MANCHESTER.- Portraits of Recovery and the Whitworth present Recoverist Curators: Re- imagining the World We Live In - a bold, co-curated exhibition that reinterprets the Whitworth’s collection through a recovery lens.

Featuring more than 25 artworks including paintings, photography, wallpapers, textiles and prints, the exhibition includes, works by artists Francis Bacon, Tracey Emin and Wolfgang Tillmans, alongside personal stories and artefacts like Paul’s vinyl records and Anastasia’s rainbow hat. These create powerful, intimate connections between their lived experience and the Whitworth’s collection.

Paul, Recoverist Curator, said: “Engaging with Recoverist Curators has given me the opportunity to explore my own journey of recovery. I was able to reflect and appreciate the changes and growth that I had experienced during my journey. I realised what it was like to be free. I had stepped out of the darkness and pain an into the light of hope.”

Recoverist Curators is a re-narration of a condition often much mis-understood, rooted in collaborative arts practice and cultural inclusion and aiming to disrupt commonly held misconceptions. It is more than an exhibition – it’s part of the Recoverist movement, which sees activism as art for social and cultural change.

Through the work, three exhibition themes emerged: In the Madness, Keep(ing) it Simple, and Self-Love. These themes invite visitors to view recovery not as a destination point but as a deeply human and transformative process that re configures a person’s identity.

Annie, Recoverist Curator, said: “It has been a great opportunity and learning experience to be part of the Recoverist Curators. Learning, laughing, discussing the complex decision of curating an arts exhibition. Six of us strangers becoming comrades in recovery.”

Recoverist Curators is an exhibition which reflects Portraits of Recovery and the Whitworth’s collective mission: to amplify unheard voices, support mental health and wellbeing and shift balances of power. It reflects on Recoverism as a cultural movement for positive social change by helping us to rethink how we work, live and creatively express ourselves.

Mark Prest, Director and CEO of Portraits of Recovery, said: “Recoverist Curators breaks new ground by opening-up a national conversation on the need to give those in recovery power and control over their own self-representation. In this instance a twelve-month long, mile stone art exhibition and a cultural platform for being authentically seen and heard.

Recoverist Curators re-writes the narrative and highlights the positive value people in recovery make to society and the arts and culture itself.”

Prof Sook Kyung Lee, Director the Whitworth, said: “We’re proud to collaborate with Portraits of Recovery on this important project for the Whitworth. Recoverist Curators powerfully demonstrates how art, lived experience and co-curation can come together to reimagine the world we live in. It reflects our commitment to care, creativity and amplifying voices that are too often unheard - opening-up new ways of seeing our collection, and of understanding each other.”