Are you aware of Light Night on Friday 14th May – a fantastic evening city centre cultural festival that coincides with Museums at Night, an EU wide festival?

Liverpool will be staying open late into the night, celebrating our cultural and entertainment venues.

Visit the Light Night website to find out what it’s about.

But it’s also a great opportunity for local companies to get involved, boost your profile and attract more and new trade.

Maybe you are a restaurant, cafe or coffee shop? Why not stay open and give weary culture vultures somewhere to rest their feet?

Or you could keep your shop open into the night and get extra custom on top of the day’s trade.

You could even lay on something special for the event. A tour of your premises? Free samples or introductions to what you do?

Don’t miss out on this chance to open up a whole new audience for your business.

If you want to be a part of the Light Night, simply complete this online form. Please click on the link, follow the step by step instructions and once submitted all your info will automatically be added to the giant spreadsheet http://tinyurl.com/LightNight2010

Deadline for submissions is Midnight 25th March 2010.

Your listing/s could be for anything special and unusual happening on the evening of Friday 14th May (4pm - late), indoor or outdoor. Already we have some great people and organisations signed up with the likes of The Walker Art Gallery, Tate Liverpool, the Bluecoat, FACT, Biennial, St Georges Hall, Radio City and Steve Binns and now it’s your turn.

The Light Night will be heavily marketing within Liverpool and the Northwest and the likes of Culture24 will make a greater impact nationally. We’ll provide a strong marketing campaign; online and in print with 1000’s of Light Night brochures, full listings on Open Culture www.culture.org.uk and www.Liverpool.gov.uk.

There is no cost to signing up to be part of Light Night, but we must remind you there isn’t any funding to subsidise any costs you may have. 

Don’t forget to sign up for Culture 24 www.culture24.org.uk to get your events online nationally.

Here’s a couple of events coming up for your arty calendar:

Life in Paper Exhibition
Opening on the Thursday 18th of March 5.30-7.30pm at MerseyBio

An exhibition of paper sculptures by Julie Dodd. Julies works are based on cells and exploring the concepts of repair and emotional renewal.

Exhibition runs until 12 May 2010.

For more details, location and parking visit www.merseybio.com

Make Sundays Art & Craft Event @Leaf on Sunday 14th March 

Leaf Tea Shop & Bar and LOACA.ARTS hold interactive arts and crafts events called ‘Make Sundays’ .

Enjoy workshops, tasters and demos with local makers. Explore the acclaimed Elevator and Arena Art Studios granting sneak previews to the work of some of the North West’s top artists and also purchase quality arts and crafts from a selection of the region’s best makers.

Second Sunday of every month - 11 April, 9 May 2010

11am-5pm - FREE

Saturday 3rd – Sunday 11th April 2010

9 days … 4 cultural venues … tons of prizes … bags of fun!

Liverpool is inviting everyone to get crackin’ this Easter, on a magical mystery trail with a difference.

Liverpool’s Crackin’ Easter Trail invites super sleuths of all ages to get creative, crack the clues and be in with a chance of winning £500 or one of the many cultural gifts and prizes on offer … and all for FREE!

Open Culture and Culture Liverpool have teamed up with the Bluecoat, FACT (Foundation for Art and Creative Technology), Tate Liverpool and Walker Art Gallery to make you all very happy bunnies this Easter! This Trail is a legacy of the Great Royal Liver Easter Hunt, produced by Open Culture in Liverpool’s Capital of Culture year 2008.

Simply pick up a free Crackin’ Easter Trail, earn your stamps by taking part in the free activities and solve the clues inside our four great venues. The more you see and do this Easter, the more you could win!

How do you get involved?

From Saturday 20 March you can pick up the Crackin’ Easter Trail from the Bluecoat, FACT, Tate Liverpool, Walker Art Gallery, Lady Lever Art Gallery, 08 Place on Whitechapel and Albert Dock Visitor Information Centre.

Or you can request one by post or email, simply email info@culture.org.uk but be quick; there are only a limited number available. So what are you waiting for? Hop to it and get cracking!

