Liverpool’s annual, one-night, ‘culture-crawl’ LightNight returns on Friday 21 May, with arts venues opening their doors until late to shine a spotlight on the region’s world-class artistic offer.
The line-up features over 70 free arts events which will take place online and at 30 city centre venues.
Here’s some highlights to look out for:
LUX by Focal Studios, DefProc Engineering, Urban Workbench and Everyman & Playhouse Theatres
20:30 – 23:00 at St Luke’s ‘Bombed Out’ Church
An interactive, projection-mapped game created especially for St Luke’s Church. LUX is an immersive augmented reality game and art installation, giving visitors the chance to interact with the iconic venue. Inside a futuristic control pod, inspired by 80s sci-fi games, players use contactless gesture controls to play with a wondrous machine and see the building come alive with light and energy.
Cyber Labyrinth
Online
Cyber Labyrinth is a new media exhibition co-curated by Jaxton Su (Singapore) and Nien-Ting Chen (Taiwan), which imagines the uncertainty and ever-changing notion of the future as a temporal labyrinth that reconfigures itself arbitrarily. Presented in the form of a pseudo futuristic cyber café, it showcases a wide spectrum of experimental works including but not limited to video art, animation, music video, game, sonic art and performance art. Audiences can interact with the fun and engaging artworks as they embark on a psychedelic journey of future imaginings filled with wonders and surprises.
Word Play Open Mic with WoWFEST
Online
Enjoy a special online Open Mic hosted by multi award-winning poet Ciarán Hodgers, and featuring some special guest performances from the community, and local poets and writers, Levi Tafari, Greg Quiery, and rapper K. Find out how to share your work as part of LightNight or just sit back and enjoy the array of work being shared by signing up to the Zoom here.
Play with Fire by Bring the Fire Project
In-person at Black Lodge Brewing
Join in with an extraordinary, adrenaline packed pre booked workshop to learn how to do basic tricks and manipulation with a fire sword or fire fan. Initially without fire, but then progressing to setting the props alight under the close supervision of our experienced instructors with full safety training. Booking is essential, as places are limited. A deposit is required, which will be refunded after you attend the workshop.
My Favourite Place: Keith Medley Photographic Archive
Online
Join Liverpool John Moores University as they explore the Keith Medley Photographic Archive and encourage you to contribute your own memories and observations of these special places that live on in the hearts of Scousers. Keith Medley was a commercial photographer on Merseyside between 1949 and 1987. His Wallasey-based photographic business made him well-known in the area for his work as a wedding, portrait and press photographer.
Peace Doves
In-person at Liverpool Cathedral
Liverpool Cathedral will stage an uplifting programme of musical performances, which will accompany Peace Doves, a large-scale art installation featuring over 20,000 paper doves suspended above the Well by sculptor and artist Peter Walker.
Give Us Work Not Dole: Meccano Factory presented by Central Library
19:00—20:00 Online talk with Q&A
Liverpool based Labour historian Dr. Greig Campbell will give a 30-minute talk that explores the little-known story of a rank-and-file workers’ occupation of Liverpool’s Meccano plant – the so-called Factory of Dreams. Using archival source material, comic book style illustrations and oral testimonies, Give Us Work Not Dole provides an intimate account of the 1979-80 fight to save the facility from closure – a campaign that represents one of the most remarkable chapters in Merseyside’s illustrious labour history. Find out more about the event here.
Paint The Sky by Despite the Monkey
20:00 – 22:00 at Liverpool Town Hall and online
Exploring the possibilities of play as creativity, Despite the Monkey invites you to join them at Liverpool Town Hall or online, as they enlist your help in constructing a digital mural of the city’s skyline. Take part by visiting them in Liverpool Town Hall’s majestic Council Chamber where they will be projecting the mural, or by going online and designing your own tile from wherever you may be.
Liverpool Biennial 2021: The Stomach and the Port
At Tate Liverpool, Open Eye Gallery, Bluecoat, FACT, Lush Building, Cotton Exchange, Lewis’s Building and Dr Martin Luther King Jr Building
Curated by Manuela Moscoso, The Stomach and the Port presents a total of 50 artists from 30 countries around the world with 150 works of art, including 47 new commissions. It explores concepts of the body, drawing on non-Western thinking where the body is seen as fluid, being continuously shaped by, and actively shaping its environment.
Drawing Club with Laura-Kate Draws
18:00—19:30 Online via Zoom
Families are invited to a playful workshop full of fun activities, resulting in a series of character drawings and a mini zine. Bring your imaginations and let your creativity flow over your paper. Suited to children aged 5-12 years old, who should attend with a parent or guardian. Book tickets here.
Check out the full programme of free LightNight events at www.lightnightliverpool.co.uk