London.
Events will take place throughout the day across different spaces in the Whitaker and include phytography and print workshops, talks, participatory activities and musical/sound installations*.
*Some events involve advance engagement or booking ahead.
See Whitaker website for details https://www.thewhitaker.org
Events through the day
| Time Block – woodblock printmaking project based around the Whitaker clock with live participation producing a large collective ‘print’ in the Barn space. Oran O’Reilly and Brigid McLeer (MMU) |
| Phytography workshop – participatory project the outcomes from which will be on display in microfiche format in the foyer space along with a magic lantern from the museum collection. Dave Griffiths (Independent artist based in Manchester) |
| Clatter and Squarks – new sound compositions made in response to and reinstalled into the Cabinet of Curiosities Paul Archbold + students from Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London |
| Lives of the Dead – performance lecture hosted in the taxidermy collections, Hardman Room Brigid McLeer (MMU) Booking required due to limited spaces BOOK NOW : Sunday 8th November 2026 at 12:00PM BOOK NOW : Sunday 8th November 2026 at 2:30PM |
| Timepieces – video dance work (and possible score) with a participatory element, alongside a museum-type display of a textile artefact sent from South India. Located in the Training Room space (TBC) Kiran Kuman (Independent artist/dance scholar from Bangalore, India) |
| Musical Crossroads – visitors will nominate a song that is meaningful to them, and say why on record cards, which will be added to a collective playlist playing throughout the day in the Reflect and Respond room. Claire Langhamer and Hester Barron (IHR and University of Sussex) |
| Time in Dreams and Myth – interactive storytelling workshop (Reflect and Respond room) Amber Jacobs (Birkbeck University) |
About the What Time is Now?: New Temporalities in an Era of Endings Research Network
Our network engages in speculative, holistic and process-led research, across the arts and humanities, to better understand and communicate the complex temporalities of our times. Participants work with ‘time’ as subject, material and heritage, and publish and exhibit internationally. Collectively, we explore new disciplinary encounters and dialogues for this research. The diverse events in our museum takeover will engage the public with research through bespoke, practice-based activities that speak to and extend these encounters.
It is part of Being Human Festival, the UK’s national festival of the humanities, taking place 5–14 November 2026. Being Human is led by the School of Advanced Study, University of London, in partnership with the Arts and Humanities Research Council and the British Academy.
