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Time Out
02-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Time Out
Liverpool's spectacular free art biennial opens next month – everything you need to know
Every other year, the city of Liverpool becomes adorned in spectacular works of contemporary art. Besides its plethora of galleries – from Tate Liverpool + RIBA North to Bluecoat – sculptures, installations and exhibitions will pop up in the likes of Liverpool Cathedral and on the Albert Docks. Almost everywhere you turn in the city this summer, there'll be a masterpiece to see. Known as the Liverpool Biennial, the art fest is one of the reasons we ranked the city as one of the places you just have to visit in 2025. So, here's everything you need to know about the three-month-long event. What is the Liverpool Biennial? Only the largest free festival of contemporary art in the country. This year's Liverpool art biennial will be its 13th edition. For 2025, its theme is 'BEDROCK', inspired by the sandstone that spans the region and features in its architecture. Organisers say that the title also 'acts as a metaphor for the unique social foundations of Liverpool, haunted by empire, and the people, places and values that ground us'. The whole thing has been curated by Marie-Anne McQuay, the head of programme at Liverpool gallery Bluecoat. It'll showcase 30 artists and collectives with 22 brand new artworks commissioned especially for the event. When is the Liverpool Biennial 2025? It'll be taking place throughout the city from June 7 to September 14. Where can I see the art at Liverpool Biennial? The festival will be spread across 18 venues in the city. As part of the Liverpool Biennial 2025, you'll be able to see art, for free, at: Albert Dock Bluecoat FACT Liverpool Liverpool Cathedral Liverpool Central Library Open Eye Gallery Tate Liverpool + RIBA North Walker Art Gallery Liverpool ONE Mann Island St John's Gardens The grounds of The Oratory at Liverpool Cathedral SEVENSTORE Eurochemist The Black-E 20 Jordan Street Pine Court All the exhibitions will be open Wednesday to Saturday but you'll have to check venue websites for their opening hours from Sunday to Tuesday. You should also keep an eye out for art popping up on Liverpool's streets, shop fronts, hoardings and 'other unexpected places'. What art will be at the Liverpool Biennial 2025? Artists from all over the world will be showing their work. There will be a spectacular steel structure by Isabel Nolan at St John's Gardens, mosaic sculptures by Petros Moris and 'glass collages' by Ana Navas at Liverpool Cathedral, as well as at Bluecoat and Walker Art Gallery and a multi-layered gallery installation at Bluecoat by Alice Rekavb. You can see the full line-up of artists here.
The Guardian
20-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Liverpool academic's scent workshops help prisoners remember their past
'Smell it, but don't stick your nose straight in it,' says Michael O'Shaughnessy, pulling a small white card, sealed twice in ziplock bags, out of a metal chest. 'Waft it, close your eyes. Does it remind you of anything?' O'Shaughnessy, an illustrator and senior lecturer at Liverpool John Moores University, first began using smells with art students, asking them 'to develop projects and concepts' based on scents 'because it's a leveller'. 'You've got kids who are bright and they can run with design, illustration projects,' he added. 'But this project in particular, I noticed that the clever kids didn't always respond more effectively than the kids who may be mixed ability.' He was running a similar workshop for the public at Tate Liverpool when he was approached by a prison education provider, who asked if he would fancy trying to run one in jail. 'I was fascinated,' he said. 'I really wanted to do it.' Now, his prison workshops, named Perfume Stories, have been so successful that he has trained in-house staff to deliver the workshops. O'Shaughnessy sources the scents himself and volunteers his time to teach. Participants are given small white cards, which have been doused in perfume. They are asked to smell them and use that scent as a springboard to create prose, a poem or – if they are less comfortable with writing – a drawing. 'The thing about smell is that you don't have to be clever to have that memory; that's your memory,' O'Shaughnessy said – those who may not have excelled in school may have a more developed sense of smell than others who did. O'Shaughnessy chooses the fragrances he works with carefully; he wants to invoke positive memories, and take prisoners back to happier times. 'I avoid certain very heavily masculine smells, in case any of them have had bad male experiences,' he said. At the end of the session, he asks the students to write a single observation on a sticky note. 'Opening brand new toy soldiers on Christmas Day. Good times as a kid. 53 years ago,' one inmate wrote. Others recalled holidays, smelling the roses on walks in the park with a dog or spending their pocket money on trips to the sweet shop. Some say the workshop brought back memories of parents, children or former partners. 'This smell reminded me of being at my nan's as a young kid, messing around with all the creams, perfumes and hair oil on her chest of drawers,' another wrote. 'This memory takes me back to the ages of seven, eight, nine, and 10, and is a memory I've never actually thought of before.' Perfume Stories is mainly used in English lessons, but at HMP Holme House in Stockton-On-Tees, O'Shaughnessy's project has been used across the curriculum, in hospitality, business studies and barbering. In hospitality, food scents were used to help learners to recall specific dishes from their childhoods, with them then drawing up a bistro menu inspired by their memories. These included dishes named after their inspiration, such as 'Nana Betty's hotpot'. In business studies, learners considered how scents can be used in marketing, and to drive purchasing. 'Learners gain a great deal of skills from it, from debating skills, to writing skills, to analysis skills,' an education manager at the prison said. 'It has been a great project used at Holme House, and the learners always engage well in it.' As he sought to expand his work, O'Shaughnessy approached some of the biggest fragrance houses across the globe, hoping to find collaborators for his project, and while initially he had little success, he found help closer to home, from Carvansons, a bespoke perfume creator in Haslingden, Lancashire. 'Basically we were the only ones that responded,' Vicki Last, the company's marketing manager, said. 'He sent out his advertising portfolio and some of the work he'd been working on, and said would you be interested in just even talking about it?' Carvansons has produced several bespoke fragrances for O'Shaughnessy, which he has used in his workshops. One of the many smells in his silver chest, requested by a member of staff at a prison in the north-east, was 'tomatoes ripening in a greenhouse'. Another scent, that he bought from a company in Los Angeles was 'box-fresh trainers'. When asked what prison smells like, O'Shaughnessy responded enthusiastically: 'I've got the smell of prison!' He added: 'I think it's like a room which has had no air, and it's had roast beef made in it, left for weeks, and it's got that musty old food smell, no air smell. 'It's got like an animalistic thing at the heart. 'It's a combination of old sweat, beef, and it's very distinctive, but it's not nice.'
