Cheetham Cultural Festival 2025: Museum Open Day

Join us as we once again open our doors for anyone to visit the museum for free as part of Cheetham Cultural Festival 2025. Expect workshops, performances, food tasting and stories that showcase the amazing communities that are part of our museum and bring Jewish Mancunian stories to life. During your visit you?ll be able to discover more about Manchester Jewish museum through exploring the stories on our gallery and finding out about the communities who prayed in our Grade II* listed 1874 Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue. We will also have a new painting on display by artist Beverley Jane Stewart. This new piece will share our historic synagogue and the changing communities past and present that have made Cheetham Hill a special place. You?ll also get to explore Beverley?s work in our Ladies Gallery, with prints and paintings that tell stories about synagogues in the UK. As part of your visit, you?ll get to experience the amazing, creative work our groups make here at the museum. You?ll be welcomed by the smells of fresh baked cakes in our caf? and coffee from local roastery, Heart and Graft. Come and learn about the use of sweet foods in Jewish festivals with our Cafe team. Our Synagogue will be a place for song and celebration; with a programme of performative events you can drop into. Including: At 1pm, our Song-writing Group will be performing their new song, which explores the history of Cheetham Hill Road, alongside other songs which celebrate togetherness, connection, peace and joy. At 2pm, Mad Theatre Company?s young people group will perform a piece that explores how kids are using TikTok and its impact on family and community cohesion. This will be followed by a short play about hate crime. Despite the heavy topics in these performances, the plays are very upbeat, featuring lots of comedy and songs that you can sing along to. At 3pm, Royal Exchange Theatre?s ambassadors will perform a series of poems. As always, we also encourage you to check the full programme of the festival and go visit other amazing venues in Cheetham Hill! WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW Our Museum Open Day is FREE but capacity is limited so online bookings are encouraged. You can arrive anytime between 12pm and 3pm, regardless of the time shown on your ticket (book any of the available time slots). Last entry is at 3pm. All activities happening on the day are drop-in and open to all ages. When spaces fill up, we will encourage you to have a look around the museum and come back for the activity at a later time. We have a bag search policy and all large bags (rucksacks, suitcases etc.) will be searched. We are unable to store bags and we would advise not bringing large bags with you when you visit. Our museum Cafe will be open for light refreshments throughout the day, but won?t be serving the hot food menu. We will have guides on side to answer any questions you may have about the stories on the gallery. Click HERE for access information.? Click HERE for instructions on travelling to the museum.? Click HERE to read more about Cheetham Cultural Festival 2025.