Event type: Exhibition

Brian & George Fell: Always Something New

 

Father and son team Brian and George Fell have been working together for over 15 years. Creating public art that has a sense of place at its heart, there are examples of their work all over the country. They both love the physicality of making sculpture. Their partnership, which began when George left school, has supported Brian’s established reputation as an accomplished public artist who can make anything in steel and enabled George to develop his own style.

Now based at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Brian has strong connections with the North West, having grown up in Seaforth and Thornton and trained as a sculptor at Manchester School of Art, supported by Sefton Council. One of his first public art commissions was in Southport, where he designed the railings for the seafront and created the landmark sculptures celebrating Southport’s seagulls and shrimps and some of the familiar characters who performed on the pier, such as the cyclist and the one-legged diver.

The exhibition at the Atkinson highlights key commissions from the past forty years, with a special focus on the work Brian and George have done together. Always making, the show also presents some of the creative work they do for themselves.

Brian has found a way to spend his life and earn a living making things, and has passed this on to George, who has inherited his father’s creative drive. Visitors will get an insight into the craft of metalwork at both a monumental and domestic scale and the working relationship between a father and son. The show reveals the approach of a mature artist who moves between materials and uses both figurative and abstract forms to explore and construct his ideas and a dynamic early career artist who brings steel to life using intricate detail.

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Free Entry.

Monday – Saturday. 10am – 4pm.

Closed Bank Holidays.

 

The Sefton Open 2026

The Sefton Open is an annual exhibition celebrating the creativity and artistic talent across the borough. The exhibition takes over The Atkinson’s art gallery in an eclectic salon-style hang and features a wide variety of works from individual artists and local groups. Each year the exhibition attracts thousands of visitors to The Atkinson.

The Atkinson’s longstanding partner, Southport Palette Club, select the work from individual artists for the Sefton Open. The club was formed in 1921 to champion the work of local artists and this will be their 100th annual exhibition at The Atkinson.

A wide variety of media is welcomed, including film, sculpture, craft, paintings, prints and textiles.

Visitors to the exhibition can purchase catalogues and are encouraged to vote for their favourite artwork on display. The artwork with the most votes will be awarded The People’s Prize. Visitors can also support local artists by investing in their work, most artworks are available to purchase through The Atkinson and the Own Art Scheme.

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Free Entry.

Monday – Saturday. 10am – 4pm.

Closed Bank Holidays.

 

 

VG&M Late: A Music Celebration

Step into Liverpool 8 after hours for a special late opening that brings the sounds, stories and spirit of Toxteth’s Black music scene to life. The Victoria Gallery & Museum invite you to explore the exhibition “Toxteth: The Harlem of Europe” in a new way — with live music, DJ sets, conversation, and hands-on experiences across the gallery.

In the 1950s and 60s, while Merseybeat defined Liverpool’s global image, another powerful musical movement was thriving in Toxteth. Rooted in soul, jazz and rhythm & blues, Black musicians in Liverpool 8 helped shape the city’s sound — mentoring early Beatles members and introducing American influences that would transform British music forever. Despite facing racial inequalities and barriers to recognition, their legacy is profound, influential, and long overdue for celebration.

What’s on:

  • Live DJ sets in the café from Kerri Ankrah-Lucas (Decks in the City), plus a record fair to dig for vinyl treasures
  • Ramon “Sugar” Deen, L8 music legend and member of The Harlems, sharing first-hand stories from the era
  • A rare chance to work with the Institute of Popular Music Archive (IPM) — explore archive vinyl and help catalogue records
  • A talk from Dr Mike Brocken on jazz pioneer Gordon Stretton for International Jazz Day
  • Music performed from across eras and genres with University music students

Whether you’re into music history, vinyl culture, live performance, or just looking for something different to do in the evening, this VG&M Late is your chance to experience the gallery in a whole new way. Free, drop in, and open to all — especially students and young people.Come for the music, stay for the stories.

Website: VG&M Late: A Music Celebration – Victoria Gallery & Museum – University of Liverpool

 

 

 

 

 

Steve McQueen: Grenfell

In December 2017, artist and filmmaker Steve McQueen made an artwork in response to the fire that took place earlier that year on 14 June at Grenfell Tower in North Kensington, West London. 72 people died in the tragedy. Filming the tower before it was covered with hoarding, McQueen sought to create a record.

See Steve McQueen’s film installation Grenfell at the Bluecoat from 16 May – 21 June. Screenings of the film will take place at set times. Entry is free but you will need to book a free timed ticket via the Bluecoat’s website.

This national tour is being coordinated by Tate in collaboration with the partner venues and is made possible thanks to support using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England and from Art Fund.  