Prizes include the £500 grand prize; fabulous family meals at the Tate Liverpool café and the Bluecoat Bistro, jam packed Rennies Arts & Crafts art hampers provided by Walker Art Gallery, fantastic FACT family cinema tickets, the Bluecoats brilliant crafty art bags and much, much more. 

And what’s more, with every stamped Crackin’ Easter Trail you can gain 10% discount in the participating cafes or shops (please see trail map for details).

For more information on this free event please visit Open Culture www.culture.org.uk or check out the participating venues websites.

1.00-4.30pm, Wednesday 24th March 2010
Hosted by National Museums Liverpool (venue tbc)

No charge to attend

Purpose of Event
Positioned at the end of the first quarter of 2010 Year of Health and Wellbeing, at the end of another financial year and at a time when the development work and fantastic buy-in to 2010 is translating into an exciting collaborative programme, this is a time of transition of ideas into reality.

The reality of projects set against development of new partnership structures and policies for health and wellbeing which give the City and the City/Region a clear opportunity to make significant progress in collectively tackling the health inequalities we face.

So this event will act as a milestone, to reflect on progress over the last few years, in particular in terms of the recommendations made at the successful Big Conversation event in 2008, and to look forward in terms of aspirations for the next period of planning and development work.

The title Comissioning Culture s about exploring the way in which commissioning practice is developing a culture with partnership-working at its heart, as well as raising awareness of cultural projects which have the potential to deliver on health and wellbeing outcomes in the longer-term.

Building on the creative engagement process for 2010 and the small-scale conversation with Commissioners during Living Sketchbook, the purpose of this event is:

• to share good practice of work in development through 2010 and beyond
• to share understanding of commissioning process and to continue to build a common language
• to look at collaborative opportunities in research and evaluation
  Progress

Dovetailing with the Health and Wellbeing strand of the Creative Communities Programme of Liverpool 08, Liverpool PCT invested in a portfolio of projects in 2009.

A loose-leaf publication of case studies of these projects, categorised against the six recommendations made in the recent Marmot Review of Health Inequalities will be launched at this event.

By April 2010 the Waiting programme will have renewed energy, with a new post being established at FACT. With investment from all Merseyside Local Authorities and PCT’s and Arts Council Englane, we will finally have a Merseyside Arts and Health Co-ordinator starting in Spring 2010.

The 2010 Workstreams include a focus on Singing, Dance and involve strategic collaborations with key partner organisations to deliver flagship collaborative programmes this year and beyond to continue the strong legacy from 2008 and build consensus around the key elements of what is needed for Liverpool to become a Thriving, International City in 2024.

Outline Programme
1.30pm  Year of Health and Wellbeing Context & Progress
Gideon Ben-Tovim & Andy Hull, Liverpool PCT

1.40pm  Maintaining the Open Nature of the Big Conversation
Phil Redmond (and Julie Hanna)

2.00pm  Commissioning Culture & Priorities
John Prescott & Dr Paula Grey, Liverpool PCT

2.20pm-4.00pm World Café or Format which enables case studies to be featured and explored within mixed groups of Commissioners and people from Cultural Sector

4-4.30pm  Learning Points and Going Forward

Key Stakeholders
Arts and Cultural Sector Directors, Heads of Learning and Interested Parties
PCT Directors, Commissioners, Public Health & Stakeholder Engagement Staff

NHS Partners – NHS Trusts, Directors, Arts Co-ordinators, Neighbourhood Staff working on engagement and programming of events

To book contact: pollymoseley@mac.com /    07990 518107

Artinliverpool.com, the top British art blog and founder and organiser of the annual Liverpool Art Prize, are delighted to make some exciting announcements concerning this year’s events.

The Shortlisted Artists
• Gina Czarnecki
• David Jacques
• James Quin
• Paul Rooney
• Emily Speed

The Judging Panel
In this, the 3rd year of the prize, we have another knowledgeable, experienced group of judges:
• Juan Cruz (Head of Arts Dept. JMU Art & Design Academy)
• Laura Davis (Arts Editor, Liverpool Daily Post)
• Reyahn King (Director of Art Galleries, National Museums Liverpool)
• Nicki McCubbing (Artist, shortlisted for 2009 Liverpool Art Prize)
• Jay Mitton (Business Manager, Arthur Diamond Design)
• Sara-Jayne Parsons (Exhibitions Curator, the Bluecoat)

New Venue
This year Artinliverpool are working in partnership with Metal. The exhibition will be taking place at the exciting new space for art, Metal at Edge Hill Station (the World’s oldest passenger railway station still in use).

