Author: Uncover

Uncover Liverpool is giving you the chance to win a pair of tickets to this year’s Africa Oyé festival, one of the UK’s most vibrant celebrations of African and Caribbean music, culture and community.

Taking place in Liverpool, Africa Oyé brings together an incredible line-up of live artists, DJs, food, and atmosphere across a weekend that has become a staple in the city’s summer calendar.

How to enter

There are two ways to be in with a chance of winning:

• Comment on the Uncover Liverpool Instagram post and tag the person you’d bring with you.
• Or complete our quick entry form.

That’s it — simple as that. Good luck!

Competition Terms & Conditions

1. Closing Date: The competition closes at 11pm on Wednesday 17 June 2026. Entries submitted after this time will not be counted.
2. Prize: The prizes are redeemable on the specified event, Africa Oyé festival 2026. No cash alternatives will be offered.
3. Winner Selection: The winner will be chosen at random from all eligible entries and contacted directly via the details provided.
4. Eligibility: Open to UK residents aged 18 or over. Only one entry per person is permitted.
5. Contacting The Winner: If the winner does not respond within 1 days of being contacted, The Culture Network reserves the right to choose an alternative winner.
6. Data Use: Personal data supplied will only be used for the purposes of this competition and in accordance with The Culture Network LCR’s privacy policy.
7. Acceptance: By entering, participants agree to these terms and conditions.

Open Eye Gallery is an independent, not-for-profit photography gallery based in Liverpool. They share photography for everyone, with everyone, every day.

Launched in 1977, Liverpool’s Open Eye Gallery was one of the UK’s first dedicated photography galleries. Excluded from the programmes of art galleries, photographers and others with an interest in the medium established their own network of galleries in the 1970s and ‘80s, with a growing sense of photography’s artistic, social and political potential.

After working from premises in Bold Street and Wood Street in the 90s and 2000s, in 2011 the Gallery moved to new premises in Mann Island. A change to more audience focused exhibitions and growing relationships with local, national and international partners has ensured a 500% increase in visitors over recent years. Since 2019, they have also been building a network to discuss and accelerate the practice of socially engaged photography. 

Alongside their main gallery exhibitions, the Gallery also run Socially Engaged Photography Projects and Residencies in the Liverpool City Region, across the North West, nationally and internationally.

Here’s a selection of their recent work and exhibitions. 

Current exhibitions and upcoming events

Self-Defined: New Stories from Archives (Open Eye Gallery, until 7 June, open Tuesday–Sunday, 10am–5pm)

Self-Defined brings together the histories from the East (or the Centre, depending on the perspective) of Europe through the contemporary work of artists from different geographies working with local contexts and their own family stories. It explores non-institutional, independent, private archiving and the non-existence or inaccessibility of material memory.

The projects featured in the exhibition range from an exploration of post-WW2 family displacement in Poland and Ukraine; to the history of the Crimean Tatars in the 20th century; to a decades-long photographic exploration of life in the Latvian countryside; from playful collages deconstructing Soviet tourist photographs to a speculative video dealing with the disappearance of the family archive.

Absence. In conversation with artists and curators (Open Eye Gallery, 6 June, 5pm–7pm, free, RSVP)

Curators and several of the exhibiting artists will discuss their work and the challenges of picturing what resits to be shown. Absence (exhibited at Stable Gallery) will be discussed in conversation with Self-Defined. New Stories from Archives, exhibited at Open Eye Gallery, exploring the use of archives in contemporary photography to highlight omissions, memories and historical narratives.

TreeStory Wigan (Haigh Woodland Park, Wigan, 23 May – 6 September)

A stunning outdoor exhibition featuring photos and stories by 20 local people, celebrating the remarkable trees that shape Wigan’s landscape and heritage. 

TreeStory Wigan is a community project that invites residents of all ages and abilities to discover and celebrate the incredible trees of the borough, from the wetlands of the Flashes of Wigan and Leigh National Nature Reserve to cherished trees in local parks, streets and green spaces. 

OFFSHOOT: Artists in Residence (RHS Garden Bridgewater, until 28 February 2027)

Explore RHS Garden Bridgewater from new perspectives with exhibits from the inaugural artists in residence displayed in a variety of locations across the garden.

