Culture in Liverpool

[Pietari]

- deleted

[Awayo]

I'm beginning to get a little uneasy about ECOC. Does anyone if there are any concrete plans whatsoever for what will happen in 2008? There's only two years to wait now and I think I'm right in thinking we still no absolutely nothing about what events/festivals/performances/openings, etc. are to happen apart from the regular Biennial that falls in 2008 and vaguely promised opening and closing ceremonies.

Has that fat women from Australia who is the artistic director arrived yet? I have a fear that the contuing presence of David Henshaw who managed to get himself the job as the chief exec of the Liverpool Culture Company as well as the city might be holding things back. Like with the council, things can't move on until he leaves, and he is doggedly refusing to do so. With the ECOC, there's a massively important deadline appraching and no time to lose.

[JUXTAPOL]

The Aussie sheila has been in the job for about a year now, but don't know exactly what is planned yet. There is 2 years so should be plenty of time yet, so i'm not too worried yet. As for Henshaw, i hope he sod's off also, i reckon Mike Storey will have more run ins with Henshaw because Storey did mention he didn't like the way things were going with ECoC, and he wouldn't mind getting more involved to put it back on track. (no tram pun intended )

[Awayo]

Cheers Juxta

I hear that, post appointment, Robyn Archer didn't actually take residence in Liverpool straight away. Can anyone confirm that she now lives in dear old Livvy? You don't hear much from her or see her in photos of CoC events much.

Yes there are two years. Although, I would have thought (wrongly, perhaps) that we'd know much more about what would be happening in 2008 by now.

I dunno, I want 2008 to a massive success. That's why I'm perhaps paranoid, but I am feeling a bit uneasy at the moment. It's interesting that more than one of the Lib Dem candidates for leadership have expressed concern about progress from the Liverpoool Culture Company (chief exec, Sir David Henshaw). The company's current chief executive's indentity might have something to do with this, unfairly, maybe. Still I'm a bit worried right now

[Toadboy]

Aye aye steady on Awayo.

[Awayo]

not bad after getting back from the pub tho. legitimate concerns.

perhaps.

[Toadboy]

I was just concerned about this cultured lady being photographed in COC events.

[Awayo]

yep, she's a hard lady to hide. her dimensions see to that. looks a bit like Queen Victoria in Derby Square. she's a Victorian hersen as well (smartarse wanky comment, as she's from Melbourne).

[buggedboy]

She moves over in the Spring of next year, although Im not sure why that particular season is deserving of a capital S...stoopid keyboard

[Fitzroy]

From Awayo
Has that fat women from Australia who is the artistic director arrived yet? I have a fear that the contuing presence of David Henshaw who managed to get himself the job as the chief exec of the Liverpool Culture Company as well as the city might be holding things back. Like with the council, things can't move on until he leaves, and he is doggedly refusing to do so. With the ECOC, there's a massively important deadline appraching and no time to lose.

From Juxtapol
The Aussie sheila has been in the job for about a year now, but don't know exactly what is planned yet. There is 2 years so should be plenty of time yet, so i'm not too worried yet. As for Henshaw, i hope he sod's off ...

Still not a great deal to worry about, I guess (hope) but with with Henshaw's record ...

Culture chiefs pledge: we won't let you down

By Sam Lister Daily Post Staff (January 6th)

THREE leading figures behind Liverpool's European Capital of Culture plans last night came out fighting and vowed: "We will not let the city down."

Sir David Henshaw, Jason Harborow and Warren Bradley spoke out amid growing criticism over the culture of secrecy surrounding plans for the celebrations.

In an exclusive Daily Post interview, they finally admitted that Australian artistic director Robyn Archer does not yet have a visa to work in the UK, and has not signed her contract of employment. But they insisted that everything was in hand for 2008.

Ms Archer, meanwhile, continued to refuse to answer any questions, despite the mounting concern expressed over her status.

[Tony Sebo]

A fatal misunderstanding, though one that the CoC heads believe too, is that the Culture Company is going to be the font of EVERYTHING that will occur during the year.

