Community Post Type: News

Liverpool Philharmonic are currently looking for a Marketing & Communications Assistant to help promote their events and activities.

You’ll create email content and marketing campaigns, collaborate with internal colleagues and external promoters to get events ‘on sale’, and assist in work to reach new audiences. You’ll be responsible for managing customer communications, ensuring essential information is shared and audience feedback is collected. You’ll assist the wider Marketing/Comms team in creating social media content, producing print material and supporting media relations activity.

If you’re an organised and proactive communicator, who is passionate about music and looking to gain experience of working in a busy arts organisation, this might be the perfect role for you.

To apply and for more details, visit here

Closing date: 6 August

As stated in the 20th Century novel Maurice by E.M Forster, ‘such…can vanish’ into the woodlands. Those such, the LGBTQIA+ community, can escape from the world with its prejudices, judgements and threat; a retreat to nature for ecological, political and romantic stances. Forster also created the woodland Piney Copse, a safe space for him, his friends and lovers.

Furthermore, literature like A Shropshire Lad, the tale of Robin Hood as well as texts about the Arcadian utopias of Ancient Greece and Rome, queer the pastoral.

Taking inspiration from the term, “take to the greenwood“, artists are invited to create works about the LGBTQIA+ community’s history and ever-evolving relationship with nature culminating in a group exhibition in the Liverpool Art Space at Cass Art from Monday 3rd August to 15th August.

Liverpool Artists’ Network (LAN) has unveiled a redesigned website, marking the next chapter for the artist-led organisation as it celebrates more than ten years of supporting Liverpool’s visual arts community.

The refreshed website has been created to make it easier for artists, arts organisations and the public to discover local creative talent, find opportunities and access resources that support and connect the visual arts community across Liverpool and the wider region.

The redesign was driven by a desire to create an online space that better reflects the energy of Liverpool’s visual arts community while making information easier to find and navigate. As the network has grown over the past decade, the new website provides a stronger platform for connecting artists with audiences, opportunities, organisations and one another.

While introducing a cleaner, more contemporary visual identity and a more intuitive user experience, the redesign remains true to what has always made Liverpool Artists’ Network distinctive: an artist-led, approachable organisation that is deeply connected to Liverpool’s visual arts scene.

Founded in 2015 by artists Josie Jenkins and Collette Lilley, Liverpool Artists’ Network has grown into one of the region’s most established independent resources for visual artists. Alongside a searchable Directory of Creatives, the website brings together opportunities, ArtMap, resources and practical information, helping artists to raise their profile, find relevant opportunities and connect with others working across the creative sector.

The new website has been designed not to replace the personal side of the network, but to strengthen it. Behind the online platform is a wealth of local knowledge built through years of working within Liverpool’s arts community. Through networking events, peer support, Ask Us Anything Zoom sessions and informal advice, Liverpool Artists’ Network continues to offer artists practical guidance alongside its online resources.

Josie Jenkins, co-founder of Liverpool Artists’ Network, said:

“We’re really excited about the website relaunch. Colette and I are always thinking about how we can make Liverpool Artists’ Network the most useful resource possible for artists and the wider public. We genuinely believe that LAN has something incredibly valuable to offer and the new website really reflects that. It also captures the personality of LAN and represents the community our network has grown from.”

Colette Lilley added:

“When we redesigned the website, we wanted to create something that felt welcoming and enjoyable to explore, making it easier for people to connect with artists, organisations and opportunities. The website is now easier to navigate, so artists and visitors can find information quickly, discover creative talent and engage with the many opportunities and resources available through LAN.”

Unlike many arts organisations, Liverpool Artists’ Network is run by artists, for artists. The network combines digital resources with genuine local knowledge, offering practical advice, peer support and connections built through years of involvement in Liverpool’s visual arts community.

Visitors can explore the redesigned website to discover artists working across the region, browse the Directory of Creatives, find opportunities and learn more about the support available through Liverpool Artists’ Network.

About Liverpool Artists’ Network

Liverpool Artists’ Network is a grassroots organisation founded in 2015 by artists Colette Lilley and Josie Jenkins. The Network connects and supports Liverpool’s visual artists through events, discussions and its online Directory of Creatives. Its mission is to encourage collaboration, strengthen community and promote independent artistic activity across the city.

