Sunday 23 December 2007 was the date for an occasion to remember: Carols Round the Christmas Tree at Sudley House, the historic home of a Victorian Mayor of Liverpool. The free singalong afternoon concert saw almost three hundred people came to enjoy the company and the carolling with Live-A-Music and the Children's Choir. ...
Aigburth is a long-established residential area within sight of Liverpool Cathedral. Amongst the many surprises in this enduring part of the city is the National Museum Liverpool's newly refurbished Sudley House, tucked away behind Rose Lane, Carnatic Halls and Mossley Hill Church. Bequeathed to the City by Emma Holt, daughter of a Victorian merchant, it offers a major art collection. ...
The Liverpool Fringe is now launched; and next we need a Logo!
The Fringe Trustees announced at the launch event today that we're looking for a logo that 'sums up everything that's best about Liverpool and about the Fringe'. It must be innovative and experimental but still work for different applications.
So it's over to you. The deadline is Friday 11 January 2008.
Contact us:
Fringe hotline ~ 07528 295012
Email ~ Liverpool Fringe! Festival
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Professional orchestra musicians' employment and pay is a mystery to most people. Do players have 'real' jobs, too? is a common question. And is it all very glamorous? The latest survey of orchestral pay in the UK gives some answers - not much glamour, not too much pay, and little time for anything else. But for many players the commitment remains.
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Summer 2007 has been a special opportunity for HOPES and Live-A-Music to provide Children's Music Workshops, thanks to generous funding from Awards for All. The workshops, held alternately in the city centre and a close-by suburb, have focused on themes developed by the children themselves - in one case, a 'symphony' featuring global warming, drifting snow, salsa / jazz and a roller-coaster! Following sessions in July and mid-August, the next workshops in the series are on Saturday 8 September in Mossley Hill Parish Church Hall. ...
HOPES: The Hope Street Association marks the thirtieth anniversary of the inaugural Hope Street Festival with a HOTFOOT 2007 concert offering many elements of previous such events. Tayo Aluko, Tony Burrage, Richard Gordon-Smith, Sarah Helsby-Hughes, Hughie Jones, Roger Phillips and Surinder Sandhu join children from Merseyside schools and the stalwart HOPES Festival Orchestra and Choir for an event not be missed. ...
The Live-A-Music Children's Workshops on 5 April in Mossley Hill Parish Church Hall, Liverpool 18 were action-packed, with much creative sparking between the children, musicians and 'supporting cast' of accompanying (grand) parents and younger brothers and sisters. Themes included 'Music, Myth and Magic', 'Animal Samba' and 'Symphony' - with the children also performing a work of their own. ...
It's surprising that so little music happens in most European cities in August. Obviously some musicians take their holidays then, but others might be pleased to work during the holiday period. The scope for entertaining and engaging tourists and visitors during the high summer season is probably quite significant. ...
The National Museum of the Performing Arts closed 'for good' yesterday. This is a disaster for London (where it has had its home, in Covent Garden) and for the whole of the U.K. If the Trustees of the Victoria and Albert Museum - in whose 'care' the Theatre Museum resides - cannot maintain the collection as an entity, perhaps the Theatre Museum should pass to those who can do better? The Chair of the V & A has close Merseyside connections; why not re-open the Theatre Museum in Liverpool? ...
Sefton Council says Antony Gormley's Iron Men may soon leave Crosby Beach. The national Theatre Museum, which it has been mooted should come to Liverpool, has yet even to be considered by the City Council. Where's the cultural leadership and vision which could mark Merseyside as a fascinating place to visit? ...
The national collection of performing arts memorabilia, at the Theatre Museum in London, is to be dispersed when the Museum is closed in January 2007. So why not send it instead to Liverpool, as a 'V&A Liverpool', and let us up here have it as a very special part of our 2008 European Capital of Culture celebrations? ...
The Hope Street Festival in Liverpool, delayed from Midsummer, was on Sunday 17 September. This exciting milestone in Hope Street's history, introducing of a start-of-season early Autumn 'Feast' to go in future alongside the Summer Festival, is however neither the beginning nor the end of the journey. ...
The first Hope Street Festival was in 1977, to mark the Silver Jubilee of HM The Queen. The next event, marking the Centenary of the Incorporation of the City of Liverpool, was in 1980. There followed a period of great concern for the cultural fortunes of Hope Street. ...
The Dreamspace concept has become a nightmare for those involved in the tragedy today, which is so far from the intended outcome of the people who created it and sought to bring us happiness and enlightenment. ...
Robyn Archer's resignation, announced today, as artistic director of Liverpool's Culture Company leaves many questions about what the 2007 and 2008 celebrations are actually intended to achieve. Acknowledging this simple reality would help a great deal in making progress. ...
Covent Garden's Theatre Museum is the National Museum of the Performing Arts, a unique and special place. But it is currently under threat of closure. An urgent rescue bid is being considered by the Museum's nearby neighbour, the Royal Opera House. Success in this venture is not only essential for the greater good of both parties, but also offers encouragement to those who see that to survive the arts must work together. ...
There is a nostalgia in the cultural calendar at present. Memories of the 50s and 60s are to be found in both drama (The Liverpool Playhouse) and museums (the national Theatre Museum). Interesting to look at, without doubt. But perhaps much less fun to have had to live in. ...
