We Are Bury

On 27 August 2019-—134 years after it was founded—Bury Football Club was expelled from the English Football League due to financial incompetence and mismanagement by successive owners.

There seemed to be little or no prospect that football would ever return to Gigg Lane. It was an ignominious end for one of England’s oldest clubs with an illustrious record that included two FA Cups and 17 seasons in the top flight.

It was devastating news for a community whose culture, identity and heritage had been inextricably bound to the football club for generations.

The case of Bury highlighted the precarious nature of community football and the massive cultural and social impact on local communities of the sport’s failure to find a better structure for securing its grass roots. To highlight the significance of the moment, Images&Co’s Kasper de Graaf commissioned a pop-up exhibition for the 2019 Design Manchester festival. Curated by Zoë Hitchen, the event brought the people of Bury, with their memories and memorabilia, to the railway arches in Manchester for two days in November 2019.

Operationally, this project showcased a rapid cultural response, effective community engagement, pop-up exhibition production at short notice, and participatory heritage in action. We Are Bury attracted extensive local and regional media coverage, supporting the ultimately successful efforts of fans to create a new future for the club.

We Are Bury photos by Mannix for Design Manchester

We Are Bury

On 27 August 2019-—134 years after it was founded—Bury Football Club was expelled from the English Football League due to financial incompetence and mismanagement by successive owners.

There seemed to be little or no prospect that football would ever return to Gigg Lane. It was an ignominious end for one of England’s oldest clubs with an illustrious record that included two FA Cups and 17 seasons in the top flight.

It was devastating news for a community whose culture, identity and heritage had been inextricably bound to the football club for generations.

The case of Bury highlighted the precarious nature of community football and the massive cultural and social impact on local communities of the sport’s failure to find a better structure for securing its grass roots. To highlight the significance of the moment, Images&Co’s Kasper de Graaf commissioned a pop-up exhibition for the 2019 Design Manchester festival. Curated by Zoë Hitchen, the event brought the people of Bury, with their memories and memorabilia, to the railway arches in Manchester for two days in November 2019.

Operationally, this project showcased a rapid cultural response, effective community engagement, pop-up exhibition production at short notice, and participatory heritage in action. We Are Bury attracted extensive local and regional media coverage, supporting the ultimately successful efforts of fans to create a new future for the club.

We Are Bury photos by Mannix for Design Manchester