The Exhibition
The 2010 exhibition opens on Friday 4 June (Viewing on 3 June) and ends on Saturday 10 July with the Awards Ceremony taking place on Wednesday 30 June.

The exhibition will be curated by Jenny Porter, the Project Manager at Metal.

The Prizes
The overall winner will be awarded £2000 plus (new from this year) the opportunity to exhibit their work at the Walker Art Gallery at a later date.
There will also be the £1000 People’s Choice Award (Sponsored by Arthur Diamond Design) chosen by the public voting at the gallery.

Ian Jackson, Director of Artinliverpool said “It’s another great shortlist of 5 Liverpool artists. We are really delighted with the year-on-year progress and excited about the move to Metal at Edge Hill. We had 2 excellent years at Novas Contemporary Urban Centre and are grateful for all the support they gave us. We know we will also have great support from Ian Brownbill, Jenny Porter and the rest of the team at Metal.

“It is also fantastic news that the Walker Art Gallery are offering a space for the Art Prize winner to show their work at some point later in the year. We are also working closely with the Bluecoat as their ‘Global Studios’ exhibition features many locally-based artists and the other major venues and artist studios are all keen to be involved in some way.”

About the Shortlisted Artists

Gina Czarnecki
Gina Czarnecki is a British artist whose work crosses multiple genres and platforms. Developed in collaboration with biotechnologists, computer programmers, dancers and sound artists, Czarnecki’s films and installations are informed by human relationships to image, disease, evolution, medical research, and by advanced technologies of image production. Through editing sound and image at a micro–level, using bespoke effects and processes, the artist constructs vivid, highly aesthetic spaces. Her work engages the viewer through its scale, beauty and occasionally through interactive technologies.

“Czarnecki’s craft is as intense as tapestry. Each phase and frame is carefully polished, reframed, filtered, flared, and each element of installation worked on in hands and mind… Few artists have made projection truly their medium, interrogated its possibilities, tuned image to canvas as Czarnecki has. The space of projection is a zone of sculptural, architectural, public space in which we confront images of power, grace and terror – images that speak of the necessity of being bodies, of the loneliness of existing inside an epidermis, of the ecstasy of pores and exhalations, the agonies of escape.” – Sean Cubitt (catalogue essay)

She won the prestigious Creative Scotland Award in 2002 for work on her interactive installation Silvers Alter, a Fleck Fellowship with the Banff Centre, Canada in 2004, and a Wellcome Trust Sci–Art Award in 2005 for production of Contagion. Her film, Nascent, has been screened extensively across the world, winning several awards and prizes. Czarnecki was recently awarded two research and development  grants by the Wellcome Trust , one for a three-year research residency at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine and the other for developing a body of works entitled ‘wasted’ with DR Sara Rankin, a stem cell researcher, from the Imperial College London

She is represented by Forma Arts and media www.forma.org.uk
http://www.ginaczarnecki.com/

David Jacques
Studied at Chelsea School of Art and Duncan of Jordanstone.
David Jacques works in a variety of media including painting, film and text.
He has produced studio based work as well as collaborative projects in the Public Realm.

Recent exhibitions include:
Contemporary Art Norwich EAST International 09
Northern Print Biennale, Newcastle
Trafo Gallery, Budapest, Hungary ‘EASTgoesEAST’
Royal College of Art, London ‘Por Convencion Ferrer’

http://davidjacques.co.uk/

James Quin
James Quin is based in the studios at Liverpool’s Bluecoat.
‘Looking at these paintings I feel I have the same relationship to them as I might to the first-person narration of a novel or short story. I feel as though I am seeing these images through another’s eyes and understand something of the “narrator” by the way he describes his world. In this sense part of the subject of the painting curiously exists out of the picture frame.

