Coloriage : soldes – soldes – conseiller Liverpool festivals, exhibitions and shows you can enjoy at home during lockdown

Summer in Liverpool is like nowhere else – a festival or two or even three every weekend, galleries packed with blockbuster exhibitions and an exciting theatre programme in the run up to the break.

During lockdown of course, art galleries and theatres are closed, festivals have been postponed and the city is so quiet it’s like a scene from a zombie film.

But engaging with their audiences is something our culture organisations excel at, and even within days of closures being announced, they were making plans of how to keep connecting with – and entertaining – Merseyside in this strange and often upsetting circumstances.

From holding festivals in our living rooms to dance classes in the garden, here are some of the many ways you can still get your culture fix during lockdown. And most of them are free.

Sound City

With this year’s usual event postponed until September, Sound City is holding a Stay at Home Festival tomorrow (Saturday, May 2) with a DJ set from headliners Friendly Fires.

The Wombats, Red Rum Club and The Night Cafe will play live among more than 30 emerging artists from 12pm onwards.

You usually have to pay to access streaming platform GuestHouse, where the festival is being held, but you can watch for free by starting a 60-day free trial.

Festival founder Dave Pichilingi said: « We were determined to fill the space in May that we have occupied for the past 13 years. We have put together an amazing line up of diverse artists and speakers from right across the globe. »

Liverpool Everyman & Playhouse

Although both theatres have been dark for over a month, with all current shows cancelled or postponed, the Everyman and Playhouse team are continuing their work supporting people across the city.

Its Life Rooms at the Playhouse scheme is providing Confidence Through Drama Improvisation sessions via Zoom, in partnership with Mersey Care NHS Trust. And its Young Everyman Playhouse sessions, script surgeries and playwrights programme have also all moved online.

The Everyman’s monthly spoken word night A Lovely Word are now taking place online, with the next one on May 7 headlined by National Poetry Slam Champion Solomon OB. Details of how to watch here.

The theatres are in the process of creating online resources to keep kids entertained. The first is a « build a play » session for KS2 with new activities posted every Tuesday and Thursday that culminate in a play. You can find it here.

And the team is working on what it says will be « an exciting digital project that we will need audiences to get involved in ». Few details of what this will entail yet but Love, Liverpool: an A-Z of Hope will involve taking people on a journey around Liverpool, with a few little gifts along the way from friends of the theatre and commissioned artists from the city region. They’ve promised more details in May, so watch this space.

Gemma Bodinetz, artistic director of Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse theatres, said: “It’s been of the upmost importance to us that the many individuals and groups, some of whom are extremely vulnerable, who rely on us in normal times retain contact, support and inspiration in this most difficult period of history. »

Unity Theatre

Looking for family activities, quiz nights, live music sessions or workshops? Then you’ll want to check out the Unity’s What’s On(Line) calendar of events. It’s updated daily.

The theatre has also released the first episode of its brand-new podcast A Kick Up The Arts, hosted by playwright, producer and musician Saphena Aziz, which ‘aims to unpack some of the big talking points setting the arts and culture sector alight’.

Episode one is available now and explores the word ‘regional’, asking if it does more harm than good. Guests are Liverpool-based playwright Luke Barnes and former ECHO arts editor Catherine Jones. Find it here.

The Unity has also pulled together a useful list of resources for everyone from theatre makers to families. You can find it here.

And since the Hope Place building’s closure, the theatre been running a programme to support the city’s creative community through this financially uncertain period. It includes regular support sessions online, one-to-one support on funding applications, signposting artists to paid digital performance opportunities and running an online programme of events and workshops with leaders of the sector. More details here.

Gordon Millar, Unity Theatre CEO, said: « In these difficult times the Unity Theatre team are continuing with every effort to support our audience, artists and wider communities.

« Creativity is not constrained by physical walls, nor our relationship with our audiences defined by the transaction of purchasing a ticket, so we will continue to look after our audiences, just as they have always looked after us, for as long as the closure should continue. »

FACT

We’re all missing the chance to roam free outdoors at the moment so FACT is bringing the outside in with a free programme of events.

