Community Post Type: News

Details of the full Liverpool Irish Festival 2023 programme are now live!

The Festival showcases 10 days of outstanding Irish arts and culture, celebrating the connections between Liverpool and Ireland.

In 2023, the festival is centred on the theme of anniversary. It includes their usual Launch and Cultural Connectedness Day (Thurs 19 Oct), Family Day (Sat 21 Oct), a writing day (Sun 22 Oct) and a Samhain Céilí (Sun 29 Oct), as well as walking tours, talks, performances and gigs.

Browse all the events here

The festival is held 19 – 29 October, various Liverpool venues.

This autumn, from 7 October 2023 – 30 March 2024, visitors to the University of Liverpool’s Victoria Gallery & Museum can explore the vibrant work of Liverpool-based artist and intellectual, Fanchon Fröhlich (1927 – 2016) alongside British abstract artists of the 20^th century.

Abstract Thinking: Fanchon Fröhlich & Her Contemporaries is a free exhibition featuring 11 of her paintings and prints showing her strongly gestural and spontaneous abstract expressionist style. Presented alongside her work will be paintings by eight other abstract artists from the University’s collection, many of whom Fröhlich worked alongside during her career.

Through viewing the work of Fröhlich alongside important artists such as Gillian Ayres (1930 – 2018), Sandra Blow (1925–2006), Peter Lanyon (1918–1964), William Hayter (1901 – 1988), plus other leading artists who worked in the city during from the 1950s onwards, visitors can explore the mutual flow of ideas and influences.

In the 1960s Fanchon Frölich enjoyed professional success; she exhibited alongside artists such as Joan Miró, her work entered prestigious collections including the Walker Art Gallery’s, and her academic theories were published by the avant-garde publication, Situationist International. But from the 1980s onwards, Fröhlich’s work began to be overlooked. This exhibition seeks to re-establish her position in the artworld by showing her work alongside that of her contemporaries.

Nicola Euston, Head of Museums and Galleries at the University of Liverpool, said: “We are delighted to showcase the work of Fanchon Fröhlich in this unique way. This is the first time her work has been seen alongside these major paintings from our own collection by a range of her contemporaries. Fröhlich’s work did not get the recognition it deserved during her lifetime and we hope this exhibition offers more context to her achievements and artistic practice.

“We are especially grateful to the British Art and Design Association (BADA) for lending Fröhlich’s artworks, and without which this exhibition wouldn’t be possible. I’d like to express a special thanks to Terry Duffy, Chair of BADA, for his help and collaboration in preparing this exhibition with the assistance of BADA’s Emma Embery.”

 Fanchon Fröhlich & Liverpool

Born Audrey Fanchon Aungst in Iowa, USA in 1927, she studied the Philosophy of Science at the University of Chicago during the mid-1940s. While visiting Liverpool in 1949 she met the eminent physicist Herbert Fröhlich who had just taken up a senior position at the University of Liverpool. They married the following year. Fröhlich studied for a degree in Linguistic Philosophy at the University of Oxford then, in a major career change, undertook a post-graduate qualification at Liverpool College of Art in the mid-1950s. Her teachers there included George Mayer-Marton (1897 – 1960), Arthur Ballard (1915 – 1994) and Austin Davies (1926 -2012) who are also represented in the exhibition.

Fanchon Fröhlich’s artistic caree

During the late 1950s Fröhlich worked in St Ives alongside Peter Lanyon and then in Paris with print-maker William Hayter among many others. In Liverpool in the late 1980s Fröhlich embarked on communally produced artworks she called Collective Phenomena, where multiple artists worked on a single painting in a session accompanied by composer Lawrence Ball on keyboards. Her friendship with Liverpool-based artist Terry Duffy was also a source of artistic inspiration. A major work of his, The Miraculous Draught of Fishes, exhibited in the 1991 John Moores Painting Prize, is displayed in the exhibition.

