On Friday 13th, citizens of Manchester joined artist Sarah Marsh for ‘Umbrella Doodles’, a free event where people were taken on a walk up Oxford Road. Everyone was given a clear plastic umbrella that they used as a canvas for doodling drawings of Manchester’s finest architecture.
The event started outside University of Manchester’s visitors centre, where people could draw the neo-Gothic outlines of the Manchester Museum, or the sleek modern designs of University Place. Next, a short walk up to St. Peter’s Chaplaincy, followed by a quick sketch of The Footage building and All Saints Park opposite. People were then led to the industrial railway arches opposite the Palace Hotel, with the vast Victorian buildings nearby also providing excellent doodling inspiration!
A quick detour down the canal meant that another panel was filled in on the Umbrella, with the penultimate stop outside the impressive Bridgewater Hall. The last panel on the Umbrella was dedicated to the Central Library, where people could then colour in their fantastic artwork with different colours, and add any extra details.
It was a fantastic opportunity to experience Manchester’s diverse architecture and learn more about it’s history. This event will run again over the next year so watch this space!
You can find out more about Sarah Marsh and her work at http://www.evelynarts.co.uk/
All photographs © Max Bamber
This blog post was written for Archives+ by one of our volunteers as part of our Heritage Lottery Funded project.