Shows are far more complicated to produce than many in the audience will ever realise. Here's a light-hearted 'poetic' guide for anyone who fancies chancing their hand as promoter or director of a musical or theatrical event... ...
Is 'high culture' in reality only for 'tourists' in a city like Liverpool? Have civic leaders confused seeking excellence with its occasional and much less desirable adjunct, exculsivity? If the city is serious about opportunities to support the personal development of its citizens and the economic health of its communities, 'high' arts and culture surely have to integral to the experience of the many, not just of the few. ...
There are exciting things happening in Liverpool's Hope Street. After more than a decade of consistent lobbying by HOPES: The Hope Street Association, it looks as though real, beneficial change is about to occur.... ...
Art and culture are often dismissed as peripheral to public life; but private investment in the arts is serious business. There is a strong case for the position that what's good enough for private investment, is also good enough for investment in the public sphere. ...
HOPES: The Hope Street Association (Liverpool) was honoured by being invited in September 2000 to give the 'community festival' perspective at a national meeting in London attended by the Secretary of State for Culture, Chris Smith M.P., the Millennium Commissioners and their special guests. The paper which follows was presented on this occasion by HOPES Hon. Chair, Hilary Burrage. ...
British Orchestras are under severe financial threat because of new tax rules. The likelihood is that this threat will somehow be resolved. But will most orchestra performers still find, skilled as they are, that their own professional position remains precarious? ...
Already, some people in Liverpool believe the 2012 Olympics will be 'bad' for Merseyside. Having already won the accolade of 2008 European Capital of Culture, - and bearing in mind also the City's 800th Anniversary in 2007 - surely we in Liverpool are actually very well placed to benefit greatly from the 2012 Olympics, if we start to plan now? The glass is decidedly half full, not half empty. The next challenge for Liverpool is to recognise this and act on it. ...
One of Liverpool's most respected classical music critics has just resigned because of changes in the Daily Post policy on arts coverage - there is to be considerably less of it. This does not reflect well on how Liverpool values the Arts, surely an essential part of life in any great city. ...
Liverpool's leading morning newspaper is reported as intending to cut back significantly on its Arts coverage, which will it is claimed no longer only be 'ghettoised' on one page. How does this fit with Liverpool's forthcoming status as European Capital of Culture 2008? And will the same rationale now be made for rescuing Sport from 'ghettoisation'? ...
Liverpool's leading morning newspaper is reported as intending to cut back significantly on its Arts coverage, which will it is claimed no longer only be 'ghettoised' on one page. How does this fit with Liverpool's forthcoming status as European Capital of Culture 2008? And will the same rationale now be made for rescuing Sport from 'ghettoisation'? ...
Amateurs by definition are able to produce cultural events more inexpensively than professionals; yet both sorts of performers / promoters are necessary for community cultural (and wider) development. How can these conflicting interests be resolved? ...
In some circles it is a given that High Culture is 'inappropriate' for 'local people'. This is patronising. It dismisses the enjoyment the arts can bring to everyone, and ignores opportunities which the arts - as particularly visible public activities - can give for people to develop skills and even careers. Legitimation of ambition, in the arts or any other challenging positive activity, is important, regardless of where you live. ...
Gentrification as a result of 'cultural development' is often perceived by locals as unwelcome; but does it have to be that way? It may well be possible to cash in on the newly acquired wealth of an area, to bring decent jobs and opportunities to local people, including the 'creative community' whose work may have brought about that very gentrification. There is a clear role here for entrepreneurs, social and otherwise, and for proactive planning and training. ...
'Culture' often appears to be the optional add-on in regeneration. There may however be ways in which the arts and cultural community could do more to ensure that the benefits of embedding culture into regeneration are understood by those who lead development. ...
When and how does a Big Town become a City? And, just as importantly, how does a Great City ensure it will never seem to be just a Very Big Town? What part does cultural leadership and vision play in this transition? We take a look at Liverpool... ...
At last the public realm works in Hope Street, Liverpool, are underway. This will make a huge difference to the Hope Street Quarter; but where do we go from here? ...
Arts-Based Community Development (ABCD) is the approach adopted by HOPES: The Hope Street Association, Liverpool, in working with partners to enhance the renaissance of this important cultural quarter. But how does this link with the more established approach of 'cultural tourism'? ...
Hope Street, Liverpool, has an extraordinary range of special organisations and institutions along its kilometre length - including both of Liverpool's great Cathedrals. This brief paper, presented at the Northern European Cathedrals Conference in Liverpool on 26 January 2005, explores some of the work which HOPES and the Cathedrals undertake. ...
Trying to disentangle 'Culture' and Regeneration is difficult, but the DCMS has published a Report which may help us to consider the issues more clearly. ...
Are there differences in the sorts of people who 'give' Grants, from those who 'make' Investments? Are these fundings for genuinely different types of activity? Or do we sometimes forget that all funding from the public purse has at base the same objectives of improving quality of life? ...
Welcome to the official website of Liverpool Fringe! which was launched on 21st November 2007. This is where everyone can read about Liverpool Fringe! and where you can post your ideas or messages of support and share details of your own events, for free....
What are the relationships between science, technology and 'modern society'? How are these interactions determined? And what is 'progress'?...
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