Category Archives: Events And Notable Dates
New Year Resolutions For You And Your Lifestyle
Everyone takes time as the New Year arrives to do some mental spring cleaning. This list offers ideas for reflection and perhaps as New Year Resolutions. It’s about how individuals approach their lives and leisure time. I hope it’s useful.
Here’s an alphabet of resolutions and reflections for the New Year. It’s a mix, match or amend menu, so take it where you will. Good Luck!
A Join an Athletics Club, learn Archery, visit an Art Gallery – Anything new. You choose; but just see if you can get a different Angle on life.
B Look on the Bright side wherever you can; remember to make time to Bond with family, friends, neighbours, colleagues…
C Concentrate your mind on something different. Find a Community Choir, go to a ‘proper, sit and listen’ Concert, be a member of a Chess Club (on-line if you like), play Croquet, whatever.
D Is there enough Drama in your life? Find ways to chill if there’s too much. Develop a tast for exciting sports events, politics or live theatre / opera if there’s not enough.
E Increase your Energy: Exercise! Every day.
F Grow your own Food and Flowers sometimes, even if only in window boxes – ‘green’ is good for you in many ways.
G How’s your Girth? If you’re not pleased with your measurements, Get it sorted. Gently.
H Try to stay Happy; think back, every evening, to what’s gone right that day.
I Take In a panto / ballet and let your Imagination run wild; or learn to play a musical Instrument – In a group or with the kids…
J Do a personal Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) analysis of your Job or other main activity. What does it tell you?
K Perform a random act of Kindness, every day; something you really didn’t have to do, but which makes someone else smile (you’ll smile too).
L Learn about your carbon footprint. And Learn to Listen.
M Make a wish, a promise to yourself which Means something to you as a person. How will you Manage to achieve it?
N Avoid Negatives; don’t be cynical. Life’s too short.
O Organise a visit to somewhere you’ve always dreamed of going; just do it.
P Buy a Pedometer and wear it. When last did you Pound the Pavements or simply stroll in your local Park?
Q We all need Quality time.
R Find time too for Reflection. Life is not a Rehearsal.
S Sort a Same Sex night out – Somewhere you can hear each other Speak.
T Have a TV-free day every week. Go on, give it a Try!
U Understand other people’s perspectives where you can.
V Could you go Vegetarian? It’s eco-friendly and it costs less.
W Sustain and enjoy Wildlife – even if it’s only the ‘diners’ fluttering around your Window Bird Feeder
X EXplore somewhere new, however locally or far-flung. Search and marvel on the internet if you can’t physically get there.
Y Stay Young at heart ( but appreciate the advantages of experience). So….
Z Take the kids (yours / some hard-pressed mum’s..) to, say, the Zoo; join in gladly as they have fun!
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
So You Want To Put On A Show?
Shows are far more complicated to produce than many in the audience will ever realise. Here’s a lighthearted ‘poetic’ guide for anyone who fancies chancing their hand as promoter or director of a musical or theatrical event. Hopefully, everything you need to think about is here…
So you want to put on a show?
Well, here are the things you must know:
What’s the date, when’s the time, where’s the money?
What’s the theme, is it straight, sad or funny?
Who can act, who can play, who can sing?
Who’ll direct, can they do the whole thing?
What’s the venue, location and cost?
If the tickets don’t sell, are you lost?
Who’ll do your box office, and how?
Do you need to start marketing now?
Who’ll design programmes, posters and flyers?
Will you cope if a team member tires?
Have you found all your quotes for the print-run
And settled dates for it to be done?
Who’ll design any costumes and sets?
Are you confident budgets are met?
Have you found all your scripts and / or scores?
Are there copies for all, and some more?
Have you sorted rehearsals and places
So performers can go through their paces?
Will you use a presenter, and who?
If you have to cut back, will that do?
Will your artists require expenses,
Are these likely to be quite extensive?
Have you registered with Performing Rights
(Or composers could give you sleepless nights)?
Do you know that your players need cuppas
And without these they’ll end on their uppers?
Are you certain your insurance’s updated
Just in case your poor venture is fated?
Have you checked your venue is licenced
To avoid legal questions or sentence?
Are your sponsors signed up and contented?
Have you made sure no egos are dented?
Can you say hand on heart
That you’ll still play the part
When frustrations or worries are vented?
Have you thought if your venue needs heating?
Have you sorted there’s adequate seating?
Have you sound-checked against any din?
Is your access well-lit coming in?
Are your backdrops and props fine and dandy?
Your producer not reaching for brandy?
Are the stage lights and spots in good order?
Can the musos all see their own folders?
Is the piano in tune?
Has the stage enough room?
Have you ordered the squash, wine and biccies?
Can you wash your hands clean if they’re sticky?
Do performers have costumes which fit them?
And a place where they change to get in them?
Come the day when the show’s set to go
Who will do all the tapes and photos?
Will there be a recording on the night?
(And what about the media rights?)
Have you vendors for tickets and nibbles?
And some stewards to sort out the quibbles?
Have you marked out seats on the front row
Where your V.I.P. guests will all go?
Will a few words be said when the show starts
By a ‘vip’ with sound wisdom to impart?
Are there flowers gift-wrapped with a bow
To present at the end of the show?