Grenfell  in Liverpool is a co-production by Tate Liverpool and the Bluecoat. 

Accessibility

The Bluecoat is located on School Lane in Liverpool. There is step free access to all area of Bluecoat’s new wing and garden. The Bluecoat is a Grade 1 listed building so there is limited access to the older parts of the building.

There are lifts to all floors. Alternatively you can take the stairs.

  • Toilets are located on the ground and first floor, including disabled toilet facilities
  • There are baby changing facilities located on the ground floor
  • The nearest Changing Places toilet is located in Liverpool One
  • Assistance dogs are welcome in the gallery
  • Induction loops are fitted in a number of areas of the building including Tickets & Information, the cafe, the Performance Space and the Sandon Room

Additional seating is also available. Please ask a member of staff if you require assistance.

For more information before your visit:

Check out the Bluecoat’s accessibility information

George Hallett: Home and Exile

 

 

Exhibition Research Lab presents George Hallett: Home and Exile an exhibition bringing together works by Cape Town-born South African photographer George Hallett (1942-2020) who lived in exile in Europe from 1970 to the mid-1990s.

Introduced to literature, music and visual arts by South African writers and visual artists, Hallett developed his practice as a self-taught street photographer in Cape Town in the 1960s. His early images depict street scenes in places such as the neighbourhood of District Six, Black communities, and cultural figures and moments that were to become a major theme throughout his career. As a South African of mixed heritage, his experience of discrimination during apartheid, and the lack of professional opportunities, led him to exile. He first settled in England in the early 1970s before moving to France and the Netherlands.

In Europe, and on visits to the United States and other parts of the world, Hallett photographed both South African exile and Black life with the intention of creating a visual record that restored dignity to a people that was either absent or misrepresented in mainstream media. Doing so, he created an incredible photographic archive of Black resistance and resilience both in the place from which he was exiled, and the places that he called home.

George Hallett: Home and Exile focuses on the first part of his exile, with a selection of photographs taken in England in the 1970s and 1980s, bearing witness to the contribution of South African exiles to British culture and society. The exhibition is articulated around three major themes: visual artists that include portraits of pioneering figures such as Gerard Sekoto, Dumile Feni and UK-based artist Gavin Jantjes; jazz musicians, among whom the famous band The Blue Notes later known as Brotherhood of Breath; and his designs for the book covers of Heinneman’s African Writers Series then led by South African-born British editor James Currey. 

The exhibition concludes with Hallett’s return to South Africa marked by his series on Nelson Mandela during his campaign for South Africa’s first democratic elections in 1994. These images earned him a World Press Photo Award for People in the News in 1995.

First presented at Clémentine de la Féronnière (Paris) in March 2025 as part of Centre Pompidou’s “Échos Paris noir” programme, this new display, in its expanded version, coincides with the 50th anniversary of the Soweto Uprising of 16 June 1976 that raised awareness on the injustice of the apartheid regime and brought international condemnation.

The accompanying public programme includes artists and curators talks, music, performances and film screenings. 

Exhibition Research Lab John Lennon Art and Design Building, Duckinfield Street, Liverpool L3 5RD

For more information, visit www.exhibition-research-lab.co.uk or contact: info@exhibition-research-lab.co.uk

Opening times: Monday – Wednesday, 11:00am – 5:00pm, Thursday, 12:00 – 5:00pm, Friday, by appointment.

 

 

Selector: Mark Leckey Performances

Originally from the Wirral, the Turner Prize-winning artist returns to his roots in leading the curation of three nights of performances, drawing on his love of musical subcultures, sound systems, and collective experiences of sound.

The live programme features a line-up that spans national figures and local innovators across multiple genres, and the series opens at Tate Liverpool with an evening of conversation as Mark Leckey discusses the influence of music culture on his art.

Line up

Thursday 11 June: Moolakii Club Audio Interface presents – Live Soundtracks to Silent Films – Mark Leckey Special 

Moolakii Club returns with their distinctive audiovisual night blending avant-garde cinema with live experimental electronica. This event will feature Mark Leckey productions from his archives being given brand new original soundtracks live, reacting to the visuals in real time. Nothing is pre-recorded. No two nights are ever the same. The result is a shared, immersive experience – cinematic, atmospheric, and deeply engaging. Featuring VX and Sulk Rooms plus special guest.

Friday 12 June: Richie Culver (Live Set) + Mark Leckey DJ Set

“Lurking at the fringes of electronic music, artists such as Richie Culver are confronting the alienation and deprivation of the UK’s north” – The Guardian

Richie Culver is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice operates at the interstice of contemporary image culture, expanded sound, and post-documentary poetics. His work investigates the unstable architectures of memory, place, and digital subjectivity, examining how personal and collective narratives migrate across media and sediment within aesthetic form.

