Category: Culture Radar

This week’s Culture Radar guest is Helen Brown, Development Manager at Liverpool Lighthouse, an arts and community centre based in Anfield and the home of the National Gospel Music Centre.

Loved: We’re passionate about arts for social change at Liverpool Lighthouse and have loved hosting both Asylum Link and Collective Encounters recently with their impactful theatre for social change pieces, Afloat and Time to Change. We know from our own ‘When You Know’ arts for social change programme that work like this can change hearts, minds and save and transform lives.

Looking Forward To: As a Black-led organisation, Africa Oyé is a massive part of our cultural landscape and we’re really looking forward to celebrating its return in 2026.

Trivia: Liverpool Lighthouse was originally built as a Gaumont Cinema building and retains gorgeous art deco features, a 430 seat auditorium and one of the biggest stages in Liverpool. Before it was a cinema, the site housed an orphanage and training school for destitute girls, so our little patch of Anfield has been a home for both the most vulnerable in the community and for arts and culture across hundreds of years, a legacy we aim to continue!

Born in Bootle, Chila Kumari Burman MBE has become one of the UK’s most distinctive and celebrated contemporary artists. Her bold and joyful work returns to her home turf with her I Love Southport exhibition at The Atkinson.

Chila’s upbringing in a Punjabi Hindu household, set against the working-class backdrop of Sefton, has always been a central influence on her art. Her father, Bachan Singh Burman, worked as a tailor and magician in Calcutta before arriving in Britain in 1954, later running an ice cream van on Freshfield Beach — complete with a life-size Bengal Tiger model on the roof. In a recent interview with The Fourdrinier, Burman recalled “I used to clean the van every night and eat all the chocolate flakes!”

Her mother ran a clothes shop in Waterloo, further rooting the family in the local community. These experiences — and especially the ice cream van — have become recurring motifs in Chila’s work, appearing in playful and vibrant ways throughout this exhibition.

Chila began her studies at Southport School of Arts and Crafts, went on to earn a degree from Leeds Polytechnic, and completed a Master’s in Fine Art at London’s Slade School. As a leading figure in the Black British Art Movement, she has consistently challenged stereotypes, redefined British identity, and confronted institutional racism through her work. Her contributions to visual art were recognised with an MBE in 2022, and her pieces are collected and exhibited worldwide.

Walking into I Love Southport feels like being immersed in a carnival of colour and memory. The Atkinson’s gallery glows with Chila’s signature neon artworks, set alongside kaleidoscopic prints, bold mixed-media collages, and playful ice cream-inspired sculptures. Spanning more than forty years of her career, the exhibition captures the energy, experimentation, and cultural depth that have made Chila a trailblazer in contemporary British art.

Particularly captivating are the neon pieces, the ice cream that is ready to be licked, and a striking pigeon that commands attention with its bold presence. But, every piece on display draws the eye, including the print Cornets and Screwballs (2023) where Burman’s stacked glass creations of ice cream cones mirror the iconic displays seen at Southport’s ice cream vendors.

Using printmaking, painting, photography, drawing, collage and sculpture, Chila blurs the boundaries between popular culture and fine art. I Love Southport is both a homecoming and a celebration — a reminder that the personal stories and local memories we carry can become powerful, world-reaching art.

Looking ahead, it was announced earlier this year that the first major retrospective by Chila Kumari Burman will reopen Tate Liverpool in 2027 following the gallery’s transformation. But, in the meantime, don’t miss this nostalgia-filled celebration of heritage and creativity at The Atkinson.

Chila Kumari Burman: I Love Southport
Running until Saturday 15 November 2025
The Atkinson, Southport.
Admission is free
More info

This week’s Culture Radar guest is creative director of ArtsGroupie CIC, playwright, producer and socially engaged practitioner, John Maguire.

Loved: At the Unity – a powerful, potent, passionate, piece of necessary work, part of Liverpool Arab Arts Festival presented by Good Chance Theatre – A Grain of Sand. A narrative woven from the real experiences of children in Gaza collected in a small booklet, titled A Million Kites. And I loved seeing Lana Del Rey at Anfield as part of the Summer Gig offering.

