Event type: Exhibition

NOW CLOSING 18TH OCTOBER 2025

Discover the life of local legend Elizabeth Smolen, a Polish refugee who settled in Birkenhead and became a champion scooter racer and successful businesswoman.

A keen motorcyclist and engineer, Smolen made a name for herself by repairing, dealing and racing scooters and became part of Wirral’s scooter scene. Elizabeth Smolen: Trailblazer explores Smolen’s early life against the backdrop of Soviet Poland, and how her daring escape to England allowed her to make a new home in Wirral.

Objects from Smolen’s life, including two Vespa scooters, will be on display, alongside information about Smolen’s rich life, and stories from those who remember her.

The exhibition also explores the broader Wirral scooter scene, featuring photos and memorabilia from Birkenhead-based Cloud 9 Scooter Club.

Produced in collaboration with Big Heritage.

An inspiring exhibition showcasing the work of the Happy Snappers, a Wirral-based photography group made up of both Deaf and BSL users. 

I’ll Tell You Later explores the relationship between the Deaf experience and the hearing world. It sheds light on the barriers D/deaf individuals face, while showing the Happy Snappers as a powerful example of how inclusive, supportive communities can break down these obstacles. Through their work, the group highlights the importance of creating a more inclusive society that benefits everyone.

This exhibition is an opportunity to engage in meaningful conversation through the lens of photography.

Happy Snappers are a group of friends who are both Deaf and BSL users. They get together and enjoy life outside and explore some of the Wirral’s hidden locations and beautiful scenery, and capture these locations on camera. They are not a professional photography group but share the same love of meeting people, socialising and having fun. 

Emma Case is a socially engaged photographer working with local communities focusing on projects that often explore home, identity, memory and place. Emma is interested in building real relationships over time and working collectively, often looking at social issues and their impact but through the lens of changing the narrative through storytelling. Emma is fluent in British Sign Language and has worked with the Deaf community for over 20 years; from support worker with SignHealth to Actress with Deafinitely Theatre. Emma is extremely passionate about accessibility for Deaf audiences and artists within cultural spaces.

I’ll Tell You Later is part of Photo Here, a programme of socially engaged photographic residencies and exhibitions commissioned by Liverpool City Region Combined Authority as part of this year’s Cultural Events Programme. Developed by Open Eye Gallery in collaboration with each of six local authorities: Halton, Knowsley, Liverpool, Sefton, St Helens and Wirral.

THE MISSION IS THE END, THE END IS ALL I WANT! reflects on the patterns and cycles that shape our experience of the world.

Different systems—whether political, digital, or architectural—determine how we perceive and interact with the world. In the gallery, sculptures appear as though smashed into each other. Artefacts with their own history and identity collide, creating new objects that offer reflections of this pressure and force. A new film work follows a cast of fantastical characters as they explore the tension between following, resisting, and choosing their own paths.

The work questions whether a utopia can ever be neutral: whose future are we imagining when we build idealised digital spaces? Drawing from video game mechanics and digital aesthetics, Bassam builds environments that feel immersive but tightly controlled—worlds we can explore, but not quite alter. Through this lens, he explores how hidden ideas and beliefs can seep into worldbuilding: from dangerous ideologies to the fake, polished lifestyles sold through social media. The installation and sculptures create a space that feels like it is shifting and collapsing around us, pulling us in.

Rather than offering answers or closure, THE MISSION IS THE END, THE END IS ALL I WANT! creates space for reflection. It asks us to look again at the world we live in, and the future we hope for. In a time marked by collapse and contradiction, the imagined world becomes a place to face hard truths and rethink what is possible – where fantasy becomes a tool for survival, not escape.

Nina Davies blends fiction and non-fiction in her work to help us see the world in new ways. For this project, she worked with Eve, Luke, and Mel, three young people from the Liverpool City Region who the Teenage and Young Adult Unit at The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre NHS Foundation Trust. Over the past year, they have created an artwork based on their experiences of living with and beyond cancer. 

The group came together to imagine a fictional podcast and film, inspired by the complexities and confusion of going through cancer treatment. They shared stories of their experiences: one recalled returning after surgery to find someone else in their hospital bed. What once felt private and personal had suddenly become someone else’s. This constant shifting of space, ownership and privacy became the spark for a speculative story about what comes with being a patient. 

