Dear Friends
Just recently I have visited friends in west Manchester, and we visited the Harris Museum in Preston. The Harris Museum was inspirational and a pleasure to visit. It is a typical Victorian civic pride building with an ethos of welcoming visitors to enjoy it’s collections. They have armchairs and sofas scattered throughout the galleries and corridors to encourage people to linger and admire both the building and the collections. On one wall they quote that research has shown that the more time people spend looking at a piece of art the more they gain from it. The library has been split over the floors to allow relevant books to be housed with the appropriate collections, e.g. art books in the art galleries and history books with the archives section (a buzzing section of books and computers with people doing research on the day we visited). Long tables for reading and studying are available in each library section, and notices encouraging the use of the books. Even the café has a collection of books, mainly fiction, for visitors to read and linger, as well as a fascinating OS map collection for a map enthusiast such as myself.
My friends and I visited two wonderful exhibitions on show at present, the ‘Horrockses fashions from royalty to ready-to-wear’ and a black-and-white portrait photography taken by local photographer Sam Hill ‘Alternative Kids 1980 – We Met Again 2026’. The fashion exhibition was our reason for the visit, especially for me with a family background of fashion and sewing. This exhibition was a delight (see one of the photos I took), well displayed, full of background information and wonderful examples. The photography exhibition was a lovely snapshot of social history, focusing originally on ‘rebel’ youth in the 1980s, punks, etc. and then a photo of the same people today, each snapshot had a brief description of who and what they were doing. I love black-and-white portrait photography, so naturally this exhibition appealed to me, but I was also struck by the warmth of this exhibition towards the people of Preston, a town who is struggling into today’s world.
I recommend a visit to this museum, the park and ride bus drops you outside the museum in Jackson Street, the museum is free to visit and the café is welcoming. Welcome to the Harris | Art | Literature | History
Unfortunately, I will not be at the November monthly meeting, I will be with family celebrating a significant birthday!!! 😂 Hope to catch up with you all soon, either at the Christmas meal or around the town.
Julie