A further analogy is that of film - these paintings have characters, artificial stage sets, locations, vantage points, camera angles, close-ups and dissolves, long shots, implied narratives, and they play with the viewers gaze’. (From essay by Christopher Jones)

In James Quin’s most recent work for the Bluecoat’s Global Studio exhibition he takes some of the interests described here into new territory but his intentions remain resolutely consistent.  Quin is showing a group of 500 drawings on the inside covers of first edition readers digest condensed novels found in charity shops across Merseyside. Quin has attempted to make each drawing identical to the first of the series. The image is a disarmingly understated one, the back of a woman’s head. However, the nature of Quin’s examination of it, lend the images he creates a psychological distance that is familiar from the earlier paintings.

Paul Rooney
Artist Paul Rooney was born in Liverpool in 1967, and trained at Edinburgh College of Art. Paul’s practice focused from 1997 to 2000 on the music of the ‘Rooney’ CD’s and performances, with ‘Rooney’ achieving an appearance in John Peel’s Festive Fifty in 1998, and a ‘Peel session’ in 1999. Paul now primarily works with text, sound and video, often focusing on the presence of the historical past within the ‘voices’ of real and fictional individuals. He uses or references narrative forms such as short stories, songs, audio guides and lectures.

Paul has had residencies at Dundee Contemporary Arts/University of Dundee VRC; Proyecto Batiscafo, Cuba; Tate Liverpool (MOMART Fellowship) and was the ACE Oxford-Melbourne Artist Fellow for 2004. He has shown recently in group projects at Tate Britain, London; Museo Reina Sofia, Madrid; Kunst-Werke, Berlin; the Shanghai Biennial; and Tate Liverpool. Paul was included in British Art Show 6 which toured around the UK in 2005-2006, and had solo shows at Matt’s Gallery, London, and Collective Gallery, Edinburgh, in 2008. Text artworks by Paul were published recently by Serpent’s Tail and Whitechapel Gallery/MIT Press.

Paul was the winner of the second Northern Art Prize in 2009.

Emily Speed
Emily Speed is based at The Royal Standard studios in Liverpool. Her work is an ongoing exploration into the relationships between architecture and human anatomy: the body as a building that houses the mind. Particularly drawn to the more uninhabited spaces of buildings; corners, recesses, passageways, stairways, entrances and exits, Speed constructs models of sorts; a kind of immaterial architecture that plots out her personal space. Her work is also concerned with the enduring sense of memory and/or personal identity that is often embedded into built space.

Emily is currently the Feiweles Trust bursary holder at Yorkshire Sculpture Park, where she will exhibit her work in 2011 for her first solo exhibition, she will also exhibit this autumn at Showreel Project in Milan. Emily will be taking part in the A Curriculum residency at A Foundation in Liverpool this spring and has previously completed residencies at Salzamt Atelierhaus, Linz with Liverpool Biennial, Women’s Studio Workshop, New York State and Hospitalfield Trust, Arbroath.
www.emilyspeed.co.uk

Confirmed Sponsors (as at 8 March)

Arthur Diamond Design, signs, designs and printing based in Liverpool, sponsors of the £1000 people’s choice prize and printing of leaflets and banners.

Alexander McGregor, design and marketing based in Liverpool, in-kind sponsorship design and production of the exhibition catalogue and branding.

We are delighted that Liverpool-based ABW architects have now pledged sponsorship for 2010.

Another new sponsor for 2010 is The Gallery Liverpool

Photography for the Catalogue and other Media by McCoy Wynne

Contact
www.liverpoolartprize.com has full details about the artists and exhibition.
See also http://www.metalculture.com

Liverpool Cathedral’s tower is to re-open for late night viewings, once again giving visitors the chance to experience breathtaking views of the city. 

The tower will open on Thursday evenings until 8pm from March 18th until the end of October – an extended season in response to the huge visitor demand during last autumn’s pilot scheme. 

The tower was able to begin late night openings last year with help from the Heritage Tourism Improvement Scheme, which is funded by the Northwest Regional Development Agency (NWDA) and English Heritage. The scheme has enabled the Cathedral to put lighting through the bell chamber and the top of the tower.  

To celebrate the new season, on opening night only (March 18th) visitors will have the chance to get up close to the highest and heaviest peal of bells in the world. On the same night, visitors will also be able to enter the main cathedral building after normal hours for refreshments.