The Living Planet explores our relationship with the natural world through weekly podcasts, live streams, videos, challenges and activities, looking at how we can build a more sustainable, responsible global community

The programme launched with an interactive Instagram project by artist collective Keiken – visit FACT’s Instagram page to try on a brand new filter – and How to Build Your Own Terrarium’ online tutorial with local artist Greg Herbert.

FACT has also announced a brand new online commissioning scheme to support artists in lockdown. It’s open to all artists living or working in the North of England and will offer 10 early-career artists a grant of £1,500 each plus three months of support to develop an idea that will be presented online. The deadline for this has now passed, with the art work being presented later this year.

Nicola Triscott, CEO, said: « FACT has always brought people, art and technology together. In this time of lockdown and movement restrictions – which we are aware, for some in our community, could continue for many months – we are using both old and new technologies, from radio and telephone to augmented reality and geolocation, to connect people through social and creative activities. »

Liverpool Philharmonic

While nothing beats a hearing the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra playing live in its beautiful art deco concert hall, the Phil has come up with a whole list of ways of keeping the music going during the building’s closure.

Every Tuesday evening at 7.30pm, its Facebook page is screening videos from contemporary artists who regularly perform at the hall, often introduced by the artists themselves. They include The Real Thing, Irish Sea Sessions and Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark.

Then at 7.30pm on Thursdays and 2.30pm on Sundays, there are videos from the archives of past performances by the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, as well as chamber music concerts by musicians from the Orchestra. Watch along with fellow music lovers around the world, and join in the conversation.

As of last Wednesday, the Phil had clocked up 313,000 video views, reaching more people than it usually would in an entire orchestral season in Liverpool.

You can also listen to previously unreleased RLPO recordings streamed on the website each Friday and watch videos of many past concerts as well as artist interviews on the Phil’s YouTube channel.

The Philharmonic is also creating Spotify playlists curated by some of the artists it works with. Click here for chief conductor Vasily Petrenko’s playlist to reflect the troubled times we find ourselves in right now.

And if all that weren’t enough, Petrenko will appear on Scala Radio from 8-10pm on Sunday, May 3 in a programme featuring works by Grieg, Mahler and Bach. Listen online here.

dot-art

Independent art gallery dot-art is running a number of online creative classes ranging from Beginners Digital Photography to Introduction to Lino Cut.

They are paid-for courses and run for different time periods depending on the skill. You can find out more and sign up here.

While dot-art’s physical gallery on Queen Avenue in Liverpool city centre remains closed, anyone wanting to buy art from its members can « video view » via short films of original works shown from all angles. And there’s a new flat rate for courier delivery on all purchases.

There’s also a new, online Teachers Corner exhibition to celebrate the fact that many teachers are also artists and to give their students the chance to appreciate that. Teachers from all schools can submit work here.

For families, dot-art is working with artist and teacher Faith Bebbington to create a video series of mini sculpture projects, which can all be made using things found around the home.

And because lockdown won’t be forever, however it seems right now, the gallery has announced its first exhibition after re-opening will be a group show entitled View From A Window.

Lucy Byrne, managing director, said: « We hope this will encourage our artist-members to keep creating during lockdown and give a focus to their artistic endeavours, and that when the crisis is over, the exhibition will give us all the opportunity to reflect on our experiences, remember lessons learnt and appreciate our new-found freedom. »

Williamson Art Gallery

Regular visitors to the Birkenhead Gallery were no doubt saddened when its annual Open Exhibition was unable to go ahead – at least in the physical world.

However, as the show had been entirely prepared, the Williamson decided to host it online instead.

Works are by artists and photographers with a connection to Wirral and, should you be sick of staring at the same walls for weeks now, many of them are available to buy. You can see the exhibition here until the end of May.

And if you’re missing the gallery’s own collection, check out its Facebook page where it has been sharing paintings as well as games.