They are NOT. They are only one of the many thousands of companies and organisations, individuals and groups that will have to be putting stuff on if the year is to be a success.

If we don't understand this as a populace then we're fucked coz the culture company couldn't generate 100th of the activity we will need to make the place buzz in 08... even if they had the inclination to.

A terible irony about it all is that the culture comapny are doing exactly what all public sector departments do...lower expectations and set their own threshold definition of success so low that they won't be able to be accused of failure. They assume that they will and should do all the things... a terrrible trap for the city to find itself in. Finally we wil lfind out that 95% of what they will provide as their calander will be stuff alreadsy established.

nety growth will be nil. We may get a few good cultural events, but what does this do to grow the city's creative/cultural infrastructure and capacity?

[Fitzroy]

I agree. I'm looking forward to the buzz provided by fringe events during 2006, 2007 and 2008. Can't wait for this year's biennial - there's always more edge outside the main events.

[Fitzroy]

Here's a link to the biennial site to save trawling for it.

http://www.biennial.com/?q=faq

[liverpolitan]

Forgotten where the thread for this kind of thing is, but it's sort of relevant. The BBC, writing our news from Manchester and Cardiff, plainly don't know that the event has been held in Greater Liverpool before. Basic local history is missing from the alien "local" news reports this organisation creates.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/north_east/4588338.stm

[Tony Sebo]

a little, though telling point, that was raised at todays gathering was that Robyn didn't know about the tate Gallery in Cornwall, saying that the one at the Albert Dock was the only one 'outside London'

[Fitzroy]

From today's Post:

Heritage of China show is 2008 coup

By Joe Riley Daily Post Correspondent

A PRICELESS treasure trove of Chinese art will give a silver lining to Liverpool's Capital of Culture celebrations in 2008, it has emerged.

Hundreds of glittering exhibits from the legendary Forbidden City will provide a direct link between Liverpool and Beijing, which is hosting the Olympic Games the same year.

The revelation comes after a week which has seen wide public criticism at the lack of detail so far released about the 2008 celebrations.

The show is described as the best display of Chinese art ever seen in the UK and also celebrates Liverpool as home to Europe's oldest Chinese community.

The exhibition marks a great coup for Liverpool's year as Europe's artistic hub.

TV presenter Loyd Grossman, chairman of National Museums Liverpool, said: "Liverpool is a global city, and here we mark the deep connections it has with China."

The Culture Company is part-funding the exhibition, which is costing £1m, together with a major private sponsor. It is understood the Culture Company and National Museums Liverpool are finalising financial details.

The six-month show will reveal life behind the scenes in China's historic imperial palace.

The exhibits include Buddhas, temple hangings, armour, weapons, clothing, personal jewellery, ornaments and musical instruments.

Some of the works are unique Chinese art forms, using jade and ceramics, and all will be backed up with videos and scale models.

A spokesman for National Museums Liverpool said: "It will be awe-inspiring, capturing the magnificence of the Imperial Court, and the world's greatest and wealthiest empire."

The exhibition, to be housed in the newly-opened wing of World Museum Liverpool, will centre on the reign of China's most famous emperor, Quianlong, who ruled from 1736-1795.

Joanna Rowlands, of NML, said: "Visitors can experience first hand what life was like at the Imperial Court."

Living With The Emperor - the working title of the exhibition - will also examine how one man met the challenges of running such a vast and multi-ethnic empire.

NML staff are working with counterparts at the Imperial Palace Museum in Beijing and Chinese scholars in Chicago to prepare the exhibition.

[Awayo]

Culture boss speaks out! To Australians, at least . . . Jan 7 2006

By Larry Neild, Daily Post


WHILE the people of Liverpool are being kept in the dark about plans for the city's 800th birthday and Capital of Culture events, audiences in Australia have been given a taste of Robyn Archer's plans.

Addressing a recent conference in Melbourne, the Liverpool Culture Company's artistic director revealed there will be a wide variety of "performative uses" of the many museums in the city.

