Community Resilience and Visual Art: Responses to the Manchester Arena attack.

"Psychological literature has recognised the importance of community resilience in the wake of traumatic events. However, there is a distinct lack of qualitative research that analyses community responses to terrorism. This research aimed to provide in-depth, qualitative data to explain and understand Manchester’s community response to the Manchester Arena attack on Monday 22nd May 2017. Thirty two pieces of art, objects and murals were located in and around Manchester that were created after the arena attack and photographed by the researcher. Thematic analysis was then carried out and identified key themes which would explain Manchester’s community resilience; (1) time, (2) location, (3) content, (4) meaning, (5) emotions, (6) audience and (7) commercialisation. This study supports the view that Manchester is a resilient community which in the face of terror, Manchester’s artistic habitants stand together to support each other and use their skills to express their resilience to terrorism, using the Manchester worker bee as their preferred symbol. However, Manchester is also an entrepreneurial city in which corporations and local businesses have also shown their solidarity with the victims of the attack by displaying their own tributes in the windows of their premises, often ‘We love Manchester’.