Press Contact:
Josie Jenkins
Co-Founder, Liverpool Artists’ Network
Email: liverpoolartnet@yahoo.co.uk

Website: www.liverpoolartistsnetwork.org

Instagram: @livartnet | @liv_artinerary

Liverpool Irish Festival, the UK’s largest Irish arts and culture led festival, today announces its 2026 dates ahead of a full event release in August.

The annual Festival features 30+ events across (Thurs 15–Sun 25 Oct 2026). Satellite events extend from 1 Oct–2 Nov, with anticipated visits of 7,500–10,000. Highlights include the of Dublin seven-piece Kíla to Liverpool for the first time in eight years (Fri 16 Oct, Liverpool Philharmonic Music Room) and Don Wycherley starring in the award-winning The Life and Times of Paddy Armstrong (Fri 30–Sat 31 Oct, Unity Theatre), inspired by the Guildford Four memoir Life After Life.

This year’s theme, I Am Here, is a declaration of presence. The title serves as an act of arrival. It is a claim on space. Additionally, it speaks to the right to be seen, named and recognised on your own terms. More than fifty artists, musicians, dancers, writers, filmmakers and thinkers ask what it means to arrive, in a city, in a culture, in a life. Much of this year’s work engages with histories that remain painful or contested. This includes An Gorta Mór (the Great Hunger), the Troubles and institutional abuse in Ireland. The Festival approaches these with care. Guided by a Philosophy for Practice, we provide care notices, post-show conversations and signposted support services throughout. New for 2026, access social stories will be available for Festival venues, supporting neurodivergent visitors and those with additional access needs.

Read the Festival’s thematic article here: LINK

Programme Highlights:

Heritage at the heart: The An Gorta Mór vigil (Sun 25 Oct, 10am) retraces the Walk of the Bronze Shoes route from Clarence Dock — entry point for over 1.8 million Irish Famine poor — to St Luke’s Bombed Out Church, leading into the annual An Gorta Mór memorial (1pm). Here, the commissioned song The Ullaloo will be led by the Liverpool Irish Centre choir. Trail work has been supported by The National Lottery Heritage Fund. New Liverpool Irish Famine Trail tours (Sat 24 Oct) use our trail app and headsets to help walkers step into the shoes of Liverpool and Irish people 180 years ago, alongside a South Liverpool walking tour (Sun 18 Oct). Shared Lands (Mon 26 Oct, LJMU) shares new research on the Choctaw Nation’s extraordinary 1847 gift to the starving in Ireland.

Theatre spotlight: The Life and Times of Paddy Armstrong (Fri 30–Sat 31 Oct, Unity Theatre) stars Don Wycherley as a man wrongfully convicted fifty years ago, refusing to be defined by injustice. Victoria Fradgley’s High Tea (Sat 17 Oct, Liverpool Irish Centre) serves a sharp, funny and devastating reckoning between two estranged sisters. In Obscured View, Geraldine Moloney Judge reprises her sell-out one-woman show (Wed 21 Oct, Hope Street Theatre), celebrating Liverpool and Ireland’s shared love of football.

Music and tradition: Kíla bring three decades of genre-defying, IFTA award-winning sound to an intimate night at Liverpool Philharmonic Music Room (Fri 16 Oct); Téada, celebrating 25 years on the road, follow in the same room (Fri 23 Oct) presented with Return to London Town and supported by Culture Ireland. I Am Here (Thurs 22 Oct, Sefton Park Palm House) gathers over 50 musicians and dancers from the George Ferguson Irish Dance School and Melody Makers, while The Phogues (Sat 24 Oct, Liverpool Irish Centre) mark 40 years since The Pogues‘ debut album Red Roses for Me.

Literary voices: A full Central Library day (Sat 17 Oct) comprises four free events. First of all, a creative workshop with the Witty Wicklow Writers. Sue Divin presents her border-set novel Runaway Road. Doug Devaney explores inherited diaspora identity through Black Vinyl. Finally, PJ McKeown’s gloriously chaotic punk memoir By Acting the Fool is shared. Historian Sonja Tiernan celebrates Eva Gore-Booth: Irish radical poet, rebel and reformer (Mon 19 Oct).