She told delegates from theatre and performing arts circles: "Liverpool is particularly rich in such institutions through National Museums Liverpool which looks after World Museum Liverpool, the Walker Art Gallery, the Lady Lever Art Gallery, the Maritime Museum, the Museum and Centre for Understanding of TransatIantic Slavery, the National Museum of Customs & Excise and the National Conservation Centre.

"There are extensive programme opportunities for all these, especially with regard to the 200th anniversary of the Abolition of Slavery in the British Parliament in 2007, and our programme Cities on the Edge which will link Liverpool, Naples, Marseille and Istanbul."

Yesterday, the Daily Post reported that Australian Ms Archer has continued to refuse to answer any questions here, despite mounting concerns over her status.

Earlier in the week it emerged she does not yet have a visa to work full-time in this country, leaving it to others here in Liverpool to answer questions on her behalf.


In an earlier conference in Victoria, Australia, late last year, Ms Archer described in a keynote speech how she was appointed Artistic Director by the Liverpool Culture Company.


She told the audience at a high-profile lecture how she received a call from "way out in the blue", and spoke of the scale of the challenge ahead.


She said: "This task is even more specifically and overtly about the needs of a place and the very real hopes for urban regeneration through culture.


"It has already propelled me out of my comfort zone of two-week or ten-day festivals and annual or biennial programming cycles into shaping whole years across a whole city, since 2007 is also Liverpool's 800th birthday and warrants a program almost as comprehensive as 2008.


"It also propels me from the familiar environs of a beloved and beautiful Australia into the tough terrain of a city which is, on first sight, a place still very much in the process of recovery.


"It replicates, in different guise, what happened to me as a performer: working and learning in little old Adelaide and going straight from there to the National Theatre of Great Britain in London to find that what I had acquired at home was enough to equip me for the world stage."


Ms Archer described her first visit some years ago to Liverpool (long before the job offer) for something of a Merseyside reunion. She met the poets Roger McGough and the late Adrian Henri who became a friend.


She continued: "It is possible for some arts lovers to maintain a blinkered view of Australia, just as in most Australian cities it is easy to avoid the ugly bits if you can choose to live in the nice bits. This is not possible in Liverpool, for instance.


"You can choose to live in a leafy spacious area, or the up and coming docklands, but for the moment you are only ever a couple of streets away from the possibility of ongoing poverty.


"This has clear implications for the kind of arts programme one might work towards in Liverpool. It is not possible to programme only for one kind of audience there, or to favour one aesthetic over another, one artform or age group over another: in Liverpool they're all in your face and you discriminate at your peril.


ND just in case you're getting the wrong idea about Liverpool I should let you know that it is a city of 480,000, albeit with a catchment of 8-10m, and has the best visual arts profile and collections of any British city outside London - a great heritage collection from Medieval to 20th century at the Walker, the only branch of the Tate outside London (Tate and Lyle made their sugar fortune through the port of Liverpool), the only major biennial of art in Britain - a fabulous affair boasting five streams one of which is the Independents who are 120 artists in number, and a space called FACT.


"Liverpool? Well it's a challenge, but the raw material is fantastic. In approaching a place which celebrates its 800th birthday in 2007, has the oldest Chinese community in Britain and was the principal transfer point for so many Europeans, particularly Jews and Russians fleeing persecution and seeking new lives in the new world, I already see that it is different from the rest of Britain, and that the people of Liverpool are special.


"The job there is to make that place and the people of that place shine as brightly as they did in the glory days of the great port and the cavernous revival of the sixties. The focus is on them and those invited in must have meaning within the context of that huge challenge."

Quite intelligent and fairly well-informed comments (her error about the number of Tate franchises has been picked up on elsewhere) from Ms Archer about Liverpool. I'm a *somewhat* reassured. She needs to get into the job over here, full time, pdq, however.

[liverpolitan]

Originally Posted by Fitzroy

From today's Post:

Heritage of China show is 2008 coup

By Joe Riley Daily Post Correspondent

A PRICELESS treasure trove of Chinese art will give a silver lining to Liverpool's Capital of Culture celebrations in 2008, it has emerged.

