50 Windows of Creativity. An assignment for Wild in Art

DocumentaryArtistsEventEditorialPortraitsStreet Photography

16 Nov

Documentary photography of artwork by Lauren Mullarkey displayed in Library Walk atrium as part of Manchester 50 Windows of Creativity public art exhibition. — Seashell Trust & Lauren Mullarkey Location: The Atrium, Library Walk (mixed media installation)

This documentary photography commission for Wild in Art captures 50 Windows of Creativity, a city-wide initiative transforming Manchester city centre into a network of temporary galleries. Across shopfronts, commercial premises, cultural venues and otherwise overlooked windows, the project brings together fine art, photography, ceramics, craft and mural work in a way that repositions the city itself as an exhibition space.

Rather than isolating artworks within traditional gallery environments, the project embeds them directly into the everyday fabric of the city. Window displays become viewing frames, retail units become exhibition spaces, and pedestrian routes through Manchester become a kind of informal cultural trail. The result is a form of public art that sits between street art, commercial display and curated gallery practice.

Street art and documentary photography of artworks displayed in the windows of Mackie Mayor, Manchester as part of city centre 50 Windows of Creativity installation. — Phil Constable Location: Mackie Mayor, Coop Street

Manchester City Centre as a Living Gallery for Contemporary Street and Window Art

Working across Manchester city centre, the project reveals how much of the urban environment is already structured around display. Glass-fronted shops, office spaces and temporary vacancies become sites for curated installation, with each window acting as a contained but visible exhibition space. The work sits in that interesting space where street art and fine art begin to merge, not through graffiti or intervention, but through careful curation and placement in public view.

There is a quiet shift in how the city is experienced when these works are present. People encounter them unexpectedly while moving through familiar streets, often at walking pace, without the formality of entering a gallery. The effect is subtle but persistent: art becomes part of the everyday rhythm of the city rather than something set apart from it.

LeiMai LeMaow Public art installed on the exterior of Yard and Coop in Manchester city centre during 50 Windows of Creativity. — LeiMai LeMaow Location: On Yard and Coop, Hare St

Artists, Makers and Contemporary Creative Practice Across Greater Manchester

The project brings together a wide range of artists and makers with connections to Greater Manchester, including Wellcome Trust prize winner Benji Reid, Manchester-born mixed media landscape artist Sarah Connell, and contemporary creative studio Lazerian. Each contributes a distinct visual language, from photographic work to sculptural installation and material-based design.

What connects the work is not a single aesthetic, but a shared presence within the city. The artworks are designed to sit within windows rather than neutral gallery walls, meaning they inevitably respond to reflections, street activity, weather and passers-by. In that sense, the city becomes part of the artwork, and the artwork becomes part of the city.

Caroline Dowsett painting live at Hatch Manchester as part of 50 Windows of Creativity street art project. — Caroline Dowsett Location: Hatch, Unit 25, Oxford Road

Documentary Photography of Art in Commercial and Temporary Urban Spaces

From a documentary photography perspective, the project is as much about context as it is about individual artworks. The installations are often viewed through glass, framed by reflections of traffic, pedestrians and surrounding architecture. This layering of image, environment and viewer creates a constantly shifting composition that changes throughout the day.

Some works are installed in active commercial spaces, others in temporarily vacant units repurposed for cultural use. This mixture of permanence and transience gives the project a particular energy. Nothing feels fixed, and everything feels slightly contingent on the life of the street outside the window.

The presence of fine art, ceramics, craft objects and photographic work within these environments creates a visual tension between the domestic scale of many pieces and the larger urban infrastructure they sit within. That contrast is one of the defining characteristics of the series.

Street art documentary photography of cyclist motion blur passing graffiti artwork inside Royal Northern College of Music during Manchester 50 Windows of Creativity. — MHHA - Manchester Hip Hop Archive Location: Royal Northern College of Music

Public Engagement, Cultural Access and the Role of Wild in Art

One of the key ideas behind the project is accessibility. By placing work in windows rather than galleries, the exhibition removes a layer of formality from the viewing experience. There is no entry point, no threshold, no expectation of prior engagement with contemporary art. People simply encounter the work as part of moving through the city.

This approach is consistent with the wider practice of Wild in Art, whose projects often use public space as a platform for large-scale cultural participation. Previous initiatives, such as Bee in the City, have already demonstrated how city-wide art trails can shift public interaction with familiar environments.

In this case, 50 Windows of Creativity extends that idea into a more dispersed, subtle form. Instead of sculpture placed in streets or parks, the work exists behind glass, embedded into existing architecture and retail infrastructure.

Documentary photography of jogger running past window-based artwork inside Royal Northern College of Music as part of Manchester 50 Windows of Creativity. — Manchester Digital Music Archive Location: Royal Northern College of Music

Art, Commerce and the Changing Role of the Urban Window Display

There is also an inevitable commercial layer to the project. Many of the works are available for purchase directly from the artists, meaning the exhibition operates simultaneously as cultural display and sales platform. This dual function is not hidden—it is part of the structure of the project itself.

At the end of the exhibition, a selection of works will also be auctioned, with proceeds returning both to the artists and to We Love MCR Charity through The Lord Mayor of Manchester Charity Appeal Trust. In this sense, the project operates across cultural, economic and civic frameworks at the same time.

What emerges is a model of public art that is neither purely institutional nor purely commercial, but something in between—responsive to the realities of sustaining creative practice in a city environment.

Public art installation photography showing artworks displayed inside Mackie Mayor Manchester during 50 Windows of Creativity exhibition. — Phil Constable Location: Mackie Mayor, Coop Street

Conclusion: Manchester, Documentary Photography and the Visibility of Everyday Creativity

For me, returning to work with Wild in Art again after documenting Bee in the City in 2018 felt like a continuation of an ongoing conversation about how cities hold and display creativity. Manchester has always had a strong relationship with visual culture at street level, and this project reinforces that idea in a quieter, more distributed way.

Rather than monumental artworks or fixed installations, 50 Windows of Creativity is built from fragments—individual pieces of work, each occupying a small space within a much larger urban system. As a documentary photography project, it becomes less about isolated artworks and more about how creativity circulates through the everyday architecture of the city.

What you are left with is not just a record of an exhibition, but a portrait of Manchester itself as an active, changing surface for contemporary art.