Please note: The Sun exhibition ended on 4 November 2020. To find out what exhibitions and activities are open today, visit our What’s On section.
The team who worked on The Sun were definitely feeling the sunny vibes when we asked for their favourite summer songs – you can listen to the full sunshine playlist on Spotify below:
So how did we come up with the list? The team who worked on The Sun have very varied roles, but when we invited them to share their favourite songs inspired by the exhibition they jumped at the chance.
There were moments of controversy – Creative Content and Event Developer Adam Flint (who designed our fabulous Sun family activity trail) was adamant that we should include The Beatles’ Here Comes the Sun, while Assistant Registrar Alison Crook said she preferred the Nina Simone version… so we included both!
Bob Marley’s Sun is Shining is one of the only songs that received multiple nominations – it’s surprising how many sunny songs there are to choose from. Conservation and Collections Care Manager Rachel Rimmer had a long and eclectic list of suggestions, but said if she had to pick just one it would be Justin Timberlake’s Can’t Stop the Feeling because “my kids love it and go wild singing and dancing when it comes on their playlist, so when I think of that song it makes me smile.”
Contemporary Science Programme Producer Gina Cooke, who is organising our Sun Late event coming up in November, also had an eclectic list, but felt that Kygo’s Sunrise would give the playlist a modern feel.
We also had suggestions from our Associate Curator Lewis Pollard, Senior Development Executive Lauren Bottoms and Project Delivery Manager Cate Pennington, whose suggestions were as varied as their job titles!
So those are the tunes that The Sun inspired our team to want to listen to – but what are yours? Why not visit The Sun (let’s face it, it’s the only way you’re going to see any in Manchester right now) and then tell us what sunny song gets your toes tapping – we’ll add our favourites to the official playlist.