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60 take part in Christmas
baby and child service
MORE than 60 people took part in a
'Baby
and Child Remembrance Service' at Ormskirk Hospital.
Salvation Army band members provided music for the informal service which was
led by the Rev Martin Abrams, the chaplain of Southport and Ormskirk Hospital
NHS Trust.
"The run up to Christmas can be a very exciting and special time but it
can also heighten a sense of loss, grief and isolation. We 1st held this event
last year. It is a much appreciated and moving event for those who take part.
Many had suffered a child or baby loss at some time the past." said Martin.
Attendees also wrote the names of loved ones on baubles to hang from the
Christmas tree in the garden where the service was held. 'Trees of Remembrance'
are also available in the prayer and quiet rooms at both
Southport and Ormskirk Hospitals during December 2016. Funding secured to give
City green make over LIVERPOOL has
been awarded nearly £3.5million to create new green corridors across the City.
Liverpool City Council teamed up with Mersey Forest, the University of Liverpool
and organisations in Valladolid (Spain) and Izmir (Turkey) to successfully bid
for 10 million Euros of Horizon 2020 European funding which will be invested in
creating new green spaces in the City; 4 million Euros, of which (£3.4
million) is specifically for Liverpool.
Over the next 3 years the Liverpool partners will undertake a range of
innovative research projects and work with local communities, organisations such
as the Business Improvement District and other stakeholders to identify and
retrofit a number of 'green corridors' as part of the URBAN GreenUP
project.
Work will start in the New Year when plans for the corridors will be developed.
It is likely the sites which will be transformed will include locations within
the Baltic Corridor, the business and commercial district of the City Centre and
the Jericho Lane / Otterspool areas.
The aim is to tackle environmental City issues through Nature Based Solutions
and to deliver a range of environmental improvements including increasing
biodiversity, improving air quality and alleviating surface water issues. Work
will include planting trees, introducing green walls (also known as vertical
gardens) and establishing rain gardens and sustainable urban drainage systems,
whilst enhancing pedestrian and cyclist routes in and out of the city.
Liverpool City Council's Cabinet Member for Neighbourhoods, Councillor Steve Munby, said:-
"Receiving this funding will allow us to environmentally
enhance some key Vity routes, benefitting the local community, businesses and
the City as a whole, whilst providing an opportunity to adapt parts of the City
so they are more resilient to future climate change impacts. It is incredibly
important to be able to work in partnership, not only with other Liverpool
organisations, but to share information and best practice with other European
Cities which also have environmental improvements high on their agenda. It will
be incredibly rewarding to see these green corridors flourish over the next
three years and make Liverpool an even more pleasant place to live, work and
visit."
The project delivers on the green corridor recommendations in the Mayoral Review
for Green and Open Spaces and will additionally fulfil emerging aspirations in
the development of the City's Local Plan. The proposed environmental
improvements builds on the work of the Mersey Forest over the past 25 years,
providing a valuable opportunity to bring nature back to the urban core, and at
the same time enhance the green infrastructure of the City.
Paul Nolan, Director of the Mersey Forest, said:- "Liverpool has been on
the leading edge of Green Infrastructure planning and delivery for several
years. This is a great partnership and we look forward to helping to deliver
this exciting project with communities and business."
The in depth research, experimental design of technical solutions and practical
testing, together with data analysis, will be undertaken by the University of
Liverpool.
Dr Ian Mell, University of Liverpool, said:- "The URBAN GreenUP project is
a fantastic opportunity to look at what makes an attractive and useful landscape
and how people from all walks of life can reconnect with nature. Delivering the
URBAN GreenUP project will place Liverpool at the forefront of European research
for Nature Based Solutions."
The Green UP project will help to consolidate and promote the green
infrastructure partnership work of the City and Mersey Forest. The funding also
provides an opportunity to promote the City as a focal point for high quality
research in this sector. Greens Call for Car Free
Sundays
LIVERPOOL Green Party renew calls, and
say Rome and Paris have set examples to be followed.
Liverpool Green Party renewed calls to introduce a partial ban on cars
travelling into the City Centre on some Sundays, in a move echoed in Rome and
Paris this month.
The Mayor of Rome has made Sunday 'semi car free,' in order to increase air
quality, and promote public transport use, and Liverpool Green Councillors
believe the same idea should be put in place in Liverpool. The move follows
similar restrictions imposed in Paris, Athens, Brussels and other major Cities
around the world. "Liverpool already has some of the most polluted air in the region, and
the Council has done little to combat that. In fact, the Council have played a
part in adding to the problem by exceeding their own cap for City Centre car
parking spaces and allowing trees to be removed. What I'd like to see is an area around Liverpool
City Centre where cars
won't be allowed to enter on maybe one Sunday per month during the spring and
summer. We need to work with the bus companies to add a better, more reliable,
and cheaper bus service, encouraging people to travel into the City Centre by
public transport and giving people the opportunity to walk and cycle in when the
city has lower levels of emissions." said the leader of
Liverpool Green Party's Council group, Councillor Tom Crone.
Cllr Crone, who is Green Party candidate for Metro Mayor has said he would like
the bus companies to come under the authority of the Metro Mayor and has vowed
to work with them to ensure people across the City region are better served by
public transport and that prices are reviewed in line with other major Cities.
