The full report on the “Let’s Work Together” conference has now been published and can be downloaded here.

In addition to the full conference report LARC has also published a paper containing participant feedback and recommendations for further action. This paper can be downloaded here

On 21st June, Liverpool Arts Regeneration Consortium hosted a national conference of leading arts sector figures interested in sharing good practice and some of the critical understanding needed to realise future opportunities for collaboration, both within and beyond the sector.

At the conference members of LARC were able to pass on their learning and experience from the LARC model of collaboration,  alongside speakers such as Clore Leadership programme director Sue Hoyle, Director General of the English-Speaking Union Michael Lake,  Chief Executive of &Co Alison Edbury, Piali Ray the Director of sampad South Asian Arts, DCMS Head of Research Dr Adam Cooper,  Dave Moutrey, Director and Chief Executive of Cornerhouse. Speaker Biographies are available to view online.

The conference was specifically designed to examine:

• models of leadership in collaborative practice
• art and artist-led examples of collaborative practice
• collaboration in rural settings
• how collaboration can unlock new business models
• collaboration within the changing public sector landscape
• plus new methodologies and expectations for demonstrating your case

Each delegate was able to register for a couple of practical workshop sessions, that were designed to encourage open and pragmatic exploration of collaboration models and approaches, which included lessons from Thrive projects from across the country and LARC itself.

The conference programme is still available to download if you would like to see more details from the workshops.

A full conference report will be available shortly,  in the mean time an online resources document has been compiled from the contributions of  a number of the speakers and delegates at the Let’s Work Together conference. You can read it online below or you can download it.

How Audiences and Visitors are Transformed by Cultural Experiences in Liverpool

In this collaborative pilot study, eight arts and cultural organisations in Liverpool (acting together as the Liverpool Arts Regeneration Consortium, or LARC) surveyed audiences and visitors about the impacts of their experiences over the 2009-10 season.

This report discusses the range of findings with respect to audiences’ ‘readiness to receive’ the art and the six constructs of intrinsic impact:  captivation, emotional resonance, spiritual value, intellectual stimulation, aesthetic growth and social bonding.  The results of the study have stimulated conversations about artistic programmes, audience engagement, customer service and other topics, and also helped to advance a longer arc of learning about impact assessment underway in the U.K., U.S. and Australia.

Together with the wide range of smaller cultural organisations and other major venues in Liverpool, LARC represents a cultural infrastructure that is among the best of any of the major English regional cities.

For this project, Baker Richards Consulting worked in partnership with WolfBrown, combining significant experience across research, data analysis and marketing in the cultural sector.

WolfBrown has pioneered the development of this type of research in the cultural sector in the US and this would be a groundbreaking study for the arts in the UK. WolfBrown helps foundations, government agencies and non-profit organizations understand their potential and fulfill the promise of their missions.

Documents

Intrinsic Impacts Pilot Study Report, June 2011

Press Release: Intrinsic Impacts

The new City of Radicals website www.cityofradicals.co.uk is now available with a  line up of events.

Available now
Nerve’s 2011 calendar, with images relating to 1911 was launched at the Bluecoat in December. Copies from News from Nowhere. Nerve magazine to continue with related events throughout the year. Web: www.catalystmedia.org.uk/

February

Date/s: 2nd February – 3rd April
David Jacques: The Irlam House Bequest
Installation by 2010 Liverpool Art Prize winner featuring series of drawings and painted silk banner in the style of a traditional British Trade Union, representing a banner workshop run by a collective of artists opposed to Victorian artisan and entrepreneur George Tutill, who monopolised production of union banners in the 19th Century.
Venue: The Walker
Organiser: The Walker
Web: www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/walker/

Date/s: 3rd February
Centenary of Robert Tressell’s death: wreath laying at former Liverpool Infirmary; ceremony at the Rice Lane cemetery; celebration event at the Town Hall; launch of large commissioned Tressell banner on Dale St, Liverpool city centre by David Jacques & schools banner project. LCC’s other Tressell plans include distributing copies of his Ragged Trousered Philanthopists; readings from the book at local libraries; and a Roscoe lecture
Venue: Various
Organiser: Liverpool City Council

Date/s: 7th February
Tressell community drama performance at the Casa
Venue: The Casa, Hope Street
Organiser: Liverpool City Council

Date/s: 14th -20th February
Liverpool Discovers: A Winter’s Trail.
Art trail round city centre based on local people’s stories – linking to the radicals theme
Venue: Various
Web: www.liverpooldiscovers.co.uk

March

Date/s: 12th March
International Women’s Day
Events, films and talks to celebrate International Women’s Day, plus other associated events
Venue: The Bluecoat
Organiser: Gillian Howie, University of Liverpool
Web: www.thebluecoat.org.uk/

Date: Tuesday 15th March 6.30pm-8.30pm
Strike for Liberty! – The Remarkable Story of the 1911 Liverpool Transport Strike
A discussion and excerpts from theatre production “Rid the World” by Rob Johnston
Venue: Metal@ Edge Hill Station, Platform 1,Tunnel Road, Liverpool, L7 6ND
Organiser: Metal
Web: http://www.metalculture.com/

Date/s: 1st April -11th June
Collaboration Programme: An Exhibition with the People of Liverpool
An exposition representing the breadth and reach of FACT’s Collaboration Programme working with communities.
Venue: FACT
Organiser: FACT
Web: www.fact.co.uk/

Date/s: 14th-18th March
Festival of Performing Arts
This will include some Robert Tressell inspired performances
Venue: St George’s Hall
Organiser: Liverpool City Council

Date/s: from March to September
City of Radicals ‘provocations’ series
Public debates and events on key topics related to the radical theme
Venue: Various
Organiser: University of Liverpool

