CHAORDIC - One Day Symposium

The CHAORDIC Symposium will be a landmark, one-day event that will offer key insights into and examin the transformative power and pivotal role of the arts within recovery.

📅 25 September 2025⏰9:30 - 4pm

📍the Whitworth

🎟️ Book your free tickets now

The CHAORDIC project explores the social impact that collaborative contemporary visual arts can play on redefining substance use narratives and recovery identities. The Symposium is a major public event for Portraits of Recovery’s RECOVERIST Month in September 2025, which places lived experience at the heart of the annual, month long arts programme.

The day will centre on how the arts can be a driving force for social and cultural change within the recoverist community.

Confirmed Speakers so far include:

David Cutler, Director The Baring Foundation

Dr Clive Parkinson (The former Director for Arts for Health at Manchester Metropolitan University)

Dame Carol Black (Who led a highly acclaimed governmental two-part independent review into drug use)

Peter Heslip, Director of Visual Arts at Arts Council England.

Mark Prest, Director and CEO of Portraits of Recovery.

Ed Watts, Head of Civic Engagement and Education at the Whitworth.

with Artists:

Dr Harold Offeh, Head of Programme for Contemporary Art Practice at the Royal College of Arts, London.

Joe Hartley and ANEW Recovery Community

Recoverist Curators Group

CHAORDIC is a pioneering 3-year commissioning programme initiated and led by Portraits of Recovery, developed and delivered in partnership with the Whitworth, Castlefield Gallery and Manchester Art Gallery.

The three projects: Let’s Talk about Chemsex with international artist Harold Offeh was delivered at Manchester Art Gallery in 2024.

Recoverist Curators: Reimagining the World We Live In (funded by The Baring Foundation) opens at the Whitworth in July 2025.

and finally ANEW Way to Peel an Orange, which opens at Castlefield gallery on 3 August 2025.

About the venue

The Whitworth is a venue with level access throughout, and facilities to support you during your visit. Alongside this our visitor team will be on hand to assist you in the gallery. Find out more about planning your visit to the Whitworth and accessibility information for you.

If you’d like to speak to a team member about any access or additional needs, please get in touch with the gallery and we will be happy to assist you. Email whitworth@manchester.ac.uk or telephone 0161 275 7450.

The Whitworth art gallery and gardens is driven by a mission to work with communities to use art for positive social change, and actively addresses what matters most in people’s lives. We are proudly part of The University of Manchester, operating as a convening space between the University and the people of the city.