By her death, Fröhlich’s house in Liverpool was filled with paintings, prints and associated personal archives. The collection is now managed by the British Art and Design Association (BADA) and can be seen online at www.badaart.org/fanchon-frohlich/

This exhibition is a counterpoint to the solo show of Fröhlich’s work, The Wrong Sex, held at Liverpool John Moores University’s Exhibition Research Lab in Spring 2023.

They’re getting very excited at Homotopia HQ, as they fast approach this year’s festival.

They’ll be bringing an amazing mix of events to our great city and can’t wait to welcome you through the various queer doors they’re taking over. From wrestling, yes you read that right, to quiet contemplation and a party in a dark tunnel…

Take a look at this year’s programme and get booking those tickets! Look out on socials for the latest news and keep an eye out for their brochure which will be hitting the streets early October.

They can’t wait to see you in November!

Have a nosey at the full line-up here. 

They’ll be running special Student Days promotion soon at Cass Art Liverpool and online. They’ve got some great deals available for students.

This time the fantastic offers are also available to Viridian Card holders – our discount card for Art Educators. You can find out more about the Viridian Card here.

Don’t miss @cassart1984 Student Days in-store & online! Students get 20% off everything and free art goodies worth £70 from Weds 27^th to Fri 29^th September in selected stores & online!

Plus there are live demos in-store, giveaways & more. T&Cs apply*

Find out more: www.cassart.co.uk/student-day

Blue Room, Bluecoat’s inclusive arts project for learning disabled and neurodivergent artists, will launch an exciting artistic collaboration with international cosmetics retailer Lush on Thursday 21st September.

The group of artists have designed a new Knot Wrap which will be sold in all Lush shops globally and online, featuring a festive design. A Knot Wrap is an ornately decorated fabric that replaces the need for disposable wrapping paper or even a carrier bag. Titled “Party Animals”, the Blue Room design for Lush includes birds from the song “The Twelve Days of Christmas”, memories of the group’s Christmas party karaoke, and a series of animals in winter costumes. The whole scene is set beneath a sky of Northern Lights, inspired by the patterns that Lush’s famous bath bombs leave in water.

The project began last year when Blue Room were approached by Emma Caswell from Lush’s gift design team in December 2022, and were asked to share images of their artists’ work from the archive. Emma invited the artists to respond to a festive brief and the group began the process of developing a collaborative design.

Blue Room first carried out a series of research visits to Lush Liverpool, where they experimented with making bath bombs and explored the project collections. Back in the Blue Room studio the group developed their own designs inspired by their visits to Lush. They used powdered inks to create colourful skies influenced by their experiments with bath bombs, drew an eclectic cast of animal characters using pencils, posca pens and paints, and collaged visuals of the “Party Animals”.

Becky Waite, Blue Room Project Manager, says “We’ve always supported Blue Room artists to connect and collaborate with contemporary artists to make and share work. Working with a retail partner on a design brief was a new experience for us all and the team at Lush were so supportive. They appreciated all of the rich details and imaginative stories interwoven into the design.

“Receiving the news that after all of the hard work of the artists and the staff team, the Party Animals design had been selected to be sold in stores all around the world was a milestone moment and up there as one of the proudest achievements in the project’s 15 year history.”

Rhoda Lloyd, Lush Gifts Project Manager, says “This festive season we have collaborated with six artist groups and we’re super excited that this year we’re working with Blue Room. We love working with a wide range of designers as it enables us to keep our ranges fresh and it’s an opportunity to highlight the work and celebrate artists from many different backgrounds. We believe all artists, regardless of background should have the same opportunities to showcase their work.”

The Party Animals Knot Wrap will be for sale as a limited edition in Lush stores and online from Thursday 21st September.

To mark the collaboration Blue Room will plan and host a celebratory event on Sunday 19 November in Lush’s largest store in Liverpool. This public event is free to attend and the event details are as follows:

Blue Room X LUSH Liverpool 

Party Animals: A Top Floor Takeover 

LUSH Liverpool, 38 – 46 Church St, Liverpool, L1 3AW

Sunday 19 November

11am – 4pm

Free, donations welcome

Drop-in

The top floor of the LUSH Liverpool store will be transformed into a winter wonderland as the artists bring elements of the Party Animals design to life with artworks and interactive installations.