Liverpool Arab Arts Festival

With its 2020 programme almost entirely in place but unable to go ahead, the LAAF team has been working with artists, funders and venues since early-March to work out how much of this year’s festival can go online.

There are very few details available at the moment – the festival isn’t until July – but there will be a few teasers released in the run up to the virtual event.

And organisers say it include giving people a glimpse into Arab homes, both in Liverpool and beyond, as a way of connecting with friends and collaborators across the Arab world during this global situation.

Bido Lito!

The Liverpool music and culture magazine is presenting weekly music nights at 8pm on Fridays over on its Facebook page, where you can still watch indie-rock musician Zuzu perform last week’s gig from home.

And on Saturdays, Bido is bringing the sounds of Liverpool’s Africa Oye festival into your living room by releasing a weekly mix of music recorded from the Trenchtown and Freetown stages during the 2019 event. Find the first one here.

The magazine’s podcast has also launched its second series, telling stories from artists and creatives during lockdown. You can listen to that here.

Liverpool Irish Festival

Liverpool Irish Festival is sharing details of online gigs via its Facebook page – including a live concert from festival regular Jack Lukeman, which you can still watch here.

It is also working with the Great Famine Voices Roadshow, which will now take place online in a great opportunity to reach more of the Irish diaspora than ever before with its presentation series and discussion about Ireland’s Great Famine and the migration it created.

Key to the event, which would have been a UK first when it came to Liverpool, is collecting the stories and family memories of migration from Ireland. It is now asking people to record a short video that will form part of its archive. Find out the criteria for taking part and more here.

Merseyside Dance Initiative

With its Hope Street home temporarily closed, MDI has launched a virtual studio on YouTube to teach a range of dance and fitness classes for all ages.

It includes Dance Stars for children and young people aged four-plus; Get Up & Make with fun tutorials to create home made props for routines; chair-based dance for those with limited mobility; MDFI Fit, short workouts for legs, arms and core to help you build your own workout at home; Get Up & Dance zumba-style routines designed to get everyone moving, regardless of dance experience.

MDI’s Talent Hub of 21 North West-based dance artists are also creating new content every week to showcase the region’s talent. You can find out more on Instagram.

SEMUSIC

Voluntary-run music organisation SEMusic – made up of St Edmund’s Choir for adults and #LoveToSing choir for children – is putting on a series of mini ‘concerts’ using recordings of previous events, unseen rehearsal footage and virtual performances.

You can find Sundays with St Edmund’s Choir on Facebook, where you can also find last week’s concert featuring tributes to the NHS and keyworkers.

The Waterloo-based organisation has also created a series of online music education resources to help parents use music as part of their home-schooling.

Open Eye Gallery

Focusing on making online spaces to share, discover and talk about photography, Open Eye has launched Open Rooms, an online programme of free live-streamed talks, taking place in rooms all across the world. These include artists’ rooms, chat rooms and your living room. Find out more on Facebook.

The gallery has also set up a Discord community, an online space of chat rooms open to everyone to talk about and share photography. You can join it by following this link and downloading Discord on desktop or mobile.

There is also a website called Open Eye Stories, where anyone can share and contribute a story made from photos. This could be photos from your daily walk, images of things around your house or old photos you want to share to tell a new story.

Epstein Theatre

The Liverpool theatre has been streaming films of stage productions that it has a significant connection with, including Twopence To Cross The Mersey – The Stage Play and Lennon’s Banjo, which both premiered at the Epstein.

Last weekend, it streamed The Ruby Slippers comedy along with a special home session from the team behind Something About Simon, which premiered at the Epstein in 2018. You can find some of these and future events on its Facebook page.

Bill Elms, theatre producer, said: « It’s an uneasy period and it’s so important to keep connected with our audiences so they can feel some sense of normality and continuity with the activities they love to do. »

Liverpool Lighthouse

So many of our arts organisations are working at the heart of the communities in which they are based and have found new ways of helping the people around them during the coronavirus crisis.

