Manchester’s Selfridges Exchange Square turned cultural “salon” recently with events that ranged from actor Maxine Peake exploring the impulse to create drama to Jeremy Deller taking on the subversive side of the creative imagination.

The Selfridges’ Festival of Imagination devised by its Creative Director Alannah Weston celebrated two of Harry Gordon Selfridge’s most cherished mantras:

“Develop imagination, throw away routine.”

“Imagination is the mother of originality, we encourage imagination in every way possible.”

In Manchester it took the form of a series of pop-up events curated by Maria Balshaw, director of the Whitworth Art Gallery and Manchester City Galleries with various talks from some of the UK’s most celebrated artists, writers and academics including Janette Winterston, Helen Storey and Jeremy Deller.