Culture Diary w/c 19-05-2025
Our pick of this week’s arts, design, film and music events from across Liverpool and beyond…
Monday – The Week in WoWFEST @ Various Venues across Liverpool – £Various
Running until 30 May, 2025′s edition of WoWFEST continues this week with eight events covering everything from Musk’s idiotic saluting (in tonight’s Democracy: Rights on the Line) to Armando Iannucci and Michael Spicer’s Absurdageddon, via an evening of poetry, discussion, and critical engagement with Tuesday’s Addressing Palestine. The conversations – like this festival – are as necessary as ever.
University Centre St. Helens Degree Show 6pm @ Street and a Half, Haydock Street, St. Helens – FREE
It’s that time of year again as university staff and students toil to open degree shows; for many it will mark the first public exhibition of their works. Tonight sees Game Art, Graphic Design, Fine Art Painting, and Media Production students get their chance to celebrate the fruits of three years’ labour. Notably, this year, the exhibition forms part of the Independents Biennial.
Rushmore 7.50pm @ FACT Liverpool – £8.50
Although not his debut (that being Bottle Rocket), Rushmore is perhaps the first of Wes Anderson’s films featuring many of the associations we make with his singular style. Recurring cast members Bill Murray and Jason Schwartzman feature for the first time, while idiosyncratic yet meaningful gestures, ennui, and the influence of classic British pop are employed to great effect, as Picturehouse continue their WA retread ahead of the release of his latest, The Phoenician Scheme.
Tuesday – Exhibition Continues: ALL THAT REMAINS: a curator’s choice @ Victoria Gallery & Museum, Liverpool – FREE
Rarely is a curator given the opportunity to make an exhibition marking their departure, but with ALL THAT REMAINS, VGM’s Dr Amanda Draper does just that. Drawing on the University of Liverpool collection, Draper has selected works by favourite and overlooked artists, including William Utermohlen, Euan Uglow, Victor Pasmore, and Adrian Henri.
Celebration Event: Between 5pm @ Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool – FREE
Exhibition of photography by students of Hugh Baird’s Degree in Digital Imaging and Photography, addressing issues ranging from body dysmorphia, feelings of loneliness, community and wellbeing, and sleep deprivation, to veterans living with PTSD and sports in the LGBTQ+ community.
Wednesday – The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou 7.30pm @ FACT Liverpool – £8.50
The Wes love-in continues today with the Cousteau-like Steve Zissou. Played bumblingly by Bill Murray (at one point rocking a wet suit), for some this movie marks the tipping point of style and artifice over substance where Anderson is concerned. Others, meanwhile will, understandably I must say, be there for the – as usual – great soundtrack (not least in the troubadour-stylings of Brazilian musician Seu Jorge) and outré vibe.
North by Northwest + Q&A 7.30pm @ Liverpool Playhouse – £11-£31
Opening Tuesday (and tonight including a post performance Q&A), Hitch’s Cold War conspiracy thriller comes to Liverpool, following absolute raves elsewhere.
Thursday – Liverpool School of Art & Design Degree Show 5pm @ John Lennon Art and Design Building, Liverpool – FREE
2025 marks 200 years of Liverpool School of Art & Design, fittingly celebrated by the opening of this year’s degree shows. A good heads up for names we may see producing great, challenging work – now and in the near future – it is, rightly, a fixture in ours and the city’s cultural calendar.
Friday – The Nettle Dress 6pm @ Williamson Art Gallery and Museum, Birkenhead – £7
The Nettle Dress director Dylan Howitt calls his 2023 doc: “a story about the deep value of creativity and imagination… in tune with the natural world.” Showing as part of Landlines Studios’ current retrospective, Un/Earthed, which explores the alchemy and storytelling potential of the land, The Nettle Dress follows textile artist Allan Brown in the aftermath of his wife’s death.
Saturday – The Last Picture Show 3pm @ FACT Liverpool – £8.50
Directed by Peter Bogdanovich and starring Jeff Bridges, 1971′s rites of passage classic, The Last Picture Show, offered a tantalising hint of what Hollywood’s New Wave might achieve, while also paying homage to a time gone by: that of tinsel town’s ‘Golden Age’, using the closure of a small-town movie-house as metaphor. Very much a picture about the changing of the guard, pre-dating the director’s depression-era movie, Paper Moon (1973), it is the second opportunity to check in with Bogdanovich’s not to be overlooked contribution to the new Hollywood this week.
Saturday/Sunday – OUTER WAVES Festival @ Invisible Wind Factory, Liverpool – £Various
Exciting new cross-disciplinary music and arts festival alert! OUTER WAVES harks back to Liverpool’s relatively recent past – one in which exciting, restless people came together to produce some genuinely astonishing stuff, responding to an urgent need for culture over content. Taking place at Invisible Wind Factory, alongside such diverse acts as Gong, Ex-Easter Island Head, nil00 and Sara Wolff, expect added value in the form of excellent zine project and showcase, The Wanderin’ Library, and the wonderfully named gig poster exhibition, Onomatoposter.
Sunday – Skunk Anansie Album Launch Show 7pm @ Camp & Furnace, Liverpool From – £18
Led by the ever-effervescent Skin, Britpop survivors Skunk Anansie return with new album, The Painful Truth – their first in almost a decade. Lead single, An Artist Is An Artist, suggests this is more than a nostalgic opportunity to cash-in on their legacy.
Mike Pinnington
Images/media, from top: Liverpool School of Art & Design; Rushmore; Simon Johnson, Between (and home page); The Life Aquatic trailer; North by Northwest trailer; The Nettle Dress trailer; OUTER WAVES line-up