The Guardian
14-03-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
Tate cuts 7% of workforce in effort to reduce funding deficit from pandemic
Tate is cutting 7% of its workforce as the British arts institution seeks to address a funding deficit left over from the pandemic. About 40 roles have been affected by the cuts, made through voluntary departures and recruitment freezes. Tate, which has four galleries across London, Liverpool and Cornwall, said it had been working with staff for a number of months to achieve the reduction. 'Tate has an ambitious programme to grow our audiences across the nation and beyond,' a spokesperson said. 'To eliminate the deficit left over from the pandemic, we have strengthened new income streams, strategically prioritised our most impactful activities, and carefully streamlined out workforce.' The spokesperson said Tate had achieved its goals 'by not replacing vacant roles and by accepting voluntary exits, working closely with colleagues and unions over a number of months'. They added: 'Such changes ensure we have the stability we need to continue being as ambitious and innovative as ever.' While the number of domestic visitors to museums and galleries have returned to pre-pandemic levels, there continues to remain a reduction in the number of visitors from abroad. Overall visitor numbers are about three-quarters of pre-pandemic levels. This, combined with cuts to culture budgets, is putting pressure on institutions to reduce costs. Last year, Tate's trustees approved another deficit budget to give the institution time to develop a new financially sustainable business model. About 30% of Tate's income comes from government grants. The rest is raised through private fundraising – including corporate support, philanthropic donations and legacy bequests – as well as money from exhibition tickets sales. Tate Liverpool, which opened at the Royal Albert Dock in 1988, is undergoing a major £29.7m redevelopment, which includes the installation of new galleries. Tate St Ives is restoring the Palais de Danse – Barbara Hepworth's second studio space. In May, Tate Modern will mark its 25th birthday with free performances and events, as well as the return of Louise Bourgeois's spider Maman to the Turbine Hall. The Prospect union said it was engaging with Tate on the planned changes and would support any staff affected. The union's national secretary for heritage, Sharon Brown, said: 'We are clear that the expertise and experience of museum and gallery workers, who are often underpaid and undervalued, is what brings the collections alive and is fundamental to the success of the sector. 'Budget cuts and the impact of the pandemic have hit the sector hard and more must be done to invest in these institutions and the workforce, which are an essential part of our domestic and international visitor economy as well as of Britain's cultural landscape.'
Euronews
06-02-2025
- Business
- Euronews
Tate Liverpool renovation plans delay opening to 2027
Reopening plans for a revamped Tate Liverpool gallery have been delayed by two years. One of the largest UK modern art galleries outside of London closed in 2023 for a planned two-year renovation project. This week, Tate Liverpool announced that the planned reopening will be postponed to 2027. The gallery has put forward plans costing £30 million (€36 million) but have yet to raise the full amount. So far, the gallery has raised £17.85 million of the £29.7 million total. £10 million of that has come directly from the UK government's Levelling Up fund with another £6.6 million from the government's Department of Culture, Media and Sport. The Wolfson Foundation charity has also donated £1.25 million. Speaking to the BBC, Tate Liverpool director Helen Legg said some of the issue raising funds was due to a harder climate post-pandemic: 'It has become more difficult. Now we are close to achieving our goals. It's taken us a little bit more time'. Tate Liverpool was opened in 1988 in a renovated waterfront warehouse on the Albert Dock. Set up to house the Tate Collection, it was the largest gallery of modern and contemporary art in the UK outside London. 'Tate Liverpool is 36 years old. That might not seem very old, but since we opened our doors in 1988, the experiences our visitors want to have and the kind of work artists want to make, have both changed significantly,' the gallery explains. Part of the renovations is to create a new Art Hall, an open-plan space that people can use to 'sit, relax, sketch, take photos, do a bit of work, read, listen to a podcast or enjoy a long overdue catch up' all while surrounded by world-class artwork from the Tate Collection. 6a architects have taken on the project, who have previously worked on the South London Gallery and MK Gallery in Milton Keynes. As part of the project, they're working with the gallery's goals to improve the building's sustainability. Fossil fuel use will be replaced with renewables and as the huge air conditioning units are removed to show off the bare brick, natural light and natural ventilation will be introduced to the building to ensure better energy performance. While the building is under construction, Tate Liverpool has moved its location to the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) North. Located on Mann Island under 500m from the gallery location, the smaller space will continue to house exhibitions throughout the renovation period. When the renovations are done, the gallery will reflect its home city more than ever. 'One of the things that we really wanted to do was to be able to feel more rooted in Liverpool,' Legg said. 'I think there were times when you would walk around the galleries and you could have been in a museum anywhere in the world. So what we really want to do is open the windows that were bricked up in the 1990s.'