Visitors can step inside Party Animals, Blue Room’s imagined ‘menagerie at the North Pole’ to find tigers in pixie boots, penguins on bicycles and a partridge in a pear tree.

There will be a rare chance to meet the artists behind the design, and printmaking activities in a drop-in creative workshop. Visitors will also have the opportunity to find the perfect ethical festive gift with a pop-up Blue Room print shop selling a brand new collection of limited edition art prints created by Blue Room artists in the Bluecoat Print Studio.

All proceeds support the Bluecoat charity and directly contribute to supporting learning disabled and neurodivergent artists to develop creative and social skills and share their work with audiences.

A new, gripping conspiracy thriller from The Book Guild Ltd, The Organisation by Martin M. McShane.

Martin grew up in Liverpool, often playing in the old docks area as a child, and has entrenched parts of the plot of his book in Liverpool and the surrounding areas (including a scene that unfolds at a military camp between Liverpool and Southport called Altcar, scenes in Huyton, and a nod to Penrhyn Street School which Martin previously attended).

Set between the 1930s and the 1970s, The Organisation follows a young woman recruited into a secretive society, and her dramatic rise and fall within the organisation.

About The Organisation

Following the tragic deaths of both her parents, baby Alice is adopted by childless relatives. They rename her and in doing so erase her past. Margaret, as she is known, is brought up in a world of luxury, but always senses that something isn’t quite right. In her teens, she comes to the attention of the enigmatic Max, a recruiter for the Organisation – a secretive society whose origins stretch back almost a thousand years. Originally created to destroy the aristocracy, some say that it has become just another criminal enterprise…

Is the Organisation a force for good or evil? That depends on your perspective. Are those who want to destroy it forces for good or evil? That, too, depends on your perspective. Throughout its time, the Organisation has defeated many adversaries, but in the twentieth century it faces the biggest challenge to its survival.

After spending a number of years working in New Zealand and Australia, Martin M. McShane returned to the UK and now lives in North London. While in Australia, Martin was seconded to the Royal Australian Navy where he ran security and communications for warships anchored in Sydney Harbour. Martin now works as the Global Programme Director for a major IT company specialising in implementing web-based stock exchange systems around the globe.

Martin says, “I’m especially fond of conspiracies relating to those secret organisations that are really running things in the background, New World Order type conspiracies, if you will, they get my imagination going most and are the basis for my book, The Organisation; the oldest, the most ruthless and the most secret of all secret Organisations. What would an Organisation look like that could run everything in the background without ordinary people like us ever knowing about it?

“For a start, it would have to be massive, which at one point two million disciples worldwide, The Organisation is; it would have to be embedded throughout every aspect of life and society, which, through the depth and reach of its recruitment programme, The Organisation is and it would have to have ‘something’ on people in order to keep them under its control, which The Organisation has, be it greed or just good old fashioned blackmail. Could such an Organisation exist? According to some conspiracy theories it already does. Some events in the book are taken from my own life experiences and it is with total confidence I can say that it can only be dark forces operating in secret in the background that have, thus far, kept me from achieving my full potential. Hopefully The Organisation will change all that.”

Published by The Book Guild Ltd

RELEASE DATE:  28/09/2023      ISBN: 9781915853141     Price: £9.99

 

 

Prepare to be dazzled as the much-anticipated River of Light returns to Liverpool this October, igniting the city’s night skies with an enchanting display of illuminated artistry. The event, which has become a beloved tradition, promises to be more captivating than ever before, with four stunning new artworks joining the mesmerising light trail.

Once again, Liverpool will play host to the imaginative creations of the world’s most innovative light artists, continuing the tradition of illuminating the city’s soul. Following the resounding success of the 2022 event, which attracted a quarter of a million visitors and injected a staggering £6 million into the local economy, this year’s River of Light will grace us from Friday, October 27th, to Sunday, November 5th.

