An insight into how the Recoverist Curators Exhibition came to be…

The Recoverist Curators project was conceived in 2018 when Mark Prest, CEO of Portraits of Recovery (PORe), and Poppy Bowers, Senior Exhibitions Curator at the Whitworth, recognised their shared mission: to amplify unheard voices, support mental health, and shift cultural power towards equity.

Rooted in the Whitworth’s Constituent Museum model — which centres relationships, responds to urgent social issues, and invites the public into the role of co-creator — the project was built around an ethical framework of care co-developed with PORe. As the UK’s only visual arts charity working with people in recovery from substance use, PORe brought vital subject expertise and lived experience to the process.

With funding secured, participants with at least one year’s sobriety were recruited through PORe’s networks. Over twelve months, five people in recovery met every two weeks with Whitworth curators, civic engagement staff, and PORe team members. Together, they explored recovery themes such as care, journey, and pride within the Whitworth’s 60,000-strong collection. Artworks were selected through discussion and consensus, ensuring the exhibition reflected the group’s shared vision and values.

The result is a landmark, year-long exhibition at the Whitworth — a rare commitment of space and time for a participatory project. It challenges traditional museum hierarchies, foregrounds lived experience as cultural expertise and demonstrates the transformative potential of recovery-led curatorial practice.

Recoverist Curators is more than an exhibition: it is a cultural milestone, shifting perceptions, expanding narratives, and opening institutional space for voices too often unheard.

– Project Producer