The Cathedral Tower has become one of the main attractions for visitors to the Cathedral, and there has been a 72% increase in tower visitors since 2006.

Justin Welby, Dean of Liverpool Cathedral added, “We had extremely positive feedback regarding the tower opening last year. People who may not normally have had a chance to engage with the Cathedral during the day commented that it was a fantastic way to experience what the Cathedral has to offer, and in a most spectacular way. Many said that being above the city at night is a wonderful way to take time out from everyday life and just relax. By extending the length of the opening season, we hope that it will make the Cathedral even more accessible to the public as a place of peace and calm.”  

 These openings provide a great opportunity to catch a sunset across the River with the Welsh hills as a backdrop, or experience the lights beginning to come on around the city.  

Pre-booking is not normally required, but if you plan to come as part of a large party (especially on opening night), please first notify the Cathedral shop (0151 702 7255  shop@liverpoolcathedral.org.uk) to ensure that arrangements can be made for your group.

Please see the website www.liverpoolcathedral.org.uk for  more information.

Chamber member The Bluecoat Display Centre have a new exhibition coming up in May, and are looking for local support:

1 May – 19 June 2010
Open Mon – Sat 10am. – 5.30pm. Sunday 12-5pm. Admission Free

As part of our artistic exhibition programme this year in Liverpool, we are celebrating the links that the city is proactively encouraging in 2010 with Shanghai, China.

Liverpool is the only city apart from London to have its own pavilion at the large international expo that is taking place there during 2010.

Historically, Liverpool has a long tradition of involvement with China, with China Trade ceramics, textiles and metalware being imported in huge quantities during the 18th and 19th centuries.

We are keen to explore contemporary influences of the Chinese culture that are present in the work of artists currently working in the U.K. and exhibit it at the Bluecoat Display Centre, Liverpool.

Confirmed artists include:

• Li-Sheng Cheng creates functional silverware and jewellery ranging from textured rings, earrings and bangles to unusual shaped dishes and beakers. Inherited from her Chinese culture and upbringing, she is inspired by the ideas and thoughts that “everything has a life, which should to be cherished and respected”.
• Ken Eastman began working with the Royal Crown Derby Porcelain Company in 2006. Working with original pattern manuscripts from the Derby factory archives, Eastman became absorbed in their originality and wonderful sense of colour and composition. The new range of work was launched in Paris, New York and London in 2009.
• Claire Lowe’s work combines a selection of materials predominantly plastics, including acrylic sheet and epoxy and polyester resins. “I enjoy mixing materials to create new and exciting combinations, for example my use of tea leaves within resin”. This progressed from studying the traditions of loose tea and the introduction of the tea bag.
• Paul Scott‘s work involves the digital manipulation of established vocabularies of printed motif, pattern and image from industrial ceramic archives and engraved book illustration. Cloning and collaging these, sometimes with photographic elements,” I create contemporary artworks in ceramic and printed form”.
• Peter Ting is a highly creative and well-respected ceramics and crystal designer. Ting has worked for over 20 years within the luxury sector, currently with Asprey London, Royal Crown Derby and previously at Thomas Goode, both as design director and MD of Thomas Goode Manufacturing Unit.
• Anthony Wong specialises in the design and manufacture of exciting, innovative, contemporary hand made jewellery and precious objects. Purity of materials, method and form captivates- Distilling and paring designs to the minimum form to produce a piece with a timeless interest, an element of fun and intangible beauty.

We will also be endeavoring to develop relationships with suitable partner organisations that might enable contemporary work from the UK to gain exposure in Shanghai, so would welcome any feedback on this subject.

Bluecoat Display centre, 50-51 the Bluecoat, College Lane Entrance, Liverpool L1 3BZ
email: crafts@bluecoatdisplaycentre.com
Tel: +44 (0)151 7094014
www.bluecoatdisplaycentre.com

Liverpool is to host an extra special Chinese New Year party this weekend to celebrate the 10th anniversary of twinning with Shanghai.

The twinning celebration, which comes less than three months before Liverpool heads to the World Expo 2010 in Shanghai, will be a traditional blessing ceremony to mark the 10th birthday of the largest Chinese Arch in any Chinatown outside of mainland China - at 12 noon on Saturday, 20 February.

