The CHAORDIC Symposium will be a landmark, one-day event that will offer key insights into and examine the transformative power and pivotal role of the arts within recovery.
The CHAORDIC project explores the social impact that collaborative contemporary visual arts can play on redefining substance use narratives and recovery identities. The Symposium is a major public event for Portraits of Recovery’s RECOVERIST Month in September 2025, which places lived experience at the heart of the annual, month long arts programme.
The day will centre on how the arts can be a driving force for social and cultural change within the recoverist community.
Confirmed Speakers so far include:
- David Cutler, Director The Baring Foundation
- Dr Clive Parkinson (The former Director for Arts for Health at Manchester Metropolitan University)
- Dame Carol Black (Who led a highly acclaimed governmental two-part independent review into drug use)
- Peter Heslip, Director of Visual Arts at Arts Council England.
- Mark Prest, Director and CEO of Portraits of Recovery.
- Ed Watts, Head of Civic Engagement and Education at the Whitworth.
With Artists:
- Dr Harold Offeh, Head of Programme for Contemporary Art Practice at the Royal College of Arts, London.
- Joe Hartley and ANEW Recovery Community
- Recoverist Curators Group
CHAORDIC is a pioneering 3-year commissioning programme initiated and led by Portraits of Recovery, developed and delivered in partnership with the Whitworth, Castlefield Gallery and Manchester Art Gallery.
The three projects: Let’s Talk about Chemsex with international artist Harold Offeh was delivered at Manchester Art Gallery in 2024.
Recoverist Curators: Reimagining the World We Live In (funded by The Baring Foundation) opens at the Whitworth in July 2025.
And finally ANEW Way to Peel an Orange, which opens at Castlefield gallery on 3 August 2025.