Manifesting Exhibition | UCL Urban Room
An exhibition exploring whether a space can be a manifesto. Using sound, text and design to question exclusion, imagine belonging, and invite collective gathering, reflection and disruptive futures.
Manifesting Exhibition | UCL Urban Room
12 Mar 2026 - 20 Jun 2026
Visiting the exhibition
There is no need to book for the Manifesting exhibition which is open to the public on Monday to Saturday, 10:00-16:00, and closed for teaching on Wednesdays from 11:00-13:00. Booking is essential for the events listed below.
About the exhibition
Manifesting is a public exhibition about manifestos through space, sound and text, and is hosted in the UCL Urban Room from 12 March 2026 to 20 June 2026.
The exhibition considers the boundaries of disruptive thinking, and asks: Can an institution hold the people it historically excluded? If so, what would its future look like?
Following the many efforts to create places for rest, critique and belonging, this UCL Urban Room project reflects on the guidelines set forth by labouring minds and activist missions… wondering, can a space be a manifesto? If so, what would it manifest?
Installations are bookended by words and held by text, and together with a programme of events invite audiences to look beyond the paper register to consider how sound manifests in space. Creating circles and places to gather invites our bodies to huddle together instead of perch at attention. Using design and interactive installations to connect people in the space, it invites affective responses to how knowledge manifests across generations.
Exhibition visiting information
Opening hours:
- Open - Monday to Saturday, 10:00-16:00
- Closed for teaching - Wednesdays, 11:00-13:00.
All visitors are welcome to the exhibition and tickets are not required. However, booking is essential for the events listed below.
Events
Manifesting Exhibition Opening
12 March 2026, 18:30 - 20:30
Join us at the UCL Urban Room as the exhibition launches and opens its doors to a season of public events.
Across installations and live moments, Manifesting creates space for shared experience—welcoming conversation, curiosity and collective presence. This is an invitation to gather, listen, reflect and spend time with ideas that move through space, sound and text.
The Ethics of Bread and Salt: A Gathering on Ethical Practices, Curation and Research
26 March 2026, 18:00 - 20:30
This long table dinner invites UCL Urban Room collaborators, thinkers, community organisers and makers to manifest ethical outcomes for curatorial practices. Individuals can share food and ideas while considering avenues for ethical agreement between different stakeholders. We insist on the role of food for building trust and finding new ways to break bread. Hosted within the exhibition, Manifesting, this gathering utilises the manifesto as a catalyst to create more just futures.
This dinner is curated with a cohort from the Public History MA.
This is a private event, by invitation only.
Urban Rooms and Shared Futures – Roundtable
4 June 2026, 14:00 - 17:00
This roundtable conversation invites important perspectives and research collaborators to engage in dialogue and share experiences within the UCL Urban Room.
This event will consider the role and format of Urban Rooms in navigating University led regeneration programmes and the creation of cultural districts in cities.
2026 is the year in which we celebrate UCL’s bicentenary, marking 200 years since UCL’s establishment as the first university in London. On 11 February 2026, UCL will begin a year of celebration to mark our Bicentenary. UCL200 will be an exciting and varied programme of activities, events and storytelling, celebrating and reinforcing UCL’s commitment to our founding values, highlighting the excellence and impact of our groundbreaking work and people, and presenting an ambitious and inspiring portrait of our future.