Family focus: The popular Family Day (Sat 24 Oct, Museum of Liverpool) features The Armagh Rhymers‘ exclusive Liver Bird story. It speaks of how First Nations people helped the Irish during the Great Hunger. The day also features Merseyside dance schools, Melody Makers and Brave Maeve children’s activities. I Am Here (Palm House) and Samhain Céili (Liverpool Irish Centre) are both family events.

Visual arts and film: In the Window: Adam Frew and Maureen Lynch (1–31 Oct, Bluecoat Display Centre) pairs County Derry porcelain with Dún Laoghaire silver. The St Brigid’s Arms (from 2 Oct, Victoria Gallery & Museum) opens a fictional Irish pub created by and for women of Irish heritage in the North of England, with tours and Q&As (20 and 22 Oct). Testimony (Sat 2 Nov, The Bluecoat), Aoife Kelleher’s profoundly moving documentary on survivors of the Magdalene Laundries and Mother and Baby Homes, screens with Fréa’s Renewing Roots programme, followed by conversation.

The Festival has a preview at 6pm on Wed 14 Oct at Liverpool Irish Centre. It features musician Enda McCabe — kidney transplant survivor — a living embodiment of I Am Here.

Programme Information

The full programme will be live by Sept 2026. Search by art form, location or chronologically using the event menu dropdown: https://www.liverpoolirishfestival.com/events/

Mary Magdalene: Woman and Myth is a new touring exhibition from the National Gallery, which will be on display at three locations across the UK.

Partnering with the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool, Millennium Gallery in Sheffield and The Auckland Project in Bishop Auckland, this exhibition will explore the making of Mary Magdalene, looking closely at her legacy marked by belief, power and misrepresentation. See her story unfold from Renaissance panel painting to contemporary sculpture and meet the woman behind one of history’s most enduring images.

The life of Saint Mary Magdalene has always been shrouded in mystery and intrigue. In the biblical stories of Jesus’ life, she travels alongside him, supports his public ministry and is present for his suffering, death and resurrection. However, over the centuries, her story was merged with other Gospel women and her role as a witness and disciple often became overshadowed by the image of a repentant sinner. Her image was transformed across the art, theology and popular culture of Western Europe. Individuals and institutions fashioned her as a figure who could embody their ideas about female sexuality and the importance of repentance, a pattern repeated throughout history.

Mary Magdalene: Woman and Myth is the first major exhibition in the UK to explore the legacy of Mary Magdalene through historic and contemporary art. It will bring together 8 paintings from the National Gallery’s collection, (works by Carlo Crivelli about 1491-4, Annibale Carracci 1604 and Giovanni Girolamo Savoldo about 1535-40), alongside three loans: ‘Saint Mary Magdalene in the Desert’, 1869, by Pierre Puvis de Chavannes (on loan from the Städel Museum), ‘The Tower’, 2022, by Jesse Jones, and ‘The Map’, 2021, by Alice Maher and Rachel Fallon (both courtesy of the artists).

At each venue, the exhibition will be enriched by works from the host collection, creating a different experience for audiences in Liverpool, Sheffield and Bishop Auckland. The breadth of art in this exhibition explores how centuries of storytelling have constructed a Magdalene far beyond what scripture records. Exploring why Mary Magdalene continues to be a source of fascination and inspiration, the exhibition centres her as a figure of devotion, authority and witness – not just a penitent sinner.

Connecting her story to contemporary feminist discourse, the exhibition will explore how women’s histories are maintained, manipulated and erased under intersecting systems of power and ultimately honours Mary Magdalene’s enduring legacy and, with her, the legacies of all women who persist in the face of misrepresentation.

Dr Siobhán Jolley, Lecturer in Christian Studies at the University of Manchester and Curator of the exhibition, says:

‘Mary Magdalene’s story is ultimately a story about power: who is remembered, who is misrepresented, and whose voices are heard. Over nearly two thousand years, her image has been continually reshaped to reflect changing ideas about women’s authority, sexuality and faith. By exploring the relationship between the woman and the myth, the exhibition invites visitors of all backgrounds to consider what happens when a life becomes a legend, and why that matters today.’