The following day Liverpool’s Chinatown area, which will be dressed in red with Chinese style flags and special lighting, welcomes in the Year of the Tiger with the spectacular fire cracker display at 1.00 pm at Great George Square (at the end of Nelson Street) a key highlight.

The Chinese new year celebrations, organised by Liverpool Chinatown Chinese New Year Co-ordinating Committee and Liverpool City Council, run from 12noon to 4pm and includes the much loved lion, dragon and unicorn dances, Tai Chi demonstrations and a Chinese New Year market (Great George Street).

A whole host of other eye-catching events will be displayed along Nelson Street, Berry Street and Duke Street area, including live music and a fun fair while educational activities will be held at The Blackie. (Liverpool’s Chinese New Year programme can be downloaded at www.lcba.net)

St. Luke’s Church, on Berry Street, will also be rejoicing in the celebrations, with Urban Strawberry Lunch inviting the public to decorate the war damaged building.

In the evening, the VIP and Chinese Variety Show will be hosted at Britannia Adelphi Hotel. This year’s theme is ‘East meets West’ with an amazing line up of cultural and artist entertainments including: the Pagoda Chinese Youth Orchestra and traditional and contemporary artists from Wah Sing Chinese Community Centre.

ROAD CLOSURE NOTICE

Liverpool’s Chinese New Year Celebrations – in effect from 7 am to 6pm on Sunday, 21 February:

• Great George Street (from its junction with St. James Street to its junction with Duke Street)
• Duke Street (from its junction with Great George Street to its junction with Kent Street)
• Upper Duke Street (from its junction with Great George Street to its junction with Rodney Street)
• Berry Street (from its junction with Bold Street to its junction with Duke Street)
• Nelson Street (from its junction with Great George Street to its junction with Upper Pitt Street)
• Grenville Street South (from its junction with Bailey Street to its junction with Cornwalis Street)
• Wood Street (from its junction with Colquitt Street to its junction with Berry Street)
• Seel Street (from its junction with Slater Street to its junction with Berry Street)
• Knight Street (from its junction with Berry Street to its junction with Rodney Street)
• Roscoe Street (from its junction with Leece Street to its junction with Upper Duke Street)
• Sankey Street / Griffiths Street / Bold Place / Back Berry Street / Roscoe Lane / Back Knight Street / Cookson Street / Raffles Street
• Colquitt Street (from its junction with Parr Street to its junction with Seel Street)

Chamber member Liverpool Lighthouse, the UK’s first dedicated Urban Gospel Arts Centre, would like to let you know about an upcoming concert they will be hosting:

Love Uganda

Featuring the colourful and energetic harmonious sounds of: Watoto Children’s Choir, Wesley College Dublin Choir & All Saints Children’s Choir.

Venue: Liverpool Lighthouse, Anfield;
Friday, 12th February, 7pm; £4(Adult) £2(Child)

Tickets available from: Liverpool Lighthouse (0151 476 2342) www.liverpoollighthouse.com; Liverpool Cathedral Bookshop (0151 702 7255); Pauline Books & Media (0151 709 1328)

The first ever Liverpool Boat Show is due to take place on Liverpool’s Waterfront in May 2011.

Organisers believe the 10 day event will become one of the most important and spectacular shows of its kind in Europe. It’s hoped the festival will attract 400,000 visitors to the city and inject millions into the city’s economy.

Now, Liverpool businesses and organisations are invited to learn more about this spectacular event and its many opportunities.

Chairman of the organising committee, Sir Robin Knox-Johnston will be hosting an Evening Drinks and Presentation to be held at the Merseyside Maritime Museum on Tuesday February 9th at 6.30pm-8.30pm.

Guest speakers Sir Robin and Cllr Warren Bradley will present the plans for the Liverpool Boat Show and detail the ways in which companies can become actively involved as Founder Partners. The active participation of businesses in the region will be a key factor in ensuring the long-term success of this event for the City.

If you would like to reserve your free place at this event, you can book online here or alternatively email events@merseyside.org.uk<mailto:events@merseyside.org.uk or call 0151 237 3963 by Tuesday 2nd February.