New exhibition opening at Salford Museum and Art Gallery

A brand-new art exhibition ‘A Taste of Arcadia’ will be on display at the Salford Museum and Art Gallery this August.

The exhibition, curated by Michelle Leigh, will aim show paintings from Post Covid to the present day capturing a ’Curious Restless Place.’

The phrase was first coined by Shelagh Delaney, the British dramatist, whose play ‘A Taste of Honey’ 1958 based in her hometown of Salford was adapted into an award-winning film of the same title in 1961.

And the title of Michelle Leigh’s exhibition ‘A Taste of Arcadia’ plays upon Shelagh Delaney’s title ‘A Taste of Honey.’

The exhibition will be hosted at the Salford Museum and Art Gallery from Saturday 30 August until Sunday 8 February 2026.

Throughout the exhibition the artist has played on the same place, Salford, tapping into that ‘raw energy, vitality’ Shelagh Delaney spoke of in spite of the many changes since the play was written.

However, the exhibition itself will show a more complex and diverse ‘Salford’ emerge into 2025.

The handful of lives that the artist has depicted in the painting are used to play out against Salford’s different landscapes, whether that be the Wetlands, Edgelands, or areas where folk flourish within their individual cultural traditions.

Michelle will depict the same ‘raw energy and vitality’ of Salford that Shelagh Delaney speaks of in the BBC documentary with British Film Director Ken Russell in 1960.

The paintings will show figures on the threshold of potential change, whether adulthood or the taking on of responsibility.

And though a very different Salford is depicted in ’A Taste of Honey’ some of those themes that relate to Salford being a ‘curious restless place’ are still in evidence, today.

Michelle will explore the constant state of change, and it will also look at the feelings that can still exist in an area.

The paintings will also celebrate the clash of life and cultures, the old and new as still evident in the City of Salford today.

Residents will be able to explore ‘A Taste of Arcadia’ at the Salford Museum and Art Gallery from Saturday 30 August until Sunday 8 February 2026.

More information can be found here.