Conceived as a touring exhibition from the outset, Mary Magdalene: Woman and Myth will first open at the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, from 6 February – 23 May 2027. It will then travel to Millennium Gallery, Sheffield, from 17 June – 12 September 2027. Finally, it will arrive at The Auckland Project, Bishop Auckland, 29 September 2027 – 2 January 2028.

Visit the Walker Art Gallery website

Following the success of its ongoing collaboration with Liverpool’s leading independent art gallery, dot-art, INNSiDE by Meliá Liverpool, part of Meliá Hotels International, has announced the next exhibition in its rotating art programme, showcasing Postcards by Liverpool-based artist Jazz Stan. 

Launching on Thursday 23rd July, the hotel’s gallery space will present a vibrant new body of work inspired by the power of memory, imagination and our emotional connection to place.  

Created during periods of lockdown and the isolation of new motherhood, Postcards emerged from Jazz’s desire to mentally transport beyond the confines of everyday life. Through painting, the exhibition explores how she connected with places both real and imagined, drawing on colours, textures, sounds, food and stories to create vivid emotional landscapes. 

Inspired by travel photography, local music, regional cuisine and soundscapes, Jazz created many of the works before ever visiting the places they depict. The collection explores the idea that places can be experienced through memory, imagination and the senses, inviting visitors to reflect on the moments when a familiar scent, song or memory evokes a powerful sense of place. 

Based in Liverpool, Jazz Stan is a mural artist whose practice spans a diverse range of media, styles and scales. Blending fine art techniques with contemporary influences, her bold and expressive work has evolved to incorporate elements of abstract expressionism, using movement, natural tones and intuitive mark-making to create striking compositions. Alongside original canvas works, Jazz has delivered large-scale public murals across the UK, Abu Dhabi and Dubai, and has completed commissions for globally recognised brands including Disney, Porsche, Instagram, Red Bull, Waterstones and Estrella Damm. 

The exhibition forms part of INNSiDE Liverpool’s ongoing partnership with dot-art. Reflecting INNSiDE’s Stay Curious philosophy, the partnership invites travellers to discover Liverpool’s thriving creative community during their stay. Located on the hotel’s first floor, the gallery offers a relaxed and accessible space to explore contemporary art, with each exhibition introducing new perspectives and emerging artistic talent. 

All artworks featured in Postcards will be available to purchase throughout the exhibition, with visitors also encouraged to explore dot-art Gallery, located just a short walk from the hotel on Castle Street. 

The exhibition officially launches with a private viewing on Thursday 23rd July. Sign up HERE to attend.  

Location: First Floor, INNSiDE by Melia Liverpool, Old Hall Street, Liverpool L3 9PP, United Kingdom    

For further information, please visit dot-art.co.uk/innside  

To book a room, please visit www.innside.com/liverpool    

A new exhibition 70 Years of The Cavern Club is set to open in Liverpool in 2027 celebrating 70 years of one of the world’s most iconic live music venues. The new exhibition, in collaboration with The Cavern Club charts the venue’s rise from a post-war jazz club in a Mathew Street cellar, to global cultural phenomenon and the thriving live venue it is today.

Internationally recognised as the birthplace of The Beatles and the defining venue of Merseybeat, The Cavern Club’s story is inseparable from that of Liverpool itself, shaped by the same social, cultural and economic fortunes as the city around it.

Founded by Alan Sytner as a jazz venue, the club opened its doors on 16 January 1957 and quickly attracted big jazz names such as Acker Bilk and Johnny Dankworth. The basement stage also became home to local emerging talent, including Ringo Starr, playing drums with Rory Storm’s Hurricanes and The Quarry Men Skiffle Group, featuring John Lennon, and later Paul McCartney and George Harrison. The Beatles became the resident Cavern band, building their reputation and their sound there, before going on to spark the worldwide phenomenon of Beatlemania.

