Liquid History is an ongoing project conceived and led by Fiona Brehony, exploring rivers as living archives of cultural heritage through creative workshops and soundwalks. Supported by an Arts Council England DYCP award – which enabled Brehony to develop more sustainable approaches to her practice, working with natural materials and cyanotype processes – the project expanded in 2025 into two distinct workshop strands.

At Manchester Central Library with Archives+, Brehony ran six drop-in workshops drawing on visual, audio, and text-based archive materials relating to Manchester’s waterways. Participants were invited to explore their personal relationships to rivers through creative writing, re-sounding exercises, and embodied engagement with archive materials. Over fifty members of the public attended across the series, responding to the archive through embroidery, music, writing, and other forms of artistic expression.

A parallel series of six workshops was commissioned by High Peak Borough Council through their Community Climate Change and Nature Fund, based at Rock Mill Centre in New Mills and including two sessions as part of New Mills Festival. Moving between the river’s past and its possible futures – from pollution and industrial damage to rewilding, biodiversity, and habitat restoration – participants engaged creatively with data, local histories, and collective imaginings of what the river could become.

Together the two strands reflect Liquid History’s core proposition: that rivers are not only physical places but time-capsules of cultural memory, and that creative engagement with them can open new ways of understanding both past and present. Partners now include the University of Manchester, Manchester School of Art, and the School of Digital Art.

If you are interested in future Liquid History workshops or soundwalks, please get in touch at hello.liquidhistory@gmail.com