A digital twin used by architects when designing The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre to virtually replicate, record and monitor real-time data became the focus for the group’s creative sci-fi storytelling. Nina, Eve, Luke, and Mel began to wonder how future generations might reinterpret these places if only their digital twins were to survive.

This autumn, the University of Liverpool’s Victoria Gallery & Museum (VG&M) is set to illuminate with the opening of Lightbulb moments, an exhibition that explores the origins of some of Liverpool’s greatest ideas.

Opening on Thursday 11 September 2025 and running through to autumn 2027, the exciting free exhibition will be held in the Tate Hall Museum—located within the VG&M —as it reopens after 5 years closure due to roof restoration and the pandemic.

Great ideas can occur in many places—on a walk, in the shower, or even in bed —and many of them come from Liverpool. This exhibition explores the origins of some of the city’s most remarkable discoveries, innovations, and insights, and invites visitors to reflect on what makes ideas possible in the first place.

Drawing from the rich collections of the University of Liverpool and The National Archives, Lightbulb moments displays 150 objects – from archaeological finds and scientific tools to puzzles and literature. Highlights include teaching materials for Esperanto, the universal language invented by L. Zamenhof in 1887 to promote international peace; a pair of wooden globes – terrestrial (1833) and celestial (1799) – that chart explorers’ routes and mythic constellations while prompting reflection on Britain’s role in global history; and a re-creation of Bagatelle Nouvelle, an 1847 indoor game revived by local primary school children using original trade designs from The National Archives.

Researchers from across the University of Liverpool also play a key role in the exhibition, sharing their own moments of discovery. From history, music, and archaeology to chemistry and medical science, every faculty at the University brings its own lightbulb moment to the story. Highlights include Professor Andrew Weeks‘ creation of the Postpartum Haemorrhage Butterfly—first prototyped at home using a potato masher and LEGO and now a medical device that could save many lives worldwide. Also, Dr Ariel Camp’s breakthrough in biomechanics is also celebrated, which revealed how fish bend their spines and heads upward, reshaping our understanding of animal evolution and influencing robotics.

More than a traditional display, Lightbulb moments is a vibrant celebration of curiosity and creativity—inviting visitors to explore how great ideas take shape and inspiring them to discover their own.

Steve Slack, Lightbulb moments’ curator said: “Throughout history, Liverpool has been a hub of innovation, and this exhibition celebrates the city’s role in fostering great ideas. By weaving together historical and contemporary contributions from Liverpool’s thinkers, creators and visionaries, Lightbulb moments aims to inspire the next generation of innovators. The exhibition reinforces that anyone—from scientists and artists to students and museum visitors—can experience a moment of insight that changes the world.“As the Tate Hall Museum reopens its doors, Lightbulb moments invites visitors to step inside, be inspired and perhaps even experience their own flashes of brilliance. After all, there’s no better place to have a great idea than in a museum.”

Dr Matt Greenhall, Director of Libraries, Museums and Galleries, University of Liverpool, added: “The reopening of Tate Hall Museum is a momentous occasion. After five years of careful building restoration, it will be wonderful to see this historic space welcoming visitors once again. Lightbulb moments is the perfect exhibition to mark this new chapter, celebrating both the University and the city as a hub of innovation and great ideas.“The exhibition features unique objects and documents from the University’s significant heritage and cultural collections, alongside the work of our academics, students and city partners.  As we developed the exhibition, we worked closely with our local community—and we’re excited to continue welcoming them into a space designed to spark curiosity, creativity, and conversation. We look forward to Tate Hall Museum being a space where great ideas are showcased, shared, and created!”

Steve Burgess, Head of Exhibitions at The National Archives: “I’m really excited to see Lightbulb moments and delighted that it was inspired by Spirit of Invention. We’re all happy here that we had a small part to play in your opening exhibition. I’m sure it will be very popular.”

VG&M and Lightbulb moments are free to visit, with an accompanying public programme of events and activities designed to engage and inspire visitors of all ages. Visit vgm.liverpool.ac.uk/whats-on/exhibitions/lightbulb-moments