Arts and Culture
Discover the best of arts and culture in Liverpool, featuring exhibitions, interviews, and cultural events celebrating the city’s creative spirit.
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Noise From The City: The National Year of Reading
Dear Somebody, Book worm or not, we can all agree that reading is fundamental. Recently, a year-long scheme has been announced by the Department of Education to help increase the number of people reading across the nation. The National Year of Reading is a campaign set up in collaboration with the National Literacy Trust to address the significant decline in reading abilities and enjoyment across all age groups in the UK. The initiative came after…
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FACT Liverpool Unveils a Year of Immersive, Interactive Exhibitions for 2026
FACT Liverpool has announced its full 2026 exhibitions programme, featuring newly commissioned artworks, locally embedded participatory projects, and major installations by emerging and established artists. Using playable game worlds and AI technologies, the exhibitions explore quests for greater meaning through the creation of new mythologies rooted in ancestral knowledge, more-than-human perspectives, and acts of congregation and resistance. Alongside the re-staging of existing works, FACT is delighted to present new commissions by Vytas Jankauskas, Sahjan Kooner,…
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Creative Spotlight: In Conversation with Rowena Gander
Rewriting the Rules: How Rowena Gander Turns the Pole into Power, Memory, and Queer Visibility Gander is quietly rewriting what it means to be a queer performer in Liverpool. And she’s doing it from a pole. Not the kind you see in glossy magazines or nightclub corners, but a pole that doubles as memory, as protest, as stage partner, and as research object. Liverpool’s arts scene has always had its heavyweights, but few artists here…
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52 for 26 Poetry Project: Megs Kathleen
Megs Kathleen brings working-class grit and generational truth to a poem that urges us to breathe, slow down, and return to ourselves. There is a quiet intensity to Megs Kathleen’s work, the kind that doesn’t demand your attention so much as settle down beside you, steady and unflinching. A Liverpool based poet with a voice shaped by the grit of working class life and the tender scars of a mother – wound, she writes from the raw edges…
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52 for 26 Poetry Project: Andrew Price
Andrew Price – A conversational poet steps into deeper waters with a piece rooted in memory, empathy, and the grit of real life. There’s something immediately engaging about Andrew Price. By day he’s a qualified lawyer; by night – or whenever life gives him a spare moment – he’s a poet of the everyday, gathering the small details most of us sail past. His work isn’t dressed up or weighed down by traditional poetic form.…
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52 for 26: A Year of Poetic Noise Across Merseyside
In January 2026, Liverpool Noise will begin something that looks modest on paper and feels anything but once you scratch the surface. The 52 for 26 Poetry Project will publish one poet a week, every week, for the whole of the year. No grand launch. No competitive framework. Just poems arriving steadily across twelve months — accumulating, conversing, disagreeing, and gradually forming a picture of where Merseyside poetry is as of 2026… From the outset,…
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The Reader Launches Reading Heroes Christmas Appeal 2025
In the space between reader and child, a future starts to take shape… In a city that knows the power of voices being passed down, shared and amplified, it feels only right that one of the UK’s most quietly radical literacy projects is rooted in Liverpool. The Reader’s Reading Heroes project – launched in 2016 – doesn’t shout. It doesn’t dazzle with tech or gamification. Instead, it does something far more subversive in 2025: it…
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FACT Liverpool’s New Interactive AI Exhibition Lets Visitors Play With the Future
From Friday 6 February to Sunday 26 April 2026, FACT Liverpool invites visitors to explore the evolving relationship between humans and intelligent technologies with its latest exhibition, Can Meeple Escape the Neurophoria? Inspired by the decision-driven world of tabletop games, the show reimagines visitors as “meeple”—small game pieces navigating a reality shaped by AI, machine learning, and connected networks. Curated by FACT’s 2025 Curator-in-Residence Milia Xin Bi, the exhibition examines how technology influences our sense…
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DaDa Launches Global DDFI Extra Programme for Disability History Month