Saturday 13 June: SAMPLER All-Dayer Curated by Mark Leckey

“Music from the Age of Spiritual Machines”

Headlined by aya (live set) with Rainy Miller (live set) + more

Showcasing the best and most exciting names in emerging avant-garde music. Plus some non-musical performances as well as an exhibition opening in our Yellow Room Gallery and an immersive AV installation.

Selector: Mark Leckey Talk

Join us for an evening of conversation as Turner Prize winning artist Mark Leckey discusses the influence of music culture on his art.

Mark Leckey (born 1964) is a British contemporary artist, originally from Birkenhead. His found object art and video pieces, which incorporate themes of nostalgia and anxiety, draw on elements of pop culture. In particular, he is known for Fiorucci Made Me Hardcore 1999 and Industrial Light and Magic 2008, for which he won the 2008 Turner Prize.

This event will be hosted by DJ, curator, and multidisciplinary cultural producer Thristian, the founder of Global Roots, and co-founder of both Boiler Room and Worldwide FM.

Check out Selector: Mark Leckey performances – three nights of performances at Future Yard led by Mark Leckey.

About Selector

Selector is a collaboration between Future Yard and Tate Liverpool, centred on the connections between contemporary music and art.

Accessibility

Tate Liverpool is temporarily located at RIBA North, Mann Island, a short distance (425m) along Liverpool’s iconic waterfront. There is step free access to the main entrance. There is a lift to the first floor gallery, or alternatively you can take the stairs.

  • Toilets are located on the first floor
  • The nearest Changing Places toilet is located at the Museum of Liverpool
  • Ear defenders are available to borrow. Please ask a Visitor Engagement Assistant

Additional seating is also available. Please ask a member of staff if you require assistance.To help plan your visit to Tate Liverpool + RIBA North, have a look at our visual story. It includes photographs and information of what you can expect from a visit to the gallery.

For more information before your visit:

Email visiting.liverpool@tate.org.uk

Our Freedom: Then and Now

 

We are delighted to present Our Freedom: Then and Now, a vibrant national photography exhibition bringing together images from 60 locally led projects, marking 80 years since the end of the Second World War.

This exhibition features work from communities across the UK, exploring what freedom meant in these communities in 1945 and how those ideas resonate today. These 60 projects form a powerful nationwide portrait of people, place and belonging.

Developed by Future Arts Centres and Open Eye Gallery, the exhibition forms part of the wider Our Freedom: Then and Now programme. In total, 22 photographers collaborated with communities of all ages and backgrounds, inviting them to reflect on their own histories, experiences and identities.

The exhibition opened at the Southbank Centre in London and is now touring to 18 arts centres and libraries across the UK — from Exeter to Inverness, and Ipswich to Belfast — all of which were part of the programme.

Our Freedom: Then and Now is delivered by Future Arts Centres in partnership with Libraries Connected and supported using public funding by the UK Government through Arts Council England. The exhibition is produced by Future Arts Centres, Open Eye Gallery and the Socially Engaged Photography Network.

We’re proud to see the communities’ story represented within this national exhibition and to welcome audiences to experience this collective reflection on freedom — then and now.

 

Wirral Open Studio Tour

An old fire station in Port Sunlight, a room in a former New Brighton greengrocer’s and a Georgian town house in Hamilton Square are just a few of the exciting spaces visitors are invited to explore during this year’s Wirral Open Studio Tour.

Taking place over the weekend of 13-14 June 2026, the event will see more than 90 artists across the peninsula welcoming the public into their creative spaces.

Founded in 2009, this will be the 16th edition of the annual celebration of Wirral artistic talent, which is a rare opportunity to meet artists, find out more about their creative processes and even take home a piece of unique art.

The artists’ work spans a wide variety of styles, media and subjects, including painting, printmaking, ceramics, sculpture, glass, textiles, photography, woodworking and jewellery.

A free tour brochure is available online at wirralarts.com or you can pick up a printed copy at galleries, cafes, community centres and libraries in the run-up to the event.

A selection of studios are also open on Friday 12 June 6-9pm.

Pictured: Daniel Meakin in his studio.

 

Untethered

Tongue n Cheek presents their first exhibition ‘untethered’, examining the perfumed and honeydewed haze of womanhood and femininity alongside the perverse disillusioning underbelly undermining such ‘naive’ portrayals.

Please come and visit our exhibition including installations, films and paintings done by Lara Eskikaya, Megan Manning and Ruby Herd at ‘The Bakery’ in Kensington, Liverpool. 

Opening night will be on the 20th of April 2026 from 6-10pm running to the 23rd April. Enjoy baked goodies and drinks, alongside live music too!