Community Post Type: News

Milap have announced the second wave of events for their festival of Indian Arts & Culture, INDIKA 2025. The 15 day celebration of Indian music, dance and culture, will take place across the entire Liverpool City Region this October, bringing the best of Indian arts to an even wider audience.

Chiming with Milap’s 40 year anniversary, the INDIKA festival will feature a programme of Indian music and dance, ranging from cutting-edge contemporary to deeply rooted traditional forms, plus yoga, poetry, storytelling and participatory activities for all the family. Events will take place across iconic Liverpool City Region venues, including The Tung Auditorium, Liverpool Philharmonic Music Room, Future Yard, The Storybarn and more to be announced soon.

INDIKA showcases the best of contemporary Indian Arts and Culture, presenting a bold and varied programme that celebrates India’s diverse cultural traditions. With Diwali falling on 20th October this year, Milap’s Diwali celebrations will feature as a centrepiece of this year’s INDIKA.

Audiences won’t just watch and listen to performances – they’ll feel them. With music, dance, food and storytelling from across India, INDIKA offers a multi-sensory experience that brings people together through culture and leaves audiences moved.
Milap continues its work to connect audiences with the vibrant sounds and compelling stories of India, showcasing its enduring influence on the world stage –  right here in Merseyside!

INDIKA 2025 – 2ND WAVE ANNOUNCEMENT

Milap + The Reader present
Diwali Storytelling

Saturday 18th & Sunday 19th October 2025, 10am
The Storybarn, Calderstones Park, Calderstones Rd, Liverpool, L18 3JB
TICKETS

Join us to celebrate love and light with a very special Diwali session. There’ll be time to explore the magical Storybarn, and share Diwali inspired stories and crafts.

For families, best suited to 4-9 year olds.

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Milap + Mellowtone present
The Tapi Project

Wednesday 22nd October 2025, 7.30pm
Downstairs at the Everyman, 5-11 Hope St, Liverpool, L1 9BH
TICKETS

The Tapi Project’s is a continuous revival and retelling of stories that make up modern India – held together by their compelling songwriting and compositions.

The ensemble blends funk and folk over a hypnotic tribal groove, powerful vocals and poetry exploring themes of urban life, lost roots, alienation, and the search for self.

Influences from the worlds of jazz, folk and rock – filtered through the Indian subcontinent – all combine to create their unique and genre-defying sound.

Their music is an emotional journey that speaks to the challenges faced by everyday people today.

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Milap + Unity Theatre present
Dancing with the Divine

Thursday 23rd October 2025, 7.30pm
Unity Theatre, 1 Hope Place, Liverpool, L1 9BG
TICKETS

Conceived and performed by Sanjukta Sinha.

Inspired by the timeless figure of Krishna, Dancing the Divine is a journey through love, longing, and surrender — a personal exploration of devotion, presence, and the unseen.

In this intimate solo, Sanjukta Sinha draws from recent work that reflects a quiet, internal dialogue with the idea of the divine — however one may imagine it. Krishna never appears, yet his essence is felt in every movement and stillness.

Through Kathak, Sanjukta asks: Can love exist without form? Can absence still hold presence? This is not a retelling of myths, but a living inquiry — an experience where the dancer becomes the seeker, the beloved, the question itself. The stage becomes a space to experience something beyond words — whatever that may mean to you.

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Milap + Unity Theatre present
The Idea of God

Friday 24th October 2025, 7.30pm
Unity Theatre, 1 Hope Place, Liverpool, L1 9BG
TICKETS

A solo Bharatanatyam performance by Dr. Apoorva Jayaraman

Is He the creator, or is He my creation? Does God reside in art, or is art a path to the divine? Do I seek Him, or is She already within me?

The Idea of God is a full-length solo Bharatanatyam performance that traverses Indian thought and literature — from the ancient Vedas and Sangam texts to revolutionary writing of the 21st century.

Through a series of powerful and rarely explored narratives, this evocative performance probes the evolving idea of the divine in Indian philosophy.

Blending classical rigour with contemporary insight, Dr. Apoorva Jayaraman invites audiences to reflect on where the divine truly resides — in form, in feeling, or within the self. This is not simply a recital, but a layered enquiry into the many ways we imagine God.

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Milap + The Tung Auditorium present
The Stringmasters

Saturday 25th October 2025, 7.30pm
The Tung Auditorium, Yoko Ono Lennon Centre, 60 Oxford St, Liverpool, L7 3NY
TICKETS

Anil Srinivasan, an award winning Indian pianist, and Dr Jayanthi Kumaresh, a virtuoso of the Saraswathi Veena, have forged a remarkable musical partnership through their innovative collaboration, notably showcased in their project The Stringmasters.

They were first brought together by Milap in 2013 for a concert at London’s Southbank Centre, where they discovered a natural synergy between the piano and veena, both string instruments. Their remarkable ability in blending Western and Carnatic classical traditions to create a unique ‘third space’ of musical expression has been winning fans worldwide.