Anfield-based Liverpool Lighthouse is the UK’s first dedicated urban gospel and arts centre, which aims to up-skill disadvantaged groups and contribute to North Liverpool’s regeneration by reducing isolation, increasing community cohesion and engaging with the arts.

During lockdown, the organisation is using a specially-created Facebook page to give people phone numbers for foodbanks, homelessness and domestic abuse helplines and other vital contacts.

Sarah Jones, venue manager, said: « We’re there 24/7 on messaging. We’ve helped a fair few people already who have been in desperate need.

« We’re also uplifting people’s spirits with a few things such as videos that artists have done at home. »

And on its main Facebook page, Liverpool Lighthouse is sharing fun, engaging things for people to do at home, such as colouring templates, recipes and videos of dancers who have used the venue in the past.

It’s also planning to pack its Instagram page with talent as lockdown continues.

The Reader

Based at the International Centre for Shared Reading in Calderstones Park, the Reader brings thousands of people together each week to share and discuss novels, short stories and poems.

As this experience of connection is even more important during lockdown, many of its events have moved online including daily readings, yoga sessions and a bi-weekly lunchtime live stream shared reading session.

Excitingly for people with young children, its wonderful Storybarn sessions of stories, sing-a-longs and activities have moved online – and are free to take part in live on Facebook.

The Reader is also running shared reading sessions over the phone and is supplying reading packs to prisons and other organisations including mental healthy charity Crisis. Times and more details of all events are here.

Milapfest

The UK’s leading Indian arts and culture company curated two days of inspiring and uplifting activities this week to mark International Dance Day.

You can still view a range of talks, mini-presentations and participatory sessions, exploring costumes and make up, the influence of martial arts on dance, and traditional Indian folk dance. Find them on Milap’s and event partner Sahapedia’s Facebook pages.

Liverpool Artists Network

Set up to connect the city’s artists, art organisations, art venues, groups and collectives, Liverpool Artists Network is trialling a Zoom meeting during lockdown.

People usually present about new projects, sharing resources, research, joint programming, group exhibitions, joint promotion and other ideas.

You don’t have to be working in the arts to join, and the Zoom meeting will include presentations from Art in Liverpool, Dead Pigeon Gallery, Road Studios and Metal Culture.

It takes place at 6.30pm on Tuesday, May 5. Email liverpoolartnet@yahoo.co.uk if you would like to take part.

WoW

Writing on the Wall has announced a new virtual digital writing and literary festival WoWFest20: Lockdown, having been unable to continue with its annual event in the usual way.

It aims to bring us « an inspiring and passionate collection of artists to help us all through these difficult times and galvanise us towards reshaping the new normal once lockdown can be lifted ». We’ll all need some help with that.

There is an impressive list of guests ranging from Trainspotting author Irvine Welsh to acclaimed writer and scholar Noam Chomsky.

Liverpool 8-based poet Amina Atiq will also be contributing to the festival.

You can see the full list of events here, almost all of which will take place on WoW’s Facebook page.

Paperwork Theatre

This Liverpool-based theatre company is supporting local theatre makers by asking people to donate the price of a cuppa. Every time the total reaches £100 a new creative project gets funded.

Artists can submit one-minute video pitches to try to win the Teacup Commissions funding and a public vote eventually decides who gets it. You can donate here.

Paperwork’s co-artistic director Hayley Greggs is also running a script surgery via Zoom with Liverpool Everyman & Playhouse’s new works associate Francesca Peschier. The next date will be announced here soon.

And If you’re missing the live experience, the theatre company is still working on its new production Deep Blue – created as a direct response to the UK’s loneliness epidemic – through online script readings, composing music and working on the set design. It will be staged in Liverpool when the theatres re-open.

Grin Theatre

Grin Theatre’s LGBTQ-themed Rainbow Monologues – penned by writers from across the UK – are being run on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram during lockdown.

So far, they include Wes Williams’ Pan Zero, performed by Kai Jolley, and Simon Says by Kiefer Williams, performed by Ross Harris.