The 1960s Cavern was THE place to be seen, and international artists flocked to the club, from Chuck Berry to Stevie Wonder, who performed there in 1966 aged just fifteen. Since then, the venue has welcomed an extraordinary roll call of talent, from The Rolling Stones, The Who, Queen and Elton John to Oasis, Adele, The Arctic Monkeys and home-grown stars such as Jamie Webster, cementing its place as a living, breathing part of music history.

Julia Baird, John Lennon’s sister and Cavern co-owner said:

“My brother John always said his happiest times as a band were playing in the Cavern. He wasn’t alone in his love of this wonderful club and what a great opportunity to get those stories and memories together in one place. Here’s to another seventy years!”

Charting seven decades of unforgettable gigs, performances and nights out, 70 Years of The Cavern Club traces the Cavern’s closures, redevelopment and revival, following its journey through to today’s recognition as an integral part of a UNESCO City of Music. Personal stories and first-hand accounts run throughout, bringing the wider story of Liverpool’s music culture to life through the voices of the communities who lived it. The exhibition presents The Cavern Club as a shared cultural experience, shaped by those who were there and those who continue to be part of it today.

Karen O’Rourke, Curator of Sport, Music and Performance at Museum of Liverpool, added:

“The Cavern Club is so much more than the dank basement where The Beatles were discovered, it’s a cellar full of noise that has shaped Liverpool’s identity for seventy years. This exhibition is our chance to tell that fuller story: the rise, the fall, the emotion, the people and its life today as a hard-working venue. We want visitors to leave our exhibition feeling The Cavern Club the way generations from across the globe have felt it, not as a historic place, but as a living, breathing part of our amazing city.”

70 Years of The Cavern Club opens at Museum of Liverpool from Saturday 16 January 2027 to Sunday 31 October 2027. To find out more about 70 Years of The Cavern Club and to sign up to become a National Museums Liverpool member, visit: www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/cavern-club-70

Ahead of the exhibition’s opening, Museum of Liverpool and The Cavern Club will host Summer of Sound, a month of live music bringing some of Liverpool’s most celebrated acts to the museum this summer. The line-up includes The Quarrymen and Friends on 25 July; Dave Monks BBC Introducing presents STONE and featuring support acts SILENT-K and BITE on 1 August; This is Merseybeat on 8 August; Michael Head and the Red Elastic Band on 15 August, and Ian Prowse and The Monday Club on 22 August. The programme closes on 29 August with performances by Nube 9 from Argentina, The Flaming Shakers from Spain and Gleison Túlio from Brazil, all taking part in the International Beatleweek Festival. These special events begin on 24 July with Tom Kelly’s Musical Bingo, running every Friday evening through to 28 August, offering a warm-up to the Cavern Club’s 70th anniversary celebrations.

Full details and tickets are available at www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/summer-of-sound.

Liverpool Arab Arts Festival (LAAF) has received a grant from The National Lottery Heritage Fund for a major new project exploring and preserving the festival’s history and the stories of Liverpool’s Arab communities.

The project, developed in partnership with Bluecoat, National Museums Liverpool, and representative community partner organisations, comes as LAAF marks 25 years of the festival and will focus on collecting, safeguarding and sharing the memories, experiences and cultural contributions that have shaped the organisation since it began in 1998.

Made possible thanks to National Lottery players, the project will work closely with young people of Arab heritage, giving them the opportunity to explore LAAF’s archive, record oral histories and help shape a public programme of exhibitions, events and digital content leading up to a major public launch in 2027.

Over more than two decades, LAAF has become an important cultural platform for Arab artists and communities locally, nationally and internationally. Through music, theatre, visual arts, literature, film, food and community projects, the festival has created space for dialogue, creativity and cultural exchange in Liverpool and beyond. In 2025 alone, the festival reached audiences of more than 35,000 people across 32 events.

At the heart of the heritage project is a desire to ensure these stories are not lost. Young people will work alongside artists, founders, community members and heritage specialists to document personal memories and explore materials from LAAF’s archive. These stories and materials will then be preserved and made accessible through partnerships with National Museums Liverpool, Liverpool Record Office, Bluecoat and community organisations, including the Liverpool Arabic Centre, the Merseyside Yemeni Community Association, and the Syrian Community in Liverpool.

