Dab Hands at Manchester Museum

Dab Hands is an art exhibition on Manchester Museum's top floor which celebrates the extraordinary relationship that we have with our hands. It reveals the value of the skills that can be acquired by repetition and practice, whilst acknowledging the grief and frustration that can disrupt that relationship when illness, trauma, or old age affects our dexterity. Human hands are remarkably sophisticated and adaptable tools, unparalleled in the natural world for the breadth of their capability. Whatever use we put them to, they act as our primary connection with the physical world and with each other.

In spring 2020 Lucy Burscough became Manchester Museum’s Artist in Residence. Throughout the pandemic and while the Museum has been closed for renovation, she has been meeting collaborators, making artworks for the Dab Hands collection and planning a stimulating programme of crafting activities and workshops which will be available to take part in during spring and summer 2023. The workshops explore both our collections and themes of Lucy’s exhibition and will be an opportunity to talk to the artist, learn crafting skills and feel renewed pride and satisfaction in what we can do with our hands.

Highlights of the Dab Hands programme include a series of ‘Become a Dab Hand at...’ evening workshops for adults which will introduce the basics of a range of crafts including felting, embroidery, still-life drawing and crochet; a day-long greenwood spoon-carving workshop with heritage craft expert, Steve Tomlin; several artist tours and family workshops and an evening of Dab Hands themed activities and performances to celebrate the opening of the exhibition on the 8th of March.