Award-winning disability arts organisation DaDa has unveiled DDFI Extra, an ambitious new international winter programme set to run throughout Disability History Month 2025 and into early 2026. Marking the latest chapter in DaDa’s 40th anniversary celebrations, DDFI Extra expands on the legacy of DaDaFest International, the UK’s longest-running disability arts festival. The new programme brings together artist development, creative exploration and accessible participation, connecting artists and audiences across Liverpool, Nigeria and Tanzania. Backed by the…
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Creative Spotlight: In Conversation with Paulina Kurzydlowska
Paulina Kurzydlowska – charting a practice where memory meets the modern There is something quietly radical in the way Paulina Kurzydlowska works. She moves easily between memory, nature and the digital, letting thread, paint and pixel coexist in ways that feel both intuitive and deliberate. She describes herself as a mixed-media fine artist working across painting, textiles and digital processes, creating what she calls “new ways of experiencing our physical world.” Her work always seems…
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Preview: An Evening With Seán Street
Liverpool’s literary and broadcasting worlds are set to converge later this month for a distinctive evening of poetry, conversation, and sound. On Friday 21 November, acclaimed poet, writer and broadcaster Professor Seán Street will appear at the Liverpool Friends Meeting House for a reading and discussion hosted by Liverpool Poetry Space. Tickets are free, and the evening promises not just a sharing of poems, but an exploration of how words and sound create meaning, connection,…
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Tate Liverpool Announces ARTIST ROOMS: Ed Ruscha for 2026
Tate Liverpool has announced a major new display dedicated to influential American artist Ed Ruscha, opening next spring. ARTIST ROOMS: Ed Ruscha will be presented across Tate Liverpool + RIBA North from 12 February to 14 June 2026, showcasing a rich selection of the artist’s books, photographs, paintings, drawings, and lithographs. Focusing on the driving culture of mid-century America and the evolving architecture of Los Angeles, the display explores how Ruscha captured the look, feel,…
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Creative Spotlight: In Conversation with Sorrell Kerrison
Sorrell Kerrison — Threading Colour, Chaos and Compassion In the vast and vibrant landscape of contemporary textile art, few voices hum with as much honesty, energy, and defiant colour as Sorrell Kerrison’s. A self-taught embroiderer, musician, and multidisciplinary artist now based in Liverpool, Kerrison’s practice is a deeply personal dialogue between sound, texture, and emotion — a visual symphony where needle and thread replace strings and frets. Once a touring musician and frontwoman, she has…
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Ken Horton: A Life In Colour Exhibition Coming To The Cornerstone Gallery
Rhythm, light and colour – Ken Horton steps back into the spotlight… Ken Horton’s upcoming exhibition at The Cornerstone Gallery, A Life in Colour, offers Liverpool audiences the chance to step inside the creative world of one of the city’s most quietly influential artists. Running from 6 November to 18 December 2025, this retrospective gathers together paintings spanning more than forty years – from figurative beginnings to luminous geometric abstractions that pulse with life and…
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Exploring Liverpool’s Metropolitan Cathedral: A Symbol of Faith and Innovation
During my formative years in the early 80s, whenever an episode of the now defunct TV soap Brookside came on television and its opening credits briefly showed Liverpool’s iconic Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral, officially named Metropolitan Cathedral of Christ the King – but also affectionately known as “The Mersey Funnel” and “Paddy’s Wigwam” – I would always be mesmerised by its appearance, mainly due to the actual shape of it, which is unusual, to say the…
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Reframing Liverpool and Scousers: How Jade Franks Is Challenging the Narrative
Whilst it’s to be celebrated that the fierce colours of Liverpool are finally being appreciated in the media, can it always be true that any publicity is good publicity? Are we repeatedly selling out negative stereotypes surrounding crime and violence, without seeing the larger issue of socioeconomic disparity and classism that fester within them? This question feels particularly relevant in light of the city’s recent time in the spotlight, recently releasing shows such as This…
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Creative Spotlight: In Conversation with Blaise Drummond
Between Nature and Architecture: Blaise Drummond’s Quiet Pursuit of Balance. In the latest instalment of the Liverpool Noise 2025 Creative Spotlight series, we turn our attention to Blaise Drummond, a Liverpool-born artist whose work quietly excavates the tensions between the built environment and the natural world. Raised on the fringes of the city—suburban Heswall, in his case—with marshes, untamed patches of land and the edge of industry always in view, Drummond’s early years planted the…