Date/s: From March to December
Series of events on radical topics relating to Liverpool, past, present & future
Interrogating through debates, talks, films etc: feminism, unemployment, cosmopolitanism, post-industrial Merseyside, education – the free schools movement from Francisco Ferrer to Scotland Rd Free School, politics of food, urban regeneration, art and historiography
Venue: Various
Organiser: Steering group contact Brian Ashton

April

Date/s: 22-30 April
Working Class Life & Music Festival
The Festival exists to celebrate the lives and stories of ordinary working people
Venue: Various
Organiser: Alun Parry
Web: www.workingclassmusic.org.uk/

May

Date/s: 1st – 31st May
Writing on the Wall
The WOW festival has a long history supporting radical writing, from the local to the international, so is well placed to contribute to the 2011 events
Venue: Various
Organiser: Writing on the Wall
Web: www.writingonthewall.org.uk

Date/s: 13th May – 10th June
Look 11: Liverpool International Photography Festival
New biennial photography festival includes a conference, exhibitions and events, in response to the theme of ‘photography as a call to action’. Guest curator: Stephen Snoddy
Venue: Various including Open Eye, the Bluecoat, NML
Organiser: Red Eye, Open Eye and other partners
Web: www.look2011.co.uk

Date/s:  May – September
Paul Trevor’s Liverpool 70s photos
Part of Look 2011
Venue: The Walker
Organiser: NML
Web: www.look2011.co.uk

June

Date: TBC
‘Liverpool: City of Radicals’ book launch. Book comprises commissioned essays on topics including art, politics, football, architecture, performance, women, ‘Livercool’; edited by Bryan Biggs and John Belchem
Venue: TBC
Organiser: Liverpool University Press, LARC and the Institute of Cultural Capital

Date/s: 24th June – 25th Sept
Art in Revolution: Liverpool 1911
Restaging of the 1911 Post-Impressionist exhibition when Picasso, Matisse, Cézanne and others exhibited alongside Liverpool artists at the Bluecoat at the invitation of the Sandon Studios Society
Venue: The Walker
Organiser: The Walker
Web: www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/walker/

July

Date/s: 19th July
Liver Building centenary celebration.
Venue: Pier Head
Organiser: Liverpool City Council

Date/s: 22nd-24th July
On the Waterfront
A focus on the Liver centenary and opening of the new Museum
Venue: Pier Head
Organiser: Liverpool City Council, National Museum Liverpool

August

Date/s: August – September
Albert Lipczinski
Exhibition of Liverpool Polish émigré artist who exhibited in Post-Impressionist show in 1911. A political radical who painted portraits of union leaders Tom Mann & James Larkin and befriended Augustus John, Lipczinski’s story has been researched by David Bingham and is told in a forthcoming book and this exhibition.
Venue: Williamson Art Gallery
Organiser: Williamson Art Gallery
Web: www.wirral.gov.uk/whats-on

September

Date/s: 30th September – 27th November
Democratic Promenade
This exhibition, curated specially for Liverpool City of Radicals, will draw on various ‘radical’ moments in Liverpool and Labour history whilst looking more broadly at ideas around democracy. Artists in discussion with the Bluecoat include David Jacques, Oliver Walker, Dave Sinclair and there will also be fascinating archive material.
Venue: The Bluecoat
Organiser: The Bluecoat
Web: www.thebluecoat.org.uk/

October

Date/s: 12th-16th October
Chapter & Verse Literature Festival
The Bluecoat’s annual literature festival takes a radical theme
Venue: The Bluecoat
Organiser: The Bluecoat
Web: www.thebluecoat.org.uk/

Other venues and organisations in the city, including the Philharmonic, Africa Oye, Unity Theatre, Liverpool Irish Festival, Collective Encounters, the Duncan Society, Hope University, News from Nowhere bookshop, Liverpool Parks and the Primary Care Trust, are also planning programmes – to be announced.

The Larc partners do this this by creating innovative programming, by engaging people with great art and culture, by stimulating creativity, by connecting different parts of the city, by empowering local communities, by promoting the image of Liverpool and the region and by creating economic growth.

DOCUMENTS
Culture_and_Civic_Responsibility.pdf

Thrive Exhibition

This exhibition at the Bluecoat is delivered in partnership with Liverpool PCT as the city celebrates the launch of a ‘Decade of Wellbeing’ in the North West.

The exhibition includes:

Photographs taken by residents of Anfield, County, Everton and Kirkdale representing a personal commentary on culture, life and local regeneration.

A ‘snapshot’ of artefacts and documentation from a range of projects lovingly delivered by cultural organisations with North Liverpool communities.

Come and see how communities in North Liverpool are using the arts to help re-tell their stories, changing perceptions from without and within…

Visit the Bluecoat website for more information. www.thebluecoat.org.uk

Opening Times: 11am-5pm
The exhibition continues until the 22 January

a.P.A.t.T. & Orchestra 10 10 – Presents Sound Relay

This was a magnetic relay of sound as musicians including Ensemble 10/10 and the a.P.A.t.T. Orchestra took people on a cumulative journey of musical happenings from Hope Street to the Albert Dock. Inspired by the Tate Liverpool Touched exhibition as part of the Liverpool Biennial, and taking composer Jennifer Watson’s Reflections as its focus, dozens of musicians tested the limits of their own practice to create a series of surprising, experimental and reflexive happenings. Following the Long Night trail, the procession gathers pace, picking up new musical material along the way and culminating with a finale in the Tate Gallery, including in and around the installation of Magdalena Abakanowicz’s Embryology (1978–1980).

More from a.P.A.t.T is available on their website