“The idea of Recoverist Curators is a masterpiece of creativity, engaging people recovering from addiction to co-curate exhibitions which express their powerful experiences”
Shimaa Gomaa, Deputy Director of Technical Affairs, Egypt’s Capitals Museum
An exhibition curated by people in recovery from substance use, which re-narrates artworks from the Whitworth collection through a Recoverist Lens.
Driven by the lived experience of substance use and recovery, the Recoverist Curators project is an activist-based process, developing inclusive ways for working with people and communities in recovery. The Recoverist Curators: Reimagining the World We Live In exhibition has led to the development of new knowledge and increased cultural confidence for successful creative Recoverist engagement.
Recovery is often misunderstood. Recovery is not finite; it is a social process, a journey. It is cultural, contemporary and in the moment. Through the lens of recovery, the curators have researched and reinterpreted the Whitworth’s collection. By curating this exhibition of artworks and engaging the public, the Recoverist Curators share their aspirational stories of hope, fear, desires and dreams.
Recoverist Curators supports Portraits of Recovery and the Whitworth’s collective mission for art as a means for positive social change, shifting balances of power to a more equitable approach. Recoverism is an inclusive ideology to support society to better look at itself as a whole and to shift how we think, work, live and express ourselves.
Portraits of Recovery is a Manchester-based visual arts charity supporting people who identify as being in recovery from substance use.
Supported by the Baring Foundation.
Find out more about the project and the Whitworth Gallery.
25 July 2025 – 5 July 2026
RECOVERIST = recovery + activist
Recoverist Curators forms part of the pioneering 3-year commissioning programme Chaordic, initiated and led by Portraits of Recovery, developed and delivered in partnership with Castlefield Gallery, the Whitworth and Manchester Art Gallery.
Chaordic explores the social impact that collaborative contemporary visual arts can play in redefining substance use narratives and recovery identities. Recoverist Curators and Chaordic: The Symposium are key events for Portraits of Recovery’s Recoverist Month (September 2025) – placing lived experience at the heart of an annual, month-long arts programme.