Yan Wang Preston, a multi-award-winning visual artist and photographer passionate about the natural world and our place within it, shares two pieces of work inspired by the garden and the work of the RHS. Yan’s work is shared alongside images by Fiona Robinson and Anoosh Ariamehr, Socially Engaged Photographers who have been resident in the Community Wellbeing and Community Grow gardens. Their artwork deepens our understanding of the impact of these spaces, allowing us to better understand how individuals from all walks of life connect with gardens and gardening.

Previous Socially Engaged Photography Projects

Photography Projects at the Life Rooms

The Life Rooms is a Mersey Care NHS Trust initiative, set up in 2016, to provide a wide range of free, short courses aimed to enable people to become more active in their own health and support wellbeing. They focus on prevention and enabling the whole community to bring about change. As part of their collaborative approach, Open Eye Gallery works in partnership through their Photography Projects at the Life Rooms to deliver a series of photography courses across all three of their sites in Walton, Bootle and Southport.

Revitalising Historic High Streets

With Revitalising Historic High Streets, Open Eye Gallery was working with Historic England, local authorities and other partners on revitalising cultural projects in Chester and Prescot. This project aimed to unlock the potential of high streets across England, fuelling economic, social and cultural recovery and breathing new life into it for future generations. It resulted in A Place of Our Own exhibition (2023).

Socially Engaged Photography Residencies

The Gallery’s Socially Engaged Photography Residencies programme has been running since 2016. This programme focuses on commissioning photographers and other creative practitioners together with local communities, using photography to explore topics which are important to those communities.

These have ranged from collaborative projects working with people within health and social care settings, local grass root community initiatives, gardening communities, youth centres, charities and prison settings. The work is made with and for those communities, ensuring their voice is central to the work.

One of the recent examples is Photo Here, a series of 6 residencies across the Liverpool City Region. The ‘Photo Here’ project saw established groups, including refugees and asylum seekers, members of the LGBTQI+ community and D/deaf and BSL users, tell their stories and the stories of the areas they live in with the help of professional socially engaged photographers in residence. Workshops culminated in six exhibitions in 2025. 

Socially Engaged Photography Network

Working with organisations, photographers, community groups, academics and curators from across the country, Open Eye Gallery have been building a Socially Engaged Photography Network to discuss and accelerate the practice of socially engaged photography.

In the spirit of social practice, the network is shaped collaboratively by its users and has been running as a distributed network since October 2019. They now have over 500 members and 25 organisational partners supporting its development and delivery.

Socially engaged photography means activities or projects where photographers and communities/ individuals come together to co-author or co-produce visual representations of the world around us. The process behind the work produced is often as important as the final photographic work, and projects are often reliant on collaboration and discussion. The work often reflects multiple voices about a particular social, political, economical or environmental issue, rather than that of a single artistic voice.

Find even more events from Open Eye Gallery and beyond via our What’s On listings.

In the latest instalment of Buried Treasure, ArtsGroupie CIC’s John Maguire explores the radical history of Unity Theatre and its enduring role in championing working-class voices, experimental theatre and political storytelling in Liverpool.

Alternative drama in Liverpool has a deep history, with roots stretching back to 1895 when the January issue of The Labour Chronicle first referenced the Liverpool Socialist Dramatic Society. During this era, groups of left-wing activists and artists were forming all over the UK.

Among them was the London-based Left Book Club Theatre Guild (LBCTG), which loosely associated 250 branches nationwide. Meeting minutes from February 7, 1937, first acknowledged the formation of a new Liverpool branch: the Merseyside Left Theatre. Many of their early productions were anti-war plays and fundraisers supporting socialism and democracy in Spain during the fight against fascism.

Despite having no permanent home between 1937 and 1965, the company managed to stage radical left work from America and Europe, British classics, new original pieces, and even Ancient Greek drama in various venues across Merseyside. After World War II, 50 branches connected with the LBCTG formed The Unity Federation, and the Merseyside Left Theatre officially changed its name to The Unity. The company gradually moved away from its strict, radical left roots over the decades, though it continued to host radical and experimental work, finally finding a permanent home on Hope Place in 1981 by converting an old Victorian synagogue schoolroom.