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Wirral Poetry Festival 2025: Poetry Swaps The Page For The Stage
This weekend, Port Sunlight transforms into a living stage as the Wirral Poetry Festival 2025 arrives on Saturday 4 and Sunday 5 October. With its rich mix of performances, competitions, workshops, and community events, the festival is set to be one of the most welcoming and vibrant arts gatherings on Merseyside this autumn. For two days, the village’s theatres, galleries, and green spaces will become poetry hubs. Expect a programme that moves effortlessly from family-friendly sessions to bold, cross-arts performances.…
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In Full Bloom: New Exhibition at dot-art Gallery Explores the Poetry of Flowers
dot-art Gallery will burst into colour this autumn with In Full Bloom, a new exhibition featuring works by Frank Leung, Hilary Dron, and Madeleine Pires. Running from 17 October to 29 November, the show celebrates the beauty, symbolism, and emotional resonance of flowers through three distinctive artistic voices. Exploring themes of seasonality, vitality, and connection to nature, the exhibition pairs delicate watercolours with dynamic compositions and community-inspired works. Frank Leung brings a poetic sensibility to…
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Liverpool ONE Showcases Next Generation of Artistic Talent with New dot-art Schools Exhibition
Exceptional artwork by young students from across the Liverpool City Region is now on display at Liverpool ONE, following the launch of a striking new outdoor exhibition on School Lane. The showcase features vibrant pieces from Year 5 and Year 9 pupils, shining a spotlight on emerging creativity in the heart of the city. The works represent the culmination of the 13th annual dot-art Schools programme, with winners selected by arts professionals and an online…
Liverpool has long been recognised as one of the UK’s most creative cities, with a thriving arts and culture scene that continues to inspire, innovate, and attract visitors from across the globe. From world-class art galleries and museums to grassroots exhibitions, community-led projects, and bold new work from emerging artists, the city offers an ever-changing landscape of creativity.
Our arts and culture in Liverpool section celebrates everything from major cultural moments to intimate creative experiences. Here, you’ll find coverage of the city’s most exciting art exhibitions, from Tate Liverpool’s thought-provoking contemporary shows to Bluecoat’s pioneering visual arts programme and FACT’s boundary-pushing exploration of digital culture. We also shine a spotlight on independent galleries and artist-run spaces, such as Output Gallery and dot-art, which champion local talent and give a platform to Liverpool’s diverse artistic voices.
But arts and culture in Liverpool is about more than exhibitions. It’s also about the stories behind the artists, curators, and cultural leaders who shape the city. Through interviews, features, and opinion pieces, we explore the inspirations, challenges, and creative journeys of those contributing to Liverpool’s cultural life. Whether it’s an established painter, a theatre director, or a multidisciplinary artist experimenting with new forms, we share their perspectives and amplify their work.
Liverpool’s cultural calendar is packed with must-see events, and this section keeps you up to date with the highlights. From visual arts festivals like Liverpool Biennial, to multi-arts celebrations such as Africa Oyé and Homotopia, we cover the festivals and events that bring people together and reflect the city’s spirit of creativity and inclusion. Alongside these larger-scale happenings, we also look at grassroots cultural activity—pop-up exhibitions, open studios, and collaborative community projects that keep the city’s cultural identity vibrant and alive.
The city’s strong cultural foundations, built on its history as a UNESCO City of Music and European Capital of Culture 2008, continue to fuel innovation. Today, arts and culture in Liverpool is about creating accessible, inclusive, and exciting opportunities for everyone to experience creativity. Whether you’re interested in traditional painting and sculpture, cutting-edge digital installations, performance art, or cultural heritage, Liverpool offers something for every taste.
By exploring this section, you’ll discover not only what’s on, but also gain insights into why the arts matter here and now. Liverpool’s artists and cultural organisations are shaping important conversations about identity, diversity, community, and the future—and we’re here to share their stories.
So whether you’re planning your next gallery visit, looking to discover a new artist, or simply want to stay connected with the heartbeat of Liverpool’s creative scene, this category is your guide to everything happening in arts and culture across the city.