The theme for this year’s spectacle is “United By Light,” drawing inspiration from Liverpool’s history as the host city of one of the most memorable Eurovision Song Contests, where music united the world. As the event unfolds, the city itself will be united by the mesmerizing glow of these radiant installations.

While many of the details about the 2km-long light trail remain shrouded in secrecy, we can unveil a sneak peek of the artistic wonders that await:

Emergence

Prepare to be transported into a world of meditative wonder as you explore a three-by-ten-meter pavilion adorned with over 10,000 LED lights and mirrors. Crafted by the globally acclaimed artists, This is Loop, this installation harnesses the transformative power of light and sound to create a mesmerizing experience. A choreographed light show accompanied by an enthralling soundtrack will leave you spellbound.

Lampshades Bouquet

French artistic studio TILT adds a touch of whimsy and poetry to everyday objects with this creation. Expect to encounter gigantic outdoor versions of household lamps, illuminated in a stunning array of colors. Each lampshade bouquet is curated in a uniquely captivating way and features benches at its base, inviting you to pause and bask in its radiant glow.

Elysian and Elysian Arcs

Atelier Sisu, a Sydney-based design studio, presents these never-before-seen commissions that celebrate the beauty of the everyday. A colossal inflatable creation beckons you to walk around and through it as it dances with changing colours in response to light and form. Adding an auditory dimension, Liverpool-based award-winning composer John McHugh has crafted a brand-new soundscape to accompany both Elysian artworks.

The full lineup of installations and their locations will remain a mystery until early October, heightening the anticipation for this luminous extravaganza.

To stay updated on the latest River of Light developments, be sure to visit www.visitliverpool.com/riveroflight or follow @visitliverpool_ on Instagram. 

FACT Together is their annual commissioning scheme set up to support early-career artists in the North of England to create new digital art!

FACT Together 2022 artist cohort is made up of Dongni Liang (Liverpool), Nicole Prior (Manchester), Charlotte Southall (Liverpool) and Ellie Towers (Liverpool). Working across film, alternative reality, performance, games, textiles and sculpture, the artist’s consider the different ways technology affects our collective existence.

Responding to experiences of togetherness across physical and digital formats, the artists have created four new digital artworks that can be explored in the gallery and online.

Discover more about each artist and their online artworks here, plus check out their Liverpool Echo feature here.

A ghostly figure has visited the signalman twice already, each time preceding a terrible disaster. When the apparition appears for the third time, it’s up to the signalman to decode its meaning and prevent another catastrophe.

A gripping slice of gothic horror from Charles Dickens, regarded as the greatest horror story ever written.

In the tradition of classic oral storytelling, a lantern and two players is all that is needed to tell the spine tingling tale of the Signalman.

The tour starts at the atmospheric Engine Room at Metal, Edge Hill Station and will visit various locations during November.

Including, the idyllic Mansion House, The Reader at Calderstones, the popular pub theatre in Salford, The Kings Arms, the reputed establishment Liverpool Athenaeum and a new performance space for Artsgroupie, The Storey in Lancaster

After the success of last years Ghost Stories for Xmas, which will be returning in December, Artsgroupie is delighted to be working again with esteemed local writer and director David Griffiths

“The Signalman is a powerful and haunting story about survivor’s guilt and isolation – something we believe will be of striking relevance to our audience following the pandemic. Our inability to control events around us can be more frightening than any ghost, as Dickens knew well. He wrote from experience, a survivor of the Staplehurst railway disaster – events that both inspired and haunted the author.” 

David Griffiths, Writer and Director 

“Last year, I worked with David on a critically acclaimed production of Orwell’s 1984 and Artsgroupie produced the successful Ghost Stories For Xmas. 

We are delighted to be once again collaborating on a much loved classic, playing some new locations and re-visiting some of our favourite local venues.”

John Maguire, Creative Director ArtsGroupie

See here for tickets