The Sculpts x Manchester Museum celebrate Chinese New Year with new design

Unique Manchester-inspired homeware and lifestyle brand, The Sculpts has collaborated with Manchester Museum to bring a striking new design to life for Chinese New Year.

The limited edition dragon design is available as a decorative ceramic tile, a ceramic coaster or a print © The Sculpts

It’s the second artistic collaboration between the designers and the Museum to draw upon historic and contemporary links between Manchester and China and to celebrate the significance of the Chinese community in the UK. The first was a bespoke letter C design, part of a specially commissioned series of beautiful hand-illustrated ceramic tile designs to coincide with the renovation of the museum’s Oxford Road site and the opening of the Lee Kai Hung Chinese Culture Gallery, last year.

2024 is the lunar year of the Wood Dragon – the most powerful creature in the Chinese zodiac. Inspired by the beautifully embroidered textiles, carved jade artefacts and porcelain vases in the gallery, The Sculpts’ founder and illustrator Richard Bennett has created a stunning pen and ink drawing of a Wood Dragon dancing to chase away evil spirits and ushering in a year of good luck.

In Chinese culture, wood represents vitality and creativity, while the dragon is related to success, intelligence and honour. A symbol of wisdom, strength and power, dragons are believed to signify a time for new beginnings and opportunities.

Jade King, director at The Sculpts says: “We’re delighted to working with Manchester Museum again, and to be celebrating Chinese New Year. Our Chinese communities in Manchester have grown significantly in the last couple of years and it’s lovely to be able to say, ‘kung hei fat choy’, and to celebrate a new year with our beautiful new dragon design.”

The Lee Kai Hung Chinese Culture Gallery, which opened last year, is the first permanent gallery devoted to Chinese culture in the history of Manchester Museum. It aims to promote empathy and understanding between the people of the UK and China.

Emma Gittins, head buyer for Manchester Museum says: “Collaboration with talented Mancunian makers and creators sits at the heart of our approach in the Manchester Museum Shop. It has been exciting to work with The Sculpts on this project, particularly in creating something that ties so closely into the Museum’s mission to build understanding between cultures.”

This is the second artistic collaboration between The Sculpts and Manchester Museum. The Sculpts have previously created a bespoke range of their iconic Northern Alphabet range of designs for the museum. Each illustration uses a letter of the alphabet in a distinctive pen and ink drawing to link to something from the Museum’s incredible collections. For example, A is for archaeology, E is for Egyptology.

The brainchild of illustrator and architect Richard Bennett, The Sculpts was founded in 2020 with a range of handmade ‘Manchester’ tiles, one for each letter of the city’s name, with each 6-inch by 6-inch tile illustrated to depict a different stage in Manchester’s transformation – from post-industrial depression to a technological and cultural force to be reckoned with.

However, what began as a handful of illustrative tile designs has been grown by Richard Bennett and Jade King into a distinctive range of beautiful drawings brought to life in upmarket homewares, prints and textiles.

The Sculpts opened its first physical shop in Sale’s Stanley Square in July 2023. 

📍 The Sculpts, 26 Stanley Square, Sale M33 7XZ

All images © The Sculpts.