The Whitworth closes its doors for the year in style

The latest chapter in Whitworth Art Gallery’s 124-year history was brought to a close with Whitworth Weekending, an extraordinary weekend of free art, music and performance in Whitworth Park.

The art gallery closed for a year of renovations with a spectacular weekend of events.

Highlights of the weekend included Jeremy Deller’s Acid Brass performing on the roof of the Whitworth on Friday night and an amazing fire and light show brought a climax to Saturday’s festivities, which had featured a music line-up from Band on the Wall. 

Workshops and guerilla art ran across all three days and the weekend was brought to a close with Six White Horses, a moving and mournful art installation in the park. 

Having seen over 15,000 people over the weekend – the busiest three days in the Whitworth’s history – the gallery finally closed its doors at midnight.

Whitworth Art Gallery will now undergo exciting renovations as part of its £15million project to create a 21^st century gallery in the park and will reopen in late summer 2014.

The reopened gallery will feature two new wings extending into Whitworth Park, a new art garden and a refurbishment of the main building’s galleries to their 1908 barrel-ceiling form.

You can keep up to date with the progress of the work with the Whitworth’s Gallery in the Park blog and Flickr set.

Notes for editors