Are your thank-yous all done to be posted,
So your artists and hosts feel toasted?
Will the audience know
When it’s over, to go
With a smile and a song in their hearts?
Oh! You’ve had quite enough
And you think it’s too tough
And you wish that you never had started.
But the show must go on
And there’s no escape from
The idea which began so stout-hearted.
Then the audience arrives
And the tails and bow ties
Are put on by your doughty performers;
And they go on the stage
And the show is a rage
(So you hope in your dreams,
If the critic thus deems)
And the buzz when it ends is high order.
But there’s just one more task
As you sort out the costs –
Fingers crossed, not a loss? –
And the hall’s cleared at last
As the costumes and music are stowed.
Now the hassles are over,
And though you are sober
You feel as if you’re quite heady.
And somehow a notion
Sets itself into motion
For another performance or show……
Are you c e r t a i n you’re r e a d y ???
© HB/Nov.04
Christmas Round Robin Letters Round Off The Year
Christmas round robin letters evoke strong views; but they’re an excellent way to keep in touch, even if they often do ‘accentuate the positive’. We’re no longer in communities where we can just pop down the road to share our news.
Should one, or should one not, enclose with one’s festive greetings a newsletter-cum-salutation which brings the recipient up to speed on at least the more positive of one’s experiences over the past twelve months?
‘Round robins’, it is said, are so named because originally they were delivered in Victorian times by postmen wearing red uniforms, a cheery thought for this festive season. Which brings me to the crux of the matter. To round robin or not to round robin? Is it good form to put an annual ‘family newsletter’ addressed to ‘Dear All’ in with the Christmas card?
Keeping in touch
Here’s a question to which there is absolutely not a ‘right’ answer. The pro- and anti- camps are, each of them, both persuasive and unpersuadable.
It’s a question on which both ‘sides’ claim the high moral ground, and a situation in which faux pas is often the order of the day.
But for my money, the answer is Yes, please do send a newsy note with your Christmas card if you (a) can, and (b) would like to ….. providing always that what you are about to relate is mostly pleasant and / or necessary news, and that it will read as sharing rather than blaring.
And I will try to reciprocate in similar manner.
Change of context, change of comms.
Life for most people in the Western world has changed a great deal in the past several decades.
Almost no-one from my youth still lives where they grew up; in fact, few of them even live anywhere near where they studied or started their professional lives. And to this we can add likewise that few of our children now live anywhere near us.
In other words, for large numbers of people their ‘communities’ are many and varied. There are our initial reference points – family and school days; then there are college and early career friends; then we add in-laws or similar; and then our careers often take us in very different directions from those which we may have expected… and so it goes on.
Obviously, not everyone experiences such steadily shifting contextual arrangements, but for an ever-larger proportion of the population such, up to the present, has been life as we know it.
Hardly surprising then that for many of us the Christmas card list continues to grow, and the possibility of individual meaningful and handwritten seasonal letters becomes less and less feasible, despite our very good intentions. We’d have to start the Christmas cards in October, to achieve anything like a respectable output on a fully ‘individualised’ basis.
It’s the intention that counts
So I for one like to receive the annual round robin messages and notes which come through my letterbox during the festive season. We read and share them with others. It’s become a part of the Christmas ritual.
Newsletters make the saluations in the Christmas cards meaningful; these are not greetings from shadowy figures from my past, but from real people in the here-and-now.
The news and views I read from past colleagues and old friends are ever-interesting. The diaspora underpinning our modern lives continues to expand, but the community of interest and shared experience remains.
Shared meaning writ large
Another sense in which we use the term ’round robin’ is to describe the making of a patchwork quilt, sometimes by a number of friends and family together and often as a part of the tradition of American community life. (Though now there are even internet quilting groups!)
Like this simple shared craft activity, round robin letters are not meaningless. Enjoy, joke or even grimace if you must, but also please know that for most of those who write round robins they are a genuine attempt to show that you have not been forgotten. The spirit of Christmas letters reflects the basic commonality of meaning from which we have all emerged to go our separate and fascinating ways.
The Tale of the Christmas Laser Lights: Spotlight on Delivery
Big celebratory events are always at risk of failing to fulfil their hyped-up promise. London experienced this so it is said when they tried one year to introduce laser lights for the Oxford Street Christmas illuminations. How much more embarrassing it would be if Liverpool were not to deliver fully on the promise for the celebrations in 2007 and 2008.
Twice in the past fortnight I’ve been in London, a city currently sporting serious Christmas illuminations, and both times I’ve heard from cab drivers the Tale of the Christmas Laser Lights.
The story goes that one year London’s Oxford Street Christmas lights (normally, as this year, fairly predictable arrangements) were redesigned to include lasers. This caused considerable excitement, to all accounts across the globe, and visitors travelled from far and wide to see these splendid displays. The problem, as related by my cab drivers, was however that splendid the lasers were not.
Promise only what you can deliver
Thus, in one case, my taxi driver told me that he had actually attempted to talk a potential visitor out of an expensive ride to see the lasers; but to no avail. His fare’s disappointment was huge, having as it then transpired travelled from abroad to see them, when it became evident to the visitor that these high-tech features of the Christmas illuminations