Hundreds of glittering exhibits from the legendary Forbidden City will provide a direct link between Liverpool and Beijing, which is hosting the Olympic Games the same year.

The revelation comes after a week which has seen wide public criticism at the lack of detail so far released about the 2008 celebrations.

The show is described as the best display of Chinese art ever seen in the UK and also celebrates Liverpool as home to Europe's oldest Chinese community.

The exhibition marks a great coup for Liverpool's year as Europe's artistic hub.

TV presenter Loyd Grossman, chairman of National Museums Liverpool, said: "Liverpool is a global city, and here we mark the deep connections it has with China."

The Culture Company is part-funding the exhibition, which is costing £1m, together with a major private sponsor. It is understood the Culture Company and National Museums Liverpool are finalising financial details.

The six-month show will reveal life behind the scenes in China's historic imperial palace.

The exhibits include Buddhas, temple hangings, armour, weapons, clothing, personal jewellery, ornaments and musical instruments.

Some of the works are unique Chinese art forms, using jade and ceramics, and all will be backed up with videos and scale models.

A spokesman for National Museums Liverpool said: "It will be awe-inspiring, capturing the magnificence of the Imperial Court, and the world's greatest and wealthiest empire."

The exhibition, to be housed in the newly-opened wing of World Museum Liverpool, will centre on the reign of China's most famous emperor, Quianlong, who ruled from 1736-1795.

Joanna Rowlands, of NML, said: "Visitors can experience first hand what life was like at the Imperial Court."

Living With The Emperor - the working title of the exhibition - will also examine how one man met the challenges of running such a vast and multi-ethnic empire.

NML staff are working with counterparts at the Imperial Palace Museum in Beijing and Chinese scholars in Chicago to prepare the exhibition.

Wow! Now it's happening. I can't wait for that. China will be the biggest source of non-European tourists within........well you guess, their middle class able to afford longhaul holidays will probably outnumber the entire UK population within how many years? 10? 15? 20 years.?........It's VITAL that Liverpool establishes itself as a gateway and a friendly city for that market - and as a second city to visit outside London for Chinese tourists. This event could help start something incredibly valuable in the long-term. I wish Liverpool would open a representative office in Beijing or Shanghai. I know it's probably expensive and the Audit Commission might take a dim view, but honestly, a bit of long-term relationship building would be so valuable with the Chinese. That's why we need a city regional government, so such ventures would be more affordable.


EDITED: Sorry to ramble off topic, but thinking about it, it's probably not that expensive. Think of all the "partnership" staff from the numerous agencies that overlap and spend their entire working lives meeting one another to manage that overlap and "align" their damn strategies and plans. Surely one of those agencies, including the City Council, could simply designate one of its posts as based in Shanghai instead of Liverpool, and use modern IT to make sure they are part of the organisation (like working from home, but home would be in China instead of Heswall)...it would probably be cheaper than basing that person in Liverpool...you would need two staff, each on two year tours, one rotating each year to ensure consistency...and you could easily use locally recruited staff at a very low cost to do the office admin......... Liverpool's very own embassy to the Peoples Republic of China. Their job would be to know everyone who counts in the travel and tourism industry, to attend every conference and event, wine and dine, and remorsely sell the idea of Liverpool as a European centre with a Chinese history and heritage worth visiting (like the Welsh tourism in Argentina thing)........or something like that. Just thinking aloud, better stop and pause for breath.

[liverpolitan]

http://icliverpool.icnetwork.co.uk/0...name_page.html

Good news from across the modern "border" (of course, Offas Dyke was set further back)

[Paul D]

The body behind Liverpool’s Capital of Culture 2008 preparations has announced it will sponsor Tranmere Rovers FC. The Liverpool Culture Company has agreed to sponsor the League One team until the end of the current season. The 2008 logo will appear on the back of players’ shirts and shorts to advertise the event across England. Birkenhead-based Rovers chairman, Lorraine Rogers, said the deal did not mean the club was no longer proud of its Wirral identity.

more here.