This partnership, marked by performances at venues as diverse as the Riverside Theatre in Sydney, the Habitat in Delhi, Bengaluru’s Jagriti Theatre and Chennai’s The ARTery, emphasises intuitive and genre-neutral explorations of ragas.

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Milap + The Reader present
Yoga & Live Sitar

Sunday 26th October 2025, 10am & 1.30pm
Theatre Room, The Storybarn, Calderstones Park, Calderstones Rd, Liverpool, L18 3JB
TICKETS

This autumn, FACT reflects on a year of experimentation, innovation, and creativity, inviting audiences to experience a new exhibition showcasing artworks developed in Studio/Lab. Located on the top floor of the building, Studio/Lab is a vibrant creative hub shaped by artists, for artists—where ideas are sparked, shared, and developed through collaboration and play.

Designed to support Liverpool and the North West’s flourishing creative communities, Studio/Lab embodies FACT’s commitment to nurturing emerging talent and supporting artistic development. As the first space of its kind in the UK, it provides critical and digital resources to help artists grow their practices in new ways. Now, more than a year on from its initial trial phase—during which local artists were invited to explore and test the space—Studio/Lab has engaged over 500 creatives through workshops, masterclasses, residency opportunities and social events.

Studio/Lab is a core part of FACT’s mission to foster emerging visionaries and creative voices. The community of Artist Members brings together filmmakers, sound and visual artists, technologists, and researchers to create and test within the space. By building a nurturing and creative ecosystem that bridges learning, experimentation, and exchange, FACT ensures that technology feels useful, usable, and empowering.

Throughout its history, FACT has championed innovation through its diverse residency programmes. These paid opportunities have supported creatives at every career stage to develop their practice, expand research, and produce new work. Studio/Lab broadens the possibilities of how FACT runs and conducts its residencies, offering residents additional access to production facilities, equipment, and enriched technical and curatorial support. Further, Studio/Lab has enabled FACT to expand its support for creative talent, welcoming artists from around the world through new and existing partnerships, and strengthening the cultural centre’s role as a cornerstone of creative exchange.

In recent months, Studio/Lab has supported the development of works by artists Helen Anna Flanagan and Gavin Gayagoy, which FACT is delighted to be exhibiting as part of its autumn programme. Visitors are invited to discover two immersive installations that use the domestic setting as a way to navigate experiences of alienation through societal neglect and digital isolation. The exhibition runs from Friday 29 August to Sunday 23 November 2025.

Helen Anna Flanagan joined Studio/Lab through her Mondriaan Fund residency, using the space to develop film work Burnt Toast (2025). Combining machine learning, analogue technologies, archival materials, and a trained impersonator, the film is a contemporary ghost story that resurrects legendary British comedian Tommy Cooper. The installation at FACT features a constructed set inspired by domestic environments, referencing a bygone era echoed throughout a rundown home. Through this work, Flanagan invites audiences to consider how hidden structures—such as class, culture, and capitalism—shape lives, control actions, and leave people feeling alienated.

Gavin Gayagoy is a recipient of the 2024-25 Digital Artist Residencies launched by FACT and produced in partnership with Liverpool-based video game developer Lucid Games. He is particularly interested in using game design elements to explore how digital environments influence perception, truth, and identity. For this exhibition, Gayagoy presents a reimagined, large-scale staging of his interactive film work Doomscroll_1 (2025). The piece explores our relationship with smartphones, focusing on the sensation of “doom-scrolling”—compulsively consuming digital content, often to the detriment of mental health. Originally created during Gayagoy’s residency at FACT, the work has continued to evolve through his ongoing use of the tools and resources available within Studio/Lab.

Audiences are invited to a special after-hours event on Thursday 28 August 2025 to celebrate the launch of the exhibition. In addition to the preview, guests have the opportunity to explore Studio/Lab and meet and hear from the artists and team. Book a free ticket here.

Walker Art Gallery and John Moores Painting Prize Trust have announced the five painters shortlisted for the prestigious First Prize in the John Moores Painting Prize 2025 from among the 71 contemporary painters selected to exhibit.

The five shortlisted artists are: 

Ally Fallon is a graduate of the Manchester School of Art and was the 2023 Artist in Residence at Joya: AiR, in southeastern Spain. They have exhibited in a number of group shows across the UK, including Manchester’s HOME, Cheshire’s The FG Gallery, and Boomer Gallery, London. They are shortlisted for their work, If You Were Certain, What Would You Do Then? (2025).

If You Were Certain, What Would You Do Then? emerged through a painting process where realistic images gradually become abstract, creating bridges between both styles. Built from cultural and aesthetic encounters, the work exists as a space for quiet reflection, embodying the artist’s belief that the pleasure lies in the making rather than the reaching.

Davina Jackson is a London-based figurative artist working from Kingsgate workshops. She studied at Central St Martins, The Byam Shaw School of Art, and completed postgraduate studies at the Royal Academy Schools. She was elected an ARWS (Associate Royal Watercolour Society) in 2023. Her work has appeared in twelve Royal Academy Summer shows, she has had eight solo exhibitions, and her work appears in private and public collections. They are shortlisted for their work, Just Like It Was (2025).

