Our mission, vision and values

Welcoming 

Open to all, a space and programme that is welcoming and listens to everyone.

We aim to make the best use of our knowledge and professional skills to open up the world of poetry to readers, researchers, writers, and anyone curious about, or interested in, poetry.

Poetry is the music of being human. And also a time machine by which we can travel to who we are and to whom we will become.

Carol Ann Duffy

Imaginative

We have a passion for the power of curiosity and imagination, and celebrate poetry from the many community languages of Greater Manchester.

We imagine and support new forms of poetry and research, and test new platforms for sharing and celebrating poetry. With connections to writers across the region and internationally, and at the heart of a multidisciplinary creative campus, we will enable collaboration with a wide range of people and organisations across art forms, to engage with poetry as a way of exploring knowledge and experience in a range of disciplines and professions.

Kind

We appreciate that for all of us, life can be a complex challenge. Engaging with poetry and the creative process can develop our empathy, kindness and compassion, deepen our understanding of self, others and the world around us. We take care in our approach to collection development, engagement programmes, the environment, and how we value and treat members, staff and partners, encouraging respect for diversity and understanding between people.

When the triumphant rain falls/ we think of rainbows/it’s the Mancunian way.

Lemn Sissay

Transformative

By engaging with poetry, we can nourish the imagination and foster social, emotional and intellectual change and transformation. We believe that everyone has the capacity to develop through engagement in poetry. The Poetry Library is changing and developing all the time in terms of the collection and its programme - tell us what change you want to see.

Manchester Met is proud of its diverse community of staff, students and visitors. We are equally committed to creating a positive environment where everybody is treated with dignity and respect. It is central to our mission that we are open to all, and we will work towards equality of access, opportunity and participation in all our programmes. We recognise that for many people in society, equality has not yet been realised.

We seek to place diversity and inclusion at the heart of our strategy and programming. We are committed to understanding and working to remove barriers to engagement, with a determination to ensure inclusion for all. We are committed to diverse representation at all levels of governance, and across the staff team and volunteers.

We will focus on co-curation of the collection and co-creation of projects and activities, and aim to open up the collection to a wide audience, including translation services. We will develop our Equality and Diversity Plan in line with Manchester Met Equality and Diversity policies. .