Looking Forward To: Artsgroupie CIC is away in August for the Edinburgh Festival but then has two productions coming up at home – The Signalman at the Unity and Ghost Stories for Xmas, at the Hornby Library and Shakespeare North Playhouse in December.

The Unity’s Autumn/Winter programme is bumper packed too – loving the revival of this fantastic institution. I started my career there as a voluntary usher when I was 16. 

Always love Liverpool Irish Festival. This year (16-26 October) the festival, considered the largest Irish arts and culture-led festival in the UK, brings the city of Liverpool and Ireland closer together through its diverse programming. My name is Maguire and an estimated 75% of people in Liverpool can trace their ancestry back to Ireland.

And delighted to have tickets to the stage version of Inside Number 9 at the Empire, direct from the sold-out West End run.

Trivia: I used to be a long-haul flight attendant for Monarch Airlines in my early twenties. I enjoyed visiting many places around the world. Once, I won a tango dancing competition in a nightclub in Havana, Cuba, but I cannot tango dance.

This week’s Culture Radar guest is George Maund, Programmes & Operations Administrator at Metal Liverpool. George also plays in the band Landscraper and works on the Box Office team at The Tung Auditorium.

Loved: In a summer where the lack of Africa Oyé has been decidedly felt, it was a delight to catch Caribbean diasporic rhythms in the form of coastal Colombian hiphop group Systema Solar live at Future Yard. Thanks go to Luma Creations for the booking. Prior to that, it was hats-off time to the Independents Biennial for all they achieved in re-launching themselves back into the world – by taking over Port Sunlight – with perfect opening party music to supplement, courtesy of Queensway and co. Welcome back and well done, all!

Looking Forward To: Awaiting the return of the hard-working, attentive team behind the Quarry venue to what they do best – this time at the former Magnet premises, 45 Hardman Street – has to be the most anticipated moment of the year for me. Right before that they’re hosting a gig at Metal on Sunday 3 August, one for any fan or frenemy of the snare drum.

Trivia: We’re super proud of our Cultural Welcome Guide, a printed plain English booklet that acts as an introduction to all Liverpool’s free museums, galleries, festivals and other venues. It’s also available in Arabic and Ukrainian online. The CWG was put together with and for new arrivals to the city, specifically refugees and asylum seekers. Metal’s site in Liverpool was witness to the first ever train journey almost 200 years ago, a moment that ushered in the modern era by ‘making the world smaller’ through industrial transport. Go figure!

This week our Culture Radar guests are Szymon Mamys (Director) and Becks Hylton (Production Manager) of Bring The Fire Project.

Loved: The dance show NOW created by Jasmin Vardimon at the Liverpool Playhouse Theatre was beautiful. A visually stunning performance, wonderfully choreographed melding movement and technology together to touch on important topics of our modern life.

Looking Forward To: There’re so many incredible events happening over the summer. Unity Theatre’s Scratch Nights always showcase interesting and incredible new pieces. We’re also looking forward to bringing you the next edition of the Liverpool Fire Arts Festival next year.

Trivia: Bring the Fire Project is based at Metal at Edge Hill Station – the oldest active passenger station in the world.

 

This week our Culture Radar guest is Director, Liverpool Biennial, Dr Samantha Lackey.

Loved: I loved Holly Johnson at MoL – joyful, nostalgic and deeply moving.

Looking forward to: Aside from Liverpool Biennial (of course!), I’m really looking forward to Independents Biennial which runs concurrently to Liverpool Biennial (7 June -14 September) and will spotlight new work from artists based across Liverpool, Sefton, Knowsley, Wirral and St Helens.

Trivia: With financial support from Paul Hamlyn Foundation and local expertise from DaDa, a Liverpool-based disabled and d/Deaf arts organisation, we have been working to radically expand the accessibility of Liverpool Biennial in recent years, supporting artists, visitors and team members. We continue this work through a Critical Friends group who continue to challenge the Biennial, both through our Festival and interim year programme of commissions, talks and events.