Event type: Exhibition

Made on Merseyside 2

 

Made on Merseyside 2, aims to celebrate the cultural/creative industries in our area. There will be a focus on film, TV, music and writing.

At the heart of the exhibition are objects and photos, films and documents which shine light on the many fascinating stories which have shaped our local cultural landscape. 

Highlights will include an inspirational documentary on the making of the cult film classic, Letter to Brezhnev, as screenwriter Frank Clarke is from Kirkby and many of the film locations are local to Knowsley/Liverpool.

Kitty and Her Accordion is a poignant short documentary that delves into the life of Kitty, a working-class Mum in 1950s Liverpool, who was constrained by societal expectations that stifled her dreams of becoming a musician.

A celebration of the 1960s TV series Z Cars, the first series of which was filmed in and around Kirkby, and an exploration of the work of local author of stage and screen Alan Bleasdale will form part of the exhibition, along with a look at The End, a unique magazine created in 1981 in Stockbridge Village (then Cantril Farm) by founding editors Phil Jones and Peter Hooton and focusing on local life, music, football and fashion.

Also featured, will be Amazon Studios and their independent record label ‘Inevitable’. Beginning life as Liverpool Sound Enterprises in the 1970s, Amazon Studios became a central site for the local post-punk music scene, responsible for early recordings by many local bands such as Echo and the Bunnymen, Dead or Alive, Wah! and China Crisis; they also recorded the original film score to the Letter to Brezhnev film, amongst many others.

Accompanying the exhibition will be a range of talks, events and workshops.

 

Dawn to Dusk: the art of being present in nature

 

An opportunity for all young people and adults over 16 to escape the hectic nature of daily life and enjoy the focus that detailed observational drawing can offer. 

These creative sessions are guided by local artist Laura Kate. A selection of materials will be provided and participants can choose to create their own piece to take home or simply enjoy trying out different techniques.

This is not about artistic skill, but about the mindful benefits of deep concentration. We particularly welcome anyone who is brand new to the world of sketching and has always seen themselves as ‘hopeless at art’!

Sessions from early morning to twilight will offer different sensory opportunities, ranging from quiet sessions to sessions accompanied by live music, with the repertoire will be selected to reflect the time of day and techniques used. During the afternoon and evening sessions there will be a live performance by harpist Elinor Nicholson. 

Participants are encouraged to visit the the free exhibition Dawn to Dusk: Birds by Jim Moir and the day is inspired by Jim’s deep understanding of the natural world through intense observation. 

Image Credit: Pete Carr

Elizabeth Smolen: Trailblazer

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.

 

I’ll Tell You Later: BSL Happy Snappers and Emma Case

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.

Sunflower Dreams Project

The Sunflower Dreams Project is a series of exhibitions held across the EU, UK, and North America, organised by a team of international volunteers, all of whom have served in Ukraine since the full-scale war started in 2022.

The project partners with artists Nataliia and Yustyna Pavliuk, who run art healing masterclasses in Lviv, to present a sample of the paintings created by the Ukrainian children they work with. The paintings they create are filled with dreams, joy, and love for family and home.

These paintings are displayed alongside works from the Williamson’s collection by Albert Richards, the youngest official war artist to be killed in action during WWII.

Seeing them side by side offers different perspectives on the impact of war, with The Sunflower Dreams project presenting an important contemporary perspective on how war effects young lives.

 

More On The Sunflower Dreams Project

 

 

 

Wirral History & Heritage Open Days: Della Robbia and Architecture Talk

As part of Wirral History and Heritage Open Days, the Williamson will be taking a deep dive into the collection.

Join our Collections Manager Josh as we delve into the early history of Della Robbia ceramics, focusing on the beautiful panels made by the company to adorn buildings in the local area. 

FREE to attend, booking required.

 

Click Here to Book Now

September 18th, 19th & 27th

10:30am & 3pm

 

Black Maternal Health: Honouring our Ancestors

 

Part of the Diasporic strand of Radical Retrospectives

From 26 September 2025, Collective Encounters will present an exhibition of previously unseen creative material produced in our Black Maternal Health project at the Kuumba Imani Millennium Centre.

This powerful installation revisits and reflects on themes of migration through the lens of Black maternal health. Created in collaboration with Liverpool John Moores University, the work draws a striking connection between historical research into enslaved midwives in the 19th century and the stark, ongoing disparities in maternal mortality and morbidity rates between Black women and women of other racial and ethnic groups today.

The exhibition also features our ‘Hey Mama’ leaflet, designed by Black women, for Black women on maternity wards, offering peer-informed guidance and support. Visitors will have the opportunity to sign up to join our Black Maternal Health Group, which meets to discuss, plan and lead future initiatives and interventions.

Honouring our Ancestors: family friendly drop in event

On Monday 27 October, 11am – 2pm, we will be hosting a family friendly drop in event alongside the installation, led by local Black mothers. This will include an exclusive opportunity to see the original Shrine to Granny Marie, on loan from the International Slavery Museum.

Interactive creative activities will invite everyone to celebrate the achievements of their ancestors and to reflect on the legacies, strengths and qualities passed down to future generations.

You are invited to bring images, memories, stories or poems about any ancestors that you or your family would like to acknowledge.

There is no need to book for this event, just turn up any time between 11am and 2pm. If you have any access requirements or want to ask any questions in advance, please email admin@collective-encounters.org.uk 

 

 

New Borders of My Body @ Outside Walls

New Borders of My Body by Elena Subach traces a metamorphosis that begins in trauma – the loss of limbs through war – and continues in water, the primordial environment of healing and transformation. The photographs show people with amputations during aquatic rehabilitation. Their bodies, partly obscured and abstracted, hover in a threshold space where pain, memory, and presence coexist. Water becomes both the maternal womb and mirror, dissolving outlines and shaping new borders.

This project tells about a deeply intimate metamorphosis – the rediscovery of one’s own body, the making of a new map of the self where absence becomes a part of wholeness. In water, the body can once again feel whole: no longer defined by what is missing, but by its capacity to adapt, to move without resistance. Physical change reverberates with a psycho-emotional shift – a return to the self in altered form.

Yet this metamorphosis is also collective. Just as the body grieves its lost parts, the country bears its own amputation – territories of Ukraine remain occupied. Still, we keep moving, finding ways to live with pain, to stand, to speak. The body becomes a site of resistance, resilience, and quiet transformation.

Rather than individual portraits, the images waver between abstraction and recognisability, pointing towards a shared vulnerability. They speak not only of the wounds carved into flesh by war, but also of the fragility and permeability of every body – personal and political – and of the urgent need for new forms of integration, for attempts to become whole within the unhealed.

Here, metamorphosis is not only survival, but an act of reimagining both the self and the territory we live upon – through care, interdependence and presence.

All photographs were made in Lviv, at the Superhumans Rehabilitation Centre.

Superhumans is a nationwide centre for war trauma, specialising in prosthetics, reconstructive surgery, rehabilitation and psychological support for adults and children affected by war since 2022. All services at the centre are free of charge.

Elena Subach is a visual artist and photographer based in Lviv, Ukraine. In her artistic practice, Elena is concerned with questioning religion, tradition, the construction of history and the consequences of soviet colonial pasts. Shen works with topics of fragility of human bodies, death and war.

Bassam Issa Al-Sabah, THE MISSION IS THE END, THE END IS ALL I WANT!

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: MEET ME IN THE DIGITAL TWIN

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.