The nomadic nature of The Unity’s early days, staging productions in nontraditional spaces long before securing a building, has heavily influenced the evolution of my own practice, particularly post-COVID. For instance, an adaptation of my short story, The Liver Bird, by The Bookworm Players toured local parks, turning the green spaces of Liverpool into “community centres without walls.” Such agile, project-based practice has defined my artistic journey. 

I began writing in the late 1990s, volunteering as a steward at The Unity in my teens, which gave me the opportunity to develop my cultural capital, witnessing diverse, experimental and radical work. To see firsthand the possibilities of imagination, creativity and passion. Companies like Kaboodle, Volcano, Hope Street Ltd and many other artists transformed the way I looked at theatre. Work that was radical and risky.

Now, with more stringent arts cuts, theatres are becoming more risk-averse, leading to a problem that David Edgar coins as a growth in the “Primark play” (a term he attributes to Amanda Whittington), with new plays being staged once and never done again. 

ArtsGroupie are delighted to be at The Unity in May, participating in an event that will discuss theatre and the arts for working-class creatives.

The Breaking the Class Ceiling event takes place on Saturday, 30th May, with a panellist briefing at 2pm ahead of a 3pm public start. This live, unflinching exploration of working-class artistry bridges the gap between Unity’s 1930s “Workers’ Theatre” roots and Liverpool’s contemporary creative scene, bringing together six local artists to discuss the politics of the stage, the power of heritage, and the future of storytelling.

The afternoon is split into two ninety-minute halves: Part 1 (3pm – 4.30pm) features the main panel discussion and audience Q&A, followed by a brief interval, before Part 2: The Scratch (5pm – 6.30pm) opens a dedicated platform for local voices to test new ideas, poetry, scenes, or political rants. Bringing their insights to this vital conversation are featured panellists Dr Ashleigh Nugent, Dr Maria Barrett, Mikey Garland, Steph Greer, Dr Andrew Sherlock, and Dr John Maguire.

This vital conversation is part of a much broader celebration, as Liverpool’s Unity Theatre hosts A Radical Reimagining: Unity Heritage Project from mid-May through June 2026. Supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, this dedicated season honours the building’s rich history as a former synagogue schoolroom and a historic hub for grassroots political theatre.

Alongside the Breaking the Class Ceiling panel and open mic, the extensive line-up features an archive exhibition at the Mount Pleasant Campus Library, hands-on political theatre and songwriting workshops, archive open days, and a screening of the acclaimed documentary Orwell: 2+2=5. The programme directly champions contemporary, forward-looking performances as well, highlighting the next generation through the youth-led Young Radical Theatre Makers alongside Unity’s own in-house production, Stage Left.

For more information about Unity Theatre and the Radical Re-Imagining Heritage Project visit unitytheatreliverpool.co.uk/a-radical-re-imagining-unity-heritage-project.

By John Maguire

In this instalment of Buried Treasure, ArtsGroupie’s John Maguire reveals how Liverpool’s streets become a living archive through immersive Irish Famine trail walks.

History is often treated as a date in a textbook or an artefact in a museum. But in Liverpool, history is a living, breathing map. It’s visible when you look up above the modern shop fronts, or walk along our Victorian warehouses along the docks of the Mersey, yet it remains hidden in the masses of modern developments that don’t really stand up next to some of our architectural masterpieces. Indeed, the number of memory-stick buildings going up can make part of the city feel like Manchattan – the nickname I heard for Manchester, from a taxi driver. I love the info I get from the cabbies in the city – like the fact that, as so many people get knocked down on Hanover street, it has been nicknamed  RANOVER street.

In this edition of Buried Treasure, we will be talking about Artsgroupie’s approach on our heritage walking tours and the work we’ve undertaken on the Liverpool Irish famine trail walks – a two hour tour – practicing, what is known as Living Historiography: uncovering the invisible layers of An Gorta Mór (The Great Hunger) that still define the topography of our city today.

The Tour Toolkit: Two Ways to See the City

To truly understand the Irish experience in Liverpool, the trails use two special lenses that help us see the streets in a whole new way. Don’t worry, there’s no test at the end, just an awareness of the past and a new perspective on the street we live in.