Cllr Crone has also raised concerns about emission levels across the region
pointing out that Councils need to act soon before more people suffer from
ill health in the Liverpool City Region. "It's fantastic to see Liverpool has been award £3.4million to create a
green corridor, and myself and the Green Councillors are all for these
improvements. What we need to do, however, is to work with the relevant
authorities to ensure we see the maximum benefit from this green corridor, and
ensure we protect it. Reducing our emissions in the City Centre will go towards
this." added Cllr Crone. |
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Yoko Ono, Jeremy Deller and
Mark Leckey to exhibit at Bluecoat
A specially curated exhibition, Public
View, marks the beginning of Bluecoat's 300th Anniversary Programme 'Drawn'
from over 50 years of art at Bluecoat, Public View, that runs from 4 February
2017 to 23 April
2017. will feature 100 artists who have previously exhibited at the gallery,
many at the beginning of their careers, and several now high profile artists.
Public View will present a wide range of work, including paintings, drawings,
prints, sculptures, photographs and video, with many pieces previously exhibited
in the gallery, some re-made especially for the exhibition, and others
completely new.
There is a wide generational breadth of artists, from international names like
John Akomfrah, Derek Boshier, Jeremy Deller, John Latham, Yoko Ono, Imran
Qureshi and Yinka Shonibare, to younger artists like Jamie Shovlin and Niamh
O'Malley. Reflecting Bluecoat's continuing commitment to artists in the City
region, there will be a strong representation of Merseyside born artists such as Chila Burman,
Mark Leckey and Paul Morrison, as well as others living and working locally,
including:- Pete Clarke, Alan Dunn, Nina Edge, Leo Fitzmaurice, David Jacques,
Paul Rooney, Twin Studio and Imogen Stidworthy. These have exhibition profiles
beyond Liverpool, including internationally and many had their first significant
shows at Bluecoat.
The exhibition includes:-
► Video and photographic documentation of performances in 1967 at Bluecoat by
Yoko Ono and Mark Boyle
► Paintings and prints by popular Liverpool artists with long Bluecoat
associations including Maurice Cockrill, Adrian Henri, Clement McAleer, Don
McKinlay and Sam Walsh
► Screen printed posters by designer Malcolm Garrett for an early Buzzcocks' gig
and an editioned print of Peter Saville's first poster for Factory
► Pete Frame's Eric's Progeny family tree, charting the careers of musicians
associated with Liverpool's famous club. The work is courtesy of artist,
musician, writer and record producer Bill Drummond, who himself has work in the
exhibition.
► Works by artists who had early career exhibitions at Bluecoat, including
Elizabeth Magill, Bashir Makhoul, Paul Morrison, Keith Piper and Imran Qureshi.
► Jeremy Deller's print History of the World, which resulted from his Acid
Brass, commissioned by Bluecoat in 1997
► A new series of photographs from John Akomfrah, showing for the 1st time.
► Works made especially for the show in response to the gallery's changed
architecture by Nina Edge and Brigitte Jurack.
► A new work by Mike Stubbs, Director of FACT, who exhibited at Bluecoat in 1989
and 1990.
► A series of 'punk portraits' by John Hyatt (artist, and professor at
Liverpool John Moores University) first shown at Bluecoat in 1986; and a remake
of a life sized female figure from newspaper by Lin Holland (artist, and senior
lecturer at Liverpool Hope University), originally exhibited in 1987.
Bluecoat has been showing new art for over 100 years, from Roger Fry's seminal
Post Impressionists exhibition in 1911 that featured Picasso and Matisse, to
showcases of the next generation of artists like the recent Bloomberg New
Contemporaries.
Over this period Bluecoat has developed a reputation as an important regional
gallery, helping launch many artists' careers, initiating and hosting
significant UK and international touring exhibitions, and being at the forefront
of new developments in the visual arts, while nurturing the local artists'
community.
The Bluecoat building, a fine example of Queen Anne style architecture, began
life as a charity school in 1717, before housing an arts community in 1907, and
formally becoming an arts centre in 1927, making it the first of its kind in the
UK.
Its Anniversary Programme sees 300 days of celebration, running from 4
February 2017 to 30 November, 2017. It will comprise exhibitions, performances of
music, dance and live art, literature events, commissions, a sociologist in
residence, and a major heritage participation project, My Bluecoat.
Bluecoat Chief Executive Mary Cloake said:-
"Bluecoat has been at the
heart of Liverpool's cultural life for many years and it seems fitting that, as
the 1st exhibition in our 300th Anniversary programme, Public View will
highlight the diverse range of artists who have exhibited here. Bluecoat has
always strived to be at the forefront of developments in contemporary art in the
UK, often bringing major artists to Liverpool for the first time. The
organisation has played a key role in representing Liverpool on the national
stage, and in establishing the City as a Centre for ground breaking art. It is
thanks to the support of the people of Liverpool that Bluecoat has been able to
achieve as much as it has during its 300 years, and we invite everyone to join
us in 2017 to celebrate our history and achievements, and look forward to our
future."
Bluecoat Artistic Director Bryan Biggs, who has curated the exhibition, said:-
"Public View brings together works since when the gallery space was
improved and an exhibition programme formalised. Even with 100 artists, this is
but a small, though significant, sample of the thousands of artists who have
shown here. It aims to reflect something of Bluecoat's curatorial interests and
distinctive exhibition programming over this period.
Visitors will be able to see some of their favourite artists or art that will be
familiar from previous exhibitions, while at the same time discovering exciting
new artwork, some of it never exhibited before.
There is a wide range of work included, with many of our 'artistic alumni'
generously donating their work in the exhibition, or another work, to a
fundraising auction to be held later this year that will help ensure Bluecoat
continues its support for artists.
The exhibition is the perfect start to Bluecoat's 300th anniversary year. It
celebrates the achievements of our past while simultaneously looking towards the
future as we maintain our long running connection with these artists and
continue our commitment to supporting artists at all stages of their careers." |
