By Katerina Karp, visual artist, volunteer, journalist, creative lead
Sometimes, the most meaningful cultural projects begin not in boardrooms or curatorial meetings, but in quiet moments of curiosity. Threads of Connection – a new art and storytelling collaboration between Manchester Museum, the School of Digital Arts (SODA) at Manchester Metropolitan University, and the local creative community – began as just such a moment.
I first imagined this project while taking part in the Boost Your Volunteer Opportunities training programme run by Manchester Adult Education (MAE). As a museum volunteer, I wanted to explore how heritage can live, evolve, and speak to our time. My “exam project” was a simple proposal: what if we could connect museum collections, education, and new media to create a living bridge between the past and the future?
That idea has now transformed into Threads of Connection – a collaborative project that reimagines five Chinese textile artefacts from the Lee Kai Hung Chinese Culture Gallery as sources of contemporary inspiration. Among them are the Qing Dynasty Dragon Robe, shimmering with imperial symbolism; Shoes for Bound Feet, small yet monumental in their human story; and a Firefighter’s Smart Jacket, a piece that merges tradition and innovation through craft.
Each object holds a fragment of history – personal, cultural, and material – and through the project, SODA students are reinterpreting them in digital, visual, and tactile forms: from 3D-printed artefacts to new textile experiments and multimedia narratives. The process is not hidden behind museum walls. It unfolds openly on Instagram, in a digital storytelling format that allows the public to follow the creative journey, meet the students, and see how museum heritage becomes a catalyst for imagination and dialogue.
Why Textiles?
The theme of textiles was not chosen by accident. Manchester has long been woven together by fabric – quite literally. Once known as “Cottonopolis,” the city was at the heart of the global textile industry during the 19th century. Mills, looms, and warehouses shaped both its skyline and its social identity. Cotton connected Manchester to the world – to farmers, weavers, and merchants across continents.
Today, in a very different age, textiles once again bring us together – not as industrial material, but as a metaphor. A fabric of time. A reminder that every thread carries a story, every stitch connects generations, and that creativity, much like cloth, is made through tension, texture, and care.
Bridging Worlds: Heritage Meets Technology
What excites me most is that Threads of Connection is not only about reimagining artefacts – it’s about reimagining relationships. Between museums and communities. Between tradition and technology. Between education and real-life creative practice.
In this project, SODA students don’t just complete an assignment – they step into a professional collaboration with one of the UK’s most forward-thinking museums. For the museum, it’s an experiment in openness: embracing volunteer-driven innovation and inviting the public into the creative process. For me, it’s a continuation of what I believe deeply – that heritage is not static. It’s a living system that grows through interaction, empathy, and creativity.
The Power of Encounters
This collaboration is also a story of Manchester itself – a city that thrives on creative intersections. I met Hazel Ng, the Producer of the Lee Kai Hung Chinese Culture Gallery, during the volunteer training, where she shared the museum’s approach to community engagement and intercultural dialogue. That meeting planted the first seed of the project.
Before, during the PUSH2025 Festival at HOME, I met Debbie Bandara, artist, producer, and SODA lecturer. Our conversation quickly turned to education – and how students need early, real-world opportunities that let them see how their creativity can shape cultural experience.
From these encounters, Threads of Connection was born – as naturally as Manchester’s creative ecosystem itself. Here, museums, universities, and artists don’t exist in separate worlds; they overlap, inspire, and transform one another.
Family Threads
There’s another, more personal layer to this story. My daughter Alice, 11 years old, has also become part of Threads of Connection. Together, we often walk through the museum – she takes photographs that later become part of our digital storytelling, helping to capture the texture of the space, the play of light on silk, the atmosphere of quiet discovery.
At home, she helps me edit videos for the project. In fact, she was the one who taught me how to do it. These shared moments – creative, simple, and full of joy – remind me that the project’s idea of “connection” is not just metaphorical. It is lived, passed from hand to hand, from mother to daughter.
Living Heritage in the Digital Age
In December, the students’ works will be presented as part of a digital showcase and in-gallery display at Manchester Museum. Yet, the project’s life extends far beyond the exhibition. On Instagram, Threads of Connection unfolds as an ongoing digital story – a space where heritage becomes a living dialogue, where art students, curators, and audiences co-create meaning together.
Because heritage, like creativity, is never finished. It’s a continuous thread – connecting generations, cultures, and technologies. And in Manchester, once the world’s Cottonopolis, these threads continue to weave new patterns – of collaboration, empathy, and shared imagination.