• Living Historiography (History as a continuous process): Rather than viewing 1847 as a closed chapter, we treat the streets and dock walls as a “living document.” We explore how the echoes of An Gorta Mór continue to shape Liverpool’s social and physical landscape today.
• Psychogeography (How a place makes you feel): This is the study of how an environment, the biting wind off the Mersey, the narrowness of a court alley, or the scale of a building, shapes our emotions. We use this to help people walk in the footsteps of the Irish refugees, connecting their feelings in 1847 to ours in 2026.

Through years of meticulous work by the Liverpool Irish Festival’s history research group, we’ve moved beyond the “what” and “when” to the “where” and “how.” These tours transform the city centre into a primary source, layering the sounds and stories of 1847 over the modern bustle of the city using a new trail app and noise-cancelling headsets.

An Gorta Mór Introductory Tour

Duration: 2 Hours | Focus: Liverpool’s historical landscape as a place of sanctuary.

This comprehensive walk traces the path from the harsh exposure of the waterfront toward the sites that offered food and safety.

• Local Philanthropy & Survival: Learn how the “Select Vestry” (local government) and everyday Scousers fought to provide medical care and food when the national government was slow to act.
• Fenwick Street Relief Station: Stand at the very site where, in 1847, thousands of people queued daily for life-saving soup and bread.
• Brownlow Hill Workhouse: Explore the history of what was once the largest workhouse in Britain (now the site of the Metropolitan Cathedral), a final, desperate safety net.
• A National Landmark: The tour culminates at the Liverpool Irish Famine Memorial at St Luke’s Church. Created by renowned sculptor Eamonn O’Doherty, it remains the only major freestanding monument to the Great Hunger in all of England.

This journey highlights the incredible benevolence of the local people and the lasting impact Irish refugees had on the city’s identity.

Once you’ve walked this trail, you’ll never see the dock front or the backstreets of the business district the same way again. 

Tour Dates (11am – 1pm): 17th May | 21st June | 19th July

• Meeting Point: The Pilotage Building (near the Museum of Liverpool). Please arrive 15 minutes early.
• Technology: Tours use headsets to enhance the storytelling and eradicate city noise (seagulls, traffic, etc.).
• Booking: Essential by 5 pm on the Friday before each walk. Donations are welcome and support the ongoing research of the Liverpool Irish Festival. 

Booking Link: eventbrite.co.uk/liverpool-irish-famine-trail

Liverpool’s weather is a key character in this story. Since you’ll be out for up to two hours and we start at the waterfront, dress for the wind and rain!

By Mars Omitoyin

What if you could see the very ghosts that haunt museums? 

If you’ve ever wanted to experience your own “Night At The Museum”, Norton Priory is keeping its doors open after hours and dimming the lights down low with its Phantoms After Dark installation so you can come face to face with the figures that have shaped almost a millennia of Norton Priory history.  

With origins dating back to 12th century England, Norton Priory is Europe’s most excavated monastery. In 1545, the grounds were bought by Sir Richard Brooke following the dissolution of monasteries and in 1966, 45 years after the Brooke family left the house, it was given to the public where excavation took place shortly after. 

Commissioned by Unconventional Design, the team behind York’s popular “Ghosts In The Garden”, this installation features over 15 sculptures made from aluminium mesh and hard graft. The see-through mesh allows light to pass through, illuminating the sculpture from within. Some of these sculptures, for example The Canon, are completely enshrouded in darkness for most of the day until the right moment where they become almost iridescent as light bounces off them. 

Next to each sculpture is a standing sign that contains information about the sculpture, the history and daily life of the people who used to live at Norton Priory. Some signs include further “easter eggs” – hidden clues encouraging you to look carefully for small details  that would typically be overlooked yet provide much meaning to the people who once roamed the Priory’s walls. An example would be small mason marks scratched into the passageway walls originally used by stonemasons to determine how much work had been completed.

 After exploring the undercroft and the rest of the ground floor museum, head upstairs to encounter the phantom of an elegant lady, dressed for a Brooke family social event in a beautifully crafted Victorian gown. This room offers  many activities for children including a dress-up station where children are encouraged to try on Victorian-style costumes, an interactive map showing all notable locations from the time such as other priories, castles and villages, a doll’s house emulating the Brooke family home, and interactive wall displays where archivists go into detail about artefacts found at Norton Priory.

