JoelBird (Joel Phelan) Private View, Calderstones Park, Liverpool
November 3, 2008 11:42 PM
We were delighted this evening to attend the Private View of Joel Phelan's JoelBird paintings (acrylic on canvas) in the Coach House of Calderstones Park, Liverpool. Joel, a locally-born artist, is also a talented musician (JubJub / Eto The Band). He has created wonderfully life-like yet 'designed' impressions of birds which we see in our local parks. It would be great if these works inspired other younger people in the city to observe more closely the natural world around them.
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This spider, set against the austere statue of Lord Nelson and a backdrop of Liverpool's historic Town Hall, has so much more to offer than the monster mechanical arachnid which scoured our streets a short while ago. La Princesse was piece of engineering; this spider is a work of art. It trusts us to see in it what we will - it's magical, creative and beautiful all at the same time, leaving the imagination to work its fancies.
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HOTFOOT 2008, in Liverpool's Philharmonic Hall on Sunday 7 September [NB: 7 pm], is the twelfth such annual concert. Promoted as ever by HOPES: The Hope Street Association, the theme for the city's 2008 European Capital of Culture year is 'Cafe Europe', with music devised by local children working alongside professional musicians from HOPES.
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The RLPO finished their season in style this evening, with a sell-out BBC Proms concert in London's Royal Albert Hall. There was a real excitement as the audience departed after the performance, matched by the sense of achievement RLPO players derive from working with Principal Conductor Vasily Petrenko. This is surely how professional orchestral musicians like to feel at the end of a year's hard work.
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Much of the outside of Liverpool Lime Street train station is clad with art work celebrating the UK's choice of the city as European Capital of Culture 2008. So what should we make of the cladding's message, that Liverpool is 'In England, but not of it?'
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The Liverpool Orrery came to Hope Street last week, to the Suitcases plateau; and with it came lots of happy and excited children, eager to see the universe from the Unity Theatre's special SplatterFest! perspective. Using the public realm like this shows more clearly than any words how creativity can engage our communities and our imaginations.
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The British Urban Regeneration Association (BURA) annual conference is in Liverpool this year, on 30th and 31st January 2008. The conference, bringing together some 300 people, will see brisk debates between professionals and community leaders from across the U.K. One important focus may be the search for consensus on what regeneration is 'about'.
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Liverpool's European Capital of Culture Year is finally launched. ... 
This is the Victoria Monument in the heart of Liverpool's commercial quarter. However special the occasion, one can only imagine what Queen Victoria might have thought about being festooned by Christmas lights in preparation for the Liverpool European Capital of Culture in 2008; but for passers by on a very chilly evening this festive sight is one to raise a cheery little smile. Perhaps Queen Victoria would not have been amused, but in a different age we can surely innocently enjoy. ... 
The few weeks as 2007 ended and became 2008 saw much festive activity in Liverpool. Here, the set for the BBC's special production of the 'Liverpool Nativity' was surrounded by excited onlookers well before the performance started, but alongside all the high technology Saint George's Hall stood serene, just as it has for the past 150 years.
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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. ... 
Today is the beginning of a new era for community-led arts in Liverpool. The launch of Liverpool Fringe!, organised by the Liverpool Community Network Arts and Culture Steering Group, was a packed occasion, with artists and performers from across the city congregating in the Rex Makin Lecture Theatre to show their enthusiasm for this exciting grassroots festival initiative.
The Liverpool Fringe is now launched; and next we need a Logo!
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? ... 
Civic leadership in action requires a range of perspectives and understandings. No single 'type' of person can hold all the wisdom to take communities forward in this complex age. A range of experience is required. The overwhelmingly white, male hegemony in Liverpool's corridors of power is a civic embarrassment, demonstrating a fundamental lack of will to learn from the richly diverse insights of its citizens. ... 
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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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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SuperLambBanana may be kinda cute, but, made of steel and concrete and 17 feet tall, he's no lightweight. Created in 1998 by Taro Chienzo for the Art Transpennine Exhibition, he abides in Liverpool city centre, be/amusing all. He's been Friesian (black and white), pink and sometime graffitied, but 'really' he's yellow.
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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. ... 
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 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?
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? ... 
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. ... 