Just Like It Was explores the essence of an intimate moment through landscape as both stage and metaphor, focusing on themes of memory, longing, and introspection. The figures are caught in quiet observation, suspended between the external world and their internal lives as they look toward the dawn light. Light shapes both form and emotional direction, suggesting the quiet persistence of hope.

Katy Shepherd studied fine art and painting at Bournemouth and Sheffield Colleges before postgraduate studies in painting at the Royal College of Art. She has been selected for prestigious exhibitions including the Jerwood Drawing Prize and has work in public collections including Gothenburg Museum and Maidstone Museum. They are shortlisted for their work, Bedscape 2 (2025).

The Bedscape series was born from the isolation of 2021, transforming the artist’s rumpled bedding into fantastical landscapes. The painted duvets, moulded by nocturnal movements responding to a restless mind, reveal peaks, escarpments, and folds that offer an escape from reality through intimate domestic spaces.

Miranda Webster is a New Zealand-native, now based in Margate, who has studied and practiced globally. Their artistic studies began at L’Atelier de Sèvres, France, before graduating from Beaux-Arts de Paris. They have exhibited extensively at group shows across Paris, including at Glassbox and IESA. They are shortlisted for their work, laid out (2024).

laid out resulted from Webster purchasing a tree from B&Q, bringing it to her studio, and deliberately letting it die before laying it out on a bathroom towel. Through painting it in exquisite detail, the work became a portrait, transforming an act of complicity in death into a practice of tenderness and care.

Joanna Whittle graduated with honours in fine art painting, from Central St Martins, before gaining her master’s at the Royal College of Art. Born in Zambia, Whittle now lives and works in Sheffield, where she primarily creates paintings and ceramics. She has exhibited at prestigious venues including the Royal Academy and won both the Harley Open Prize and the Contemporary British Painting Prize in 2019. She is shortlisted for her work, Darkened Heart (a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth) (2025).

Darkened Heart (a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth) explores how pure darkness can cast light, with a poisonous bead at the painting’s centre serving as a gleaming point of hardness amid the ephemeral and transitory. The work speaks to a quiet, almost unseen conflict between light and dark while searching for shelter somewhere in between, where light becomes an act of subversion and resilience.

For a full list of exhibiting artists, visit the John Moores Painting Prize 2025 exhibition page. 

The exhibiting works were selected from over 3,000 entries by a distinguished jury comprising Zhang Enli, Dr Zoé Whitley, Michael Simpson, Gemma Rolls-Bentley, and Louise Giovanelli. Taking place over three stages, the paintings remained anonymous throughout the judging process, with entries ranging from large scale canvases, bold in brush strokes and colour, to small, exquisitely detailed pieces, representing the entire spectrum of contemporary painting.

The first prize winner will be announced on 4 September, ahead of the exhibition’s opening weekend, with the winning artist receiving a first prize of £25,000 and the honour of joining an esteemed list of UK-based painters who have won the UK’s most prestigious painting prize over the past 68 years. The winning painting will be acquired by Walker Art Gallery and join its world-class collection, while the artist will also have a future solo exhibition at the gallery.

The winner of the Lady Grantchester Prize for recent art graduates will be announced alongside the first prize winner. They will receive £5,000, an artistic residency and £2,500 worth of art materials, supported by Winsor & Newton. Visitors to the exhibition will also be invited to vote for their favourite painting to win the popular Visitors’ Choice Award, with the winning artist receiving £2,025.

Prize-winning paintings from the John Moores Painting Prize China 2024 will also be displayed as part of the 2025 exhibition. Organised by the College of Fine Arts at Shanghai University, the China Prize was launched in 2010 to support the development of contemporary painting in China.

Charlotte Keenan, Head of Walker Art Gallery, part of National Museums Liverpool, said:

“This year’s selection demonstrates the extraordinary reach of contemporary painting across the UK. From Belfast to Brighton, from Glasgow to Gateshead, these 71 artists represent the vitality of painting happening in every corner of the United Kingdom today. Our congratulations go to every selected and shortlisted artist, and our thanks to all who submitted their artworks for this year’s Prize. 

The Prize continues to be a vital platform for painters working throughout the UK, and the result is a truly exciting snapshot of contemporary practice. We look forward to welcoming visitors to discover these remarkable paintings from across the nation when the exhibition opens in September.” 

The John Moores Painting Prize has awarded more than £700,000 in prize money across 32 exhibitions, which have showcased more than 2,400 works of art. Past prize winners include David Hockney (1967), Lisa Milroy (1989), Peter Doig (1993), Rose Wylie (2014), Michael Simpson (2016), Jacqui Hallum (2018) and most recently Graham Crowley winning in 2023. Sir Peter Blake, winner of the competition’s Junior Prize in 1961, is Patron of the Prize.

John Moores Painting Prize 2025 opens at Walker Art Gallery on 6 September 2025 and runs until 1 March 2026.

Admission is free, with all donations welcome.

For further information, visit liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/jmpp