FE/ADVANCED

FE/Advanced Age 16-24

Advanced Contemporary Practice.

They Gallery is dedicated to advanced creative practice, inviting undergraduate and postgraduate students to produce ambitious new interpretations of David Bowie through any medium, discipline or artistic lens. This is a space without boundaries, where experimentation, originality and personal vision are encouraged above all else.

Whether expressed through painting, sculpture, photography, installation, performance, film, textiles, printmaking or mixed media, each work should reflect the artist's own perspective of Bowie—exploring identity, transformation, culture and creativity in ways that are both contemporary and deeply personal.

The University Gallery is intended to showcase work of professional exhibition standard, with selected pieces displayed alongside established artists as part of the Face the Strange exhibition. A number of students demonstrating exceptional creativity and technical ability will also be offered small commissioned opportunities, allowing them to develop new works specifically for the exhibition. These commissions are designed to encourage gallery-quality practice and provide valuable experience in producing artwork to an international exhibition standard.

This is an invitation to move beyond portraiture and into the limitless possibilities of contemporary art—where there are no rules, no limits, and only new avenues of creative exploration.

Concept and overview

Submit

A citywide Schools Gallery

Each participating school will be invited to select up to four winning artworks, judged internally by teachers, before submitting high quality scans to the Face The Strange selection panel. These selected works will represent the school’s official entries for consideration in the main gallery.

Alongside this, we will invite every participating school to create its own small gallery on 8 January 2027, David Bowie’s 80th birthday. This will allow all children’s submissions to be celebrated within their own school, contributing to a wider city wide school exhibition across Manchester.

Parents, families, friends and the wider schools/Universitiy community can be invited in to enjoy the children’s work in a celebration of art, music, space and imagination.

Selected original works will then be collected and displayed as part of the Face The Strange Gallery at Aviva Studios, Manchester, during the January 2027 celebrations.

Subject to available funding, small grants may also be offered to help schools/Universities with simple display materials and light refreshments.

Selected schools/Universities may also be invited to take part in filming for a BBC documentary celebrating the creativity of young people and Bowie’s enduring legacy.