The Liverpool-based company also posts call-outs for actors to perform the five to six-minute monologues on its Rainbow Monologues Facebook group.

National Museums Liverpool

NML is asking four to 11-year-olds to create their own virtual exhibitions about their lives using their own treasured objects or works of art.

My Home is My Museum asks kids to put together a list of up to 10 items or artistic creations that represent their life and the important people in it. They also need to write a short description about the objects or artworks, why they were chosen and the exhibition as a whole, before designing an eye-catching poster and uploading a ‘promotional’ video to social media saying why it would be a must-see exhibition.

When National Museums Liverpool’s venues reopen, the best videos will be shortlisted and a few lucky children will get to have their exhibitions featured in a special digital exhibition online. They will also get to spend an afternoon with a top curator who will share all their tips about putting together a blockbuster exhibition, along with a behind the scenes tour of World Museum or the Walker Art Gallery. Find out how to take part here.

Meanwhile, if you are missing our city’s amazing national galleries and museums you can check out virtual tours of the venues and some of the exhibitions.

These include a tour of World Museum Liverpool’s Taki Katei exhibition, which had to close its doors much earlier than planned due to the pandemic. It was the first time the Japanese artworks were seen outside of Japan for the first time – usually they are displayed in the imperial courts. But you can still enjoy them here.

And the Walker has been sharing a number of engaging films about the Pre-Raphaelites weekly on all its social channels including Facebook.

Sense of Sound

Creative director Jennifer John is running a global community singing project called Love Sings – a virtual choir made up of people across the world who have a shared passion for singing.

In partnership with two Liverpool companies, Zút Media and Parr Street Studios, the project will recruit, record and produce a film of all the participants singing together the song Love Sings, which she has composed. Find out more here.

Light Night

Although Light Night has been cancelled for this year, and organisers Open Culture says it isn’t possible to recreate it online, its artists and partners have been asked to celebrate the Liverpool arts scene by sharing content online, tagging #LightNightatHome, on May 15 when the event was due to take place.

In addition, Open Culture’s website uncoverliverpool.com is continuing to share online events and activities under our what’s on(line) section (local and national) as well as sharing arts news and opportunities and resources relevant to North West-based creatives.

St Helens Theatre Royal

This venue was one of the first to turn around a virtual event, sharing Rapunzel: The Lockdown Panto on its Facebook page over Easter. You can still get your chance to shout ‘he’s behind you’, as the videos are still available to watch.

Strawberry Field

The former children’s home was re-built and re-opened by the Salvation Army last year, but with its building’s gates closed to visitors, the Christian church and charity is focusing on providing pastoral support to local people during the coronavirus crisis.

You can call 0151 252 6130 to access this, and for help getting vital supplies if you are unable to leave the house.

Strawberry Field is also running a daily midday meditation on social media, including Facebook, every day at 12pm, and has had messages from people all over the world who tune in each day.

Its Fresh Expressions team hold daily prayers on Zoom. To join contact louise.brown@salvationarmy.org.uk

And its Steps to Work programme continues through with daily Zoom calls.

Virtual Bandstand

A bit further afield in Cheshire – but these days everything is only a mouse click away – Chester Bandstand is calling for composers, writers, artists and performers to take part in its Virtual Bandstand.

There are five new commissions available, each with a grant of £200, to develop a new piece of work.

And 10 performers will be chosen to run an online performance or other event, such as an art class or online rehearsal, with a fee of £30 available. Find out everything you need to know here.

St Helens Libraries

Unable to run its usual programme of arts events, performances, exhibitions and workshops, St Helen’s Libraries is sending out a monthly e-newsletter to tell its audiences about things they can take part in online.

It is also working with arts organisation Heart Of Glass to give 51 chosen creatives to make new work from their own homes. These will eventually be shared online. Find out more here.

St Helens Libraries has also launched its latest round of artist commissions to enable local artists to create new work in its library spaces post-lockdown. Apply here.

And there is an arts on prescription scheme for people with mild to moderate mental health issues, which has been delivering sessions online. More info here.