Alongside preserving heritage, the project will also support young people of Arab heritage to develop skills and confidence in areas in which they are underrepresented, including oral history, heritage practice, event production and creative programming, helping open up future pathways into the cultural and creative sectors.

Afrah Qassim, Chair of Liverpool Arab Arts Festival, said: “For 25 years, Liverpool Arab Arts Festival has created space for Arab stories, artists and communities to be celebrated shared and understood. This project is about making sure those stories are preserved for future generations and giving young people of Arab heritage the chance to actively shape and share that history themselves. We’re incredibly grateful to The National Lottery Heritage Fund for making this possible.”

Bryan Biggs, Director of Cultural Legacies at Bluecoat, said: “As co-founder of the Liverpool Arab Arts Festival, the Bluecoat is delighted to participate in this project to explore the festival’s history through the lens of local community engagement. LAAF is a valued member of the creative community based in our building and we look forward to supporting this important opportunity for it to tell its story in such an imaginative and inclusive way.”

Liz Stewart, head of Museum of Liverpool said: “The Museum of Liverpool is delighted to be involved in this celebration of the story of LAAF. This is an important moment to capture the history of this significant cultural festival on its 25th anniversary. The project’s opportunities for young people to lead on exploring histories and programming community activity around it, is very exciting.”

Founded in 1998, Liverpool Arab Arts Festival is the UK’s longest-running annual festival dedicated to Arab arts and cultures. Alongside its annual festival, LAAF delivers year-round artistic, educational and community programmes that aim to celebrate identity, challenge perceptions and create meaningful cultural exchange.

LAAF is an Arts Council England National Portfolio Organisation and receives support from Culture Liverpool through Liverpool City Council’s Culture and Arts Investment Programme.

This Autumn, the Liverpool Everyman revisits and breathes new life into a timeless classic, Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman, one of theatre’s most enduring and powerful stories. Arthur Miller’s modern classic of a family at breaking point and a man in conflict with his own sense of worth is directed by Olivier Award-winning Tristan Fynn-Aiduenu.

The production will star Cyril Nri (Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story), as Willy Loman, alongside Tayo Aluko (Call Mr. Robeson; Liverpool Everyman) as Uncle Ben, Adelaide Banks (The Woman), Emma Cater (Linda), Kiren Kebaili-Dwyer (Happy), Noah Olaoye (Bernard / Howard Wagner), Joe Speare (Charley / Stanley), Lawrence Ubong Williams (Biff), and is directed by Tristan Fynn-Aiduenu (For Black Boys Who Have Considered Suicide When The Hue Gets Too Heavy and Deep Azure).  Death Of A Salesman lays bare a family at breaking point and a man wrestling with his own sense of worth.

Tristan Fynn-Aiduenu said, ‘Willy is a migrant and, like many migrants, is sold a dream, whether that be American or in the UK. You can make your mark, stake your claim – but the dream doesn’t always become reality, and there can be repercussions.  Willy also battles generational conflict: how do fathers and sons relate, and if the gap is too wide, can they ever meet in the middle to fulfil their potential?

Liverpool, like Brooklyn (where the play is set), is rich in Irish and Nigerian heritage and in mixed-race populations.  It’s important to me that this production is being performed in Liverpool, engaging with local audiences, and exploring what blackness and the migrant experience is across the UK. There’s a reason ‘Death of A Salesman’ is widely considered a classic and one of the greatest American plays ever written.’

Death Of A Salesman is presented by arrangement with Music Theatre International: www.mtishows.co.uk

Tickets Tickets for Death of A Salesman are Priced from £11 – £41 at https://everymanplayhouse.com/event/death-of-a-salesman/ or call boxoffice: 0151 709 4776
Captioned Performance – Thu 24 September, 7.30 pm
Audio-described performance – Thu 1 October, 7.30 pm
BSL performance – Friday 9 October, 7:30 pm
Post Show Discussion – Following the 7.30 pm performance on Wed 30 Sep, there will be a post-show discussion hosted by the Everyman & Playhouse’s Creative Director, Nathan Powell.