ART HISTORY FESTIVAL 2024 – North West

Family memory walks are guided visits in the Museum of Liverpool, which connect people through conversations about Liverpool’s past.  

On a memory walk you can explore Liverpool icons like the Overhead Railway, known as the dockers’ umbrella, Blackie the rocking horse, or the Colomendy totem pole. Bring a friend or loved one to share memories with, and create some new ones together.

Each walk is facilitated by a friendly member of our House of Memories team but led by the conversations and stories shared within the group. As a dementia-friendly session these walks will use the displays within the Museum of Liverpool to help you bring memories of Liverpool to life.

Our family memory walks last about one hour and can accommodate up to 20 people. For groups larger than 4 people please email learning@liverpoolmuseums.org.uk to book a private date with our team.

A wonderful free event for all of our visitors with Liverpool Confucius Institute to celebrate the Mid Autumn Festival, also known as the Moon Festival. Explore traditional dance and craft activities.

Come along for calming and rhythmic traditional dance and a shadow puppet performance performances in the Treasure House Theatre at 11.45, 1.30 and 2.45. Each session will be 20 minutes of dance and 20 minutes of shadow puppet theatre.

Join in with Chinese crafts and games in the Welcome Centre from 10.30-12.30pm and 1.30-4pm.
Have a go at calligraphy and paper cutting and print your own woodblock print from a pre-cut wood plate!

Ancient Chinese emperors worshiped the moon in autumn to thank it for the harvest. Ordinary people took the Mid-Autumn Festival to be a celebration of their hard work and harvests. Nowadays, people mainly celebrate Mid-Autumn Festival as a time for family reunions.                  

The Liverpool Confucius Institute is a collaborative project between the University of Liverpool, Xi’an Jiaotong University and the Office of Chinese Language Council International (Hanban), for the promotion of Chinese language and culture

The Walker Art Gallery has worked closely with young people from Liverpool’s Black and Global Ethnic Majority communities to research and reinterpret its internationally-renowned sculpture collection. Carving Out Truths presents a number of ground-breaking interventions at the Gallery, examining the origins of the collection and focusing on individuals and stories that have previously been excluded.  The sculpture collection has a long association with slavery, colonialism and empire. Its foundation is closely linked to the city’s institutions, and the merchants and bankers who financed them. Much of their wealth was made from slavery, its economies and the growth of the British Empire.  Carving Out Truths confronts these histories in partnership with young people from the community and makes them more visible within the Walker’s historic spaces. 

The young people’s personal reflections and perspectives are also displayed beside various sculptures in the Gallery. They feature flowers and plants associated with African culture and heritage inspired by the Domestic Worldmaking by the Enslaved project. These inspiring interventions aim to draw attention to the presence of Black and Global Ethnic Majority people within spaces where they are rarely acknowledged. 

‘Now you see me’ is a stunning blown glass and mixed media modular installation. It will be shown in Room 9 with the painting that inspired it – The Card Party by Gawen Hamilton (1698-1737).

Chris Day rediscovered his love of art after twenty years working as a heating engineer. He studied ceramics and glass at Wolverhampton University, graduating in 2021 with an MA in Design and Applied Art. The skills he gained in his trade as a plumber inform his practice, and he includes found materials used in the heating industry in his work.

Chris Day describes himself as mixed race and often explores his identity through his artworks. His diverse heritage led him to research themes linked to the transatlantic slave trade and its legacies. His passion lies in creating art that sparks dialogue and reflection on these issues.

The free exhibition runs until 24 November.

Come along and enjoy a free highlights tour of our Pre-Raphaelite Gallery.

Women were the heartbeat of the Pre-Raphaelite movements. If we imagine a Pre-Raphaelite work of art what often comes to mind is an extraordinary, androgynous-looking woman in a scene painted with jewel-like colours. The Pre-Raphaelite artists lived, loved, and worked at the cusp of change for women and, in many ways, this is reflected in their work. Yet these stories are rarely told.

Through Tullie’s superb collections we explore how women were the objects of the artists’ gaze often becoming a symbol for morality. We consider the striking women who featured in the work, and the determined women who created their own. The women who collected and patronised these artists are celebrated along with their important acquisitions.

Featuring favourite works by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Elizabeth Siddal, Edward Burne-Jones, Phoebe Anna Traquair and Arthur Hughes, alongside works never before displayed in our galleries, we look at the pioneering nature of the Pre-Raphaelites, asking the question: when before had gender been so central to art?

Ayo Akingbade and curator Matthew Barrington discuss the artist’s new exhibition and film commissions along with her wider body of work.

The Fist is a portrait of the Guinness brewery in Lagos, where histories of industrialisation and labour collide; while Faluyi follows protagonist Ife on a journey tracing familial legacy and mysticism in ancestral lands. Both films have been acquired by the Whitworth and will be shown together in a bespoke installation designed by the artist.

This recording was taken during the Whitworth Late event on Thursday 12 September 2024.

Show Me The World Mister is a solo exhibition by Ayo Akingbade comprising of two new film commissions. Shot on location in Nigeria, The Fist and Faluyi are Akingbade’s most ambitious productions to date, building upon her continued interest in history, place-making, legacy and power.

The Fist is a portrait of the Guinness brewery in Lagos, where histories of industrialisation and labour collide; while Faluyi follows protagonist Ife on a journey tracing familial legacy and mysticism in ancestral lands. Both films have been acquired by the Whitworth and will be shown together in a bespoke installation designed by the artist.

The exhibition is open until 20 October with relaxed screenings on Wednesdays from 10am.