All this ghost hunting can work up an appetite and the Brooke cafe is right next to the reception serving a range of hot meals and baked sweet treats. Upon entry, you’ll see large hanging portraits of Lady Mary Brooke and her son Sir Richard Brooke, and you’ll see their phantoms again seated near the entrance to the undercroft deep in conversation where you’ll be transported back in time as a speaker plays a conversation from the past. 

Beyond the museum walls, history continues as the surrounding landscape reveals the remains of the excavated monastery. With so much to explore and discover, Norton Priory makes a great day out for visitors of all ages – including dogs! Whether you’re a family with young children, a ghost hunter, someone with a passion for history or lover of nature walks, there’s something for everyone. 

To see the phantoms in their ghostly glory after hours before they disappear, the next Phantoms After Dark at Norton Priory is on Tuesday 31st March from 4pm to 7.30pm.

If you can’t make the next Phantoms After Dark, Norton Priory also  hosts a range of events throughout the year. Meditation mornings take place on select Sundays taking advantage of the vast woodland area surrounding the museum. On 18th April there’s a haunted book club where you’re told spooky tales believed to be inspired by the Priory itself.

A family friendly arts and craft club on May 9th offers visitors the chance to make clay sculptures and collect flowers.The outdoor theatre programme also returns with Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet and Kipling’s The Jungle Book performed by Immersion Theatre Company on July 22nd and August 17th respectively, and Sullivan and Gilbert’s The Pirates of Penzance and Shakespeare’s As You Like It performed by Illyria on August 6th and 13th respectively.

For more information visit nortonpriory.org.

 

By Terry Sweeney

This brand new 30th anniversary tour of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert has been on at Liverpool Empire this week (14 March), and what a dazzling production it is.

The film, The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Dessert was one of my favourite, feel-good movie experiences of the 1990s, not least for the surprise of seeing Terence Stamp as Bernadette, a transgender drag queen, and the stage show is a real reminder of why I loved the movie so much.

The film was a cult classic in Australia and eventually worldwide. It was based upon the lives of three actual drag queens who were initially scheduled to play themselves but were eventually replaced by three ‘box office’ actors, Terence Stamp, Guy Pearce and Hugo Weaving.

The Broadway and West End smash musical uses the film as a blueprint. It stars Adele Anderson as Bernadette, Kevin Clifton as Tick/Mitzi, Nick Hayes as Felicia/Adam, and Peter Duncan as Bob/Preacher, and follows the three friends on a heartwarming trip across the Australian Outback to stage the show of a lifetime in Alice Springs.

The musical is directed by Olivier-award nominee Ian Talbot with choreography by Olivier-award winner Matt Cole, and their Olivier credentials show throughout.

The show opens in a drag club in Sydney with a killer version of ‘It’s Raining Men’ sung by three ‘Showgirl’-type divas, who are then joined by the full singing and dancing chorus for a colourful and energetic routine. After this knockout opening number, we meet Tick who gets a call from his wife asking for his help by staging a show to help her finance her debt-ridden casino in Alice Springs. He ropes in his friend Bernadette, who was an original star of ‘Les Girls’ a famous Australian drag act of the 1970s, and then to the consternation of Bernadette, introduces her to the brash Felicia, the final member of his ‘troupe’,

They buy a broken-down old school bus, which is tidied up and painted and christened ‘Priscilla’, and set off from Sydney to drive across the outback to Alice Springs.

After getting stranded in the outback when taking a short-cut and the bus breaking down, they are rescued by Bob. Bob takes them to a ‘sheep’ town, where they win over the locals and rehearse their act on stage, only to be stopped mid number when Bob’s Thai wife interrupts their show to put on her hilarious ping-pong act and brings the house down.

They move on with Bob’s help and end up in a mining town, where they have a run in with the residents.

Eventually they make their way to Alice Springs for the uplifting ending and fulfil Felicia’s dream of performing in full drag on the summit of Ayers Rock. 

Along the way they perform ‘the greatest disco anthems ever to fill a dance floor’ (The Telegraph). Songs like ‘Hot Stuff’, ‘I Will Survive’, ‘Girls Just Wanna Have Fun’, ‘Go West’, ‘I Love the Nightlife’,  ‘Finally’ and many many more.