25/05/2017
Writing on the Wall festival 2017

“It’s a writing festival that’s true to Liverpool…” Mike Morris, Writing On The Wall

As Writing on the Wall Festival comes to a close in Liverpool today and tomorrow night — amongst stories of resistance and the political power of music — Jack Roe caught up with its...

23/05/2017
more flinching, 2016; installation shot, courtesy Whitechapel Gallery and Heather Phillipson

“The privilege of being an artist is the ability to answer back”: Art And Protest At Frieze Academy

How important is art as a form of protest? Does the best political art hold a pertinence across time, allowing it to retain a power for later struggles? Jacob Charles Wilson reflects on...

12/05/2017
Bcoat Pierre Henry invite-slider

Playlist: Musique Concrète — Origins And Legacy

Did you know that the origins of Musique Concrète, or the mixing of recorded sounds, goes back to the 1910s? As one of its key musicians, Pierre Henry, brings a very special performance...

10/05/2017
Arabian Street Artists, Homeland Is Not A Series (2015). At FACT for How much of this is fiction. 2017

“Look and think twice”: How Much Of This Is Fiction. – Reviewed

Britney’s Baby One More Time will never sound the same again… Maja Lorkowska finds artists analysing torture, subliminal messaging and imprisonment for FACT’s current exhibition… While I’m usually apprehensive about using the phrase...

09/05/2017
Sir Peter Blake has dazzled a Mersey Ferry as part of the WW1 centenary, co-commissioned by Liverpool Biennial,  14-18 NOW and Tate Liverpool Photo: Mark McNulty

“I haven’t been taken seriously as a painter…” In Conversation: Sir Peter Blake

Interviewed by his nemesis, confessing insecurities, and returning to THOSE fairy paintings: Denise Courcoux sees an alternative side to the Godfather of Pop Art as he is appointed Citizen of Honour in Liverpool…...

08/05/2017
Urara Tsuchiya at Trade Gallery, Nottingham, 2017. Courtesy the artist.

Culture Diary w/c 08-05-2017

Our pick of this week’s arts, design, film and music events from around the UK – and most of it’s free! Monday – 61 Minutes In Munich: Howard Gayle In Conversation With Emy...

05/05/2017
Storyhouse, Chester: exterior

“Storytelling will hold this building together”: Introducing Storyhouse, Chester

Chester’s brand new cultural centre enjoys its official launch next Thursday. Ahead of the big day, Hannah Allan speaks to its staff and local residents to understand the area’s creative needs, and the...

02/05/2017
Sun Ra performing at the Bluecoat in 1990. Courtesy the Bluecoat archive

Playlist: Celebrating 300 Years Of The UK’s First Arts Centre, With Sun Ra & More

What do Sun Ra, Sonic Youth, Captain Beefheart, and the Futurama theme tune have in common? They all flavour our new playlist by the Bluecoat’s Artistic Director Bryan Biggs: musically highlighting its radically...

28/04/2017
Activating Audrey Cottin, Lift Me, 2011 at the launch of Encounters, Bury Art Museum & Sculpture Centre. Photo: Pete Carr © Liverpool Biennial

Encountering A New Approach: Liverpool Biennial Comes To Bury

Brexit, riots and doorways to another realm: Sara Jaspan finds new meanings and contexts in the next stop of Liverpool Biennial’s Touring Programme, re-titled as Encounters… Time Travel was perhaps the most intuitive of the...