Haphazard

Updated 16 March 2026

Haphazard is our frequent foray into ‘all ages’ Live Art, with intriguing images and offbeat oddities dotted around and about Hulme’s historic Z-arts building.

Playful, quirky, engaging, and sometimes plain daft: this is Live Art for kids and their adults, adults and their adults — anyone looking for a different day out!

Haphazard 2026 will be our ninth free Live Art takeover of Z-arts, presenting about ten works on Saturday 11 July from 1pm to 4pm — you can turn up at any time, come and go as you please… and expect the unexpected!

Get a feel for it with some images from last year’s event, also watch our short video to see some of what’s gone before.

Haphazard 2026 presented by Word of Warning + Z-arts; produced by hÅb with Z-arts; supported using public funding by Arts Council England, and by Manchester City Council and Greater Manchester Combined Authority.

Enquiries: haphazard@habmcr.org · haphazardmcr.org

Haphazard 2026 Call for Proposals Now Open

Artists are now invited to submit proposals for inclusion in this event:
this is not Live Art for children, but Live Art for ALL AGES — and we mean from tot to timeworn, 8 months to 80 years — so work should have appeal for adults and children alike (even if the kids need to explain it to the adults!)

For details and to apply please visit haphazard.posthaven.com
Proposal Deadline: Friday 8 May 2026, 5pm

If you’d like to hear more about what we think works for Haphazard we will have a short, informal zoom meeting on Tuesday 31 March at 3pm. Sign-up here or have a look at the recording of the information session we held in 2025.

From experience, what works best are big surreal images, interesting repetitive movement, and nothing too text heavy. We have access to a number of spaces within Z-arts, and work immediately outside the building may also be possible. Durational, intervention, and ‘come and go’ work seems to work the best — we’re not really looking for sit-down theatre shows.
This year, in particular, we are looking for a piece that can work in the Atrium to be viewed/interacted with solely from above.

Past Editions

Taking over Z-arts irregularly since 2013, Haphazard has previously seen ping pong balls & squeaky toys; a singing fish & a sax-playing bear; paintball golf & human quoits; a giant periscope, a lonely wookie, a golden toilet, clown-dancing, and a tiny bee-shaped world… Watch some of what’s gone before.

Get a feel for it by looking at image galleries from 2025, 2024, 2023, 2019, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2013 — and reading programmes from 2025, 2024, 2023, 2019, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2013.

Image: Catherine Jack for YEAP Association in Haphazard 2019