An upcoming art exhibition is set to open this December at Salford Museum & Art Gallery, offering a nostalgic exploration of home, memory and identity.
Held in the Quiet Light is a sensory based exhibition which brings three UK-based artists back to their roots in the north west of England to reflect on how upbringing, place and memory inform creative life.
From 13 December 2025 until 19 April 2026, Salford Museum and Art Gallery will host this immersive and visual experience, which aims to make visitors consider how the places that we come from help shape and influence our perspectives.
Three artists, Briony Jenkins, Stephen Milner and Mike Thorpe have collaborated to deliver this exhibition, combining multiple artistic mediums to capture personal feelings, experiences and memories of growing up in Salford and Manchester.
The exhibition will feature new unseen works that highlight the emotional nature of rediscovery and homecoming as well as the past experiences and memories of the artists that have helped shape their lives.
Stephen Milner said: “I was, born with a club foot, so spent many of my formative years. So between being from the age of about nine, ten in hospitals, including what was Pendlebury Hospital, Salford and Hope hospital, which is now Salford Royal, having numerous operations to correct faults which left my right leg badly.”
“That became then the subject for my artwork, which will be very evident in the pieces that people see. It’s brought me into contact with other people and charitable organisations.”
Briony Jenkins said: “This opportunity to join Salford came up through Steve and it’s just a fantastic chance to pull it together because I don’t live in Manchester anymore.”
“A big focus for the show and for lots of my work is to do with lights. What I’ll be showing is the progression of that work I was showing in Manchester. Lots of my work relates to night time and light and what happens in the dark, and that really comes from growing up where I grew up.”
She continued: “It’s been a revelation really, you know, to unpack yourself like that. What do you want to show people to come and see? What do you want to show people who you might know at home who’ve never seen your work?”
Mike Thorpe said: “We applied for the Salford opportunity that came up. So it’s like an open call.”
“They said there were about 50 artists, and we managed to get it. So we were really kind of excited about it.”
He continued: “It’s just made me think a little bit more about childhood and the toys and also, we’ve now got an empty childhood home because my mum had passed away, and that was where I grew up.”
“I found an old toy box, still got all my toys in it. I’ve done some work before and just doing some real and enlargements of them and I thought, well, I’ll run with that. I’ve been doing filming. Very reflective filming, very kind of quiet. There’s no narrative to it. It’s just the way light falls on the objects.”
“It’s just a great privilege to be able to exhibit in a place such as Salford Museum.”
• More information about the exhibition can be found here.
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