Amongst the more interesting modes of transport in Liverpool city centre last Christmas (2006) was this traditional vehicle, with its delighted passengers and good humoured driver. People waiting at the bus stop must have felt that somehow they were missing something rather special.
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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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Abrupt curtailment of the 2007 Mathew Street Festival, silly ideas about removing fish so the docks become a concert arena, questions about preparations for the Big Year.... Liverpool 2008 is a drama unto itself. The leading arts venues have devised a pretty good cultural programme for European Capital of Culture Year, but concerns about what else needs to be done remain. ...
Here in Liverpool we are about to start our 2008 Year as European Capital of Culture. But apparently the connection between this year-long Capital of Culture event and hard European cash has yet to dawn on some local businesses. This is serious. Who's failed to get the message over? And will things improve? ...
The public realm refurbishment of Hope Street, the thoroughfare which defines Liverpool’s cultural quarter, was finally completed in May 2007. This has offered an opportunity to reflect on, and learn some lessons from, the decade of activity culminating in Hope Street’s new look. Jim Gill, Chief Executive of Liverpool Vision, agreed to share his perceptions of that decade and what it has achieved for Hope Street and the City of Liverpool.
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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. ...
Liverpool city centre is in a state of flux, as the Big Dig re-routes and bewilders in equal measure. The aim is a pleasant, business-friendly place to be. The disgraceful state of Renshaw Street, linking Lime Street Station to the city south end, sadly belies that intent. But does it have to be like this? ...
Liverpool 's 2008 European Capital of Culture Year will be upon us in just a few months. But deep divides remain between artists, civic leaders and many local people about what the 2008 Year is 'for'.
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The annual 'HOTFOOT' Concert in Liverpool's Philharmonic Hall - set this year for 7 p.m. on Sunday 22 July - has been a Midsummer favourite for over a decade now. HOPES: The Hope Street Association, the charity which promotes and produces the concert, is delighted that the 2007 concert will receive support of £5,000 from the Liverpool Culture Company.
Our theme this year is HOTFOOT 1977 - 2007 A Street of Hope for 30 Years.
We would be thrilled if you too would be involved, support us and attend. ...
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? ...
Liverpool is excitedly preparing for its big years in 2007 (the city's 800th anniversary) and 2008 (the European Capital of Culture year). With such a long and dramatic history of diaspora, who knows what the city will be like by the end of the celebrations? The scope for enterprise - both in Liverpool and by other cities and regions - to build relationships across Europe and beyond is enormous.
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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? ...
For three years Professor John Belchem and his University of Liverpool colleagues worked on a scholarly publication to record Liverpool's eight hundred years as a city (1207 - 2007). Academically impressive, the book offers vibrant testimony to the human actions and achievements behind the dry facts - just as those attending made the official launch of this publication, in the setting of Liverpool's splendid Town Hall, such a warm and memorable occasion. ...
Sometimes things move quickly. The proposal to bring the national Theatre Museum to Liverpool when it closes in London seems to be one of these times. Just ten days after being mooted on this website, a proposal to take action will be debated tonight by City Councillors in Liverpool Town Hall.
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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. ...
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. ...
The long-delayed Edge Lane developments, constructing an Eastern Gateway to Liverpool by 2007 / 8, are about to start. What a pity, then, that the historic Wavertree Botanic Gardens located just by the intended new route (and initiated in 1803 by no less a person than William Gladstone) are in such a state of neglect. ...
It has been over a decade since the campaign to renew Liverpool's Hope Street was first mooted; but now at last we're almost there. To mark the event, all the partners involved have agreed to host a day in June [later deferred to Sunday 17 Septmeber '06] of arts-based celebration on the street. The arts, as ever, will give us common cause and help us to enjoy together the space which we have all been hoping to see refurbished for so long. ...
Different meanings apply to the words 'carnival', 'fiesta' and 'festival', but these are not always apparent in their day-to-day usage. The cultural, religious and indeed sometimes class-related nuances of these words influence decisions about what is appropriate for whom. But this may not help us to see that ideas of 'excellence' are not necessarily at all the same as the notion of 'elitism'. Nonetheless, this distinction is very important, and never more so than in cities such as Liverpool, as they strive to re-invent themselves. ...
The Friends of Princes Park is amongst an encouraging number of similar groups who are demanding that our green space be nurtured. Liverpool has a historical legacy of wonderful parks; and now its citizens are insisting more voluably that these are fit for the twenty first century city. ...
The Friends of St James', who are restoring the historic cemetery and park next to Liverpool Cathedral, have achieved much in the few years of their formal existence. The inner city becomes, by the hard work of volunteer environmentalists and gardeners, joining with equally committed volunteer lobbyists, a place where green space can thrive to encourage the naturalist in us all. ...
The 800th Anniversary of Liverpool in 2007, and the Liverpool European Capital of Culture Year in 2008, are hugely important milestones for the city. So how are we, citizens of the city or of Europe and the world, going to measure the success of these years, once we reach 2009?
Your suggested responses and answers to this question are most welcome.... ...
Liverpool as a city is claiming much for the forthcoming celebratory years of 2007 and 2008, but concerns exist on many fronts about the present. There is more to serious development of cultural involvement than simply 'community programmes', admirable though that is. So what sorts of models of citizen and 'stakeholder' integration are being developed, building on the experience of other cities which have managed to engage people at all levels? And will these work? ...
A new campaign has been launched by local figure Liam Fogarty today for an Elected Mayor in Liverpool. If nothing else, such a move will perhaps encourage a healthy debate about the democratic process and accountability, and perhaps more. ...
Big celebratory events are always at risk of failing to fulfil their hyped-up promise. London experienced this so it is said when they tried one year to introduce laser lights for the Oxford Street Christmas illuminations. How much more embarrassing it would be if Liverpool were not to deliver fully on the promise for the celebrations in 2007 and 2008. ...
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. ...
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. ...
Liverpool's Big Dig is supposed to be the way forward for investment in the city centre. In theory this is great. In practice the abject failure to insist on '24 hour' operation is a serious threat even to those businesses (and workers) already here. Edict No.1 in the 'Regeneration Rulebook' must surely be: when effecting to make progress, don't put at unnecessary risk what you've already got. ...
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'? ...
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. ...
What are the relationships between science, technology and 'modern society'? How are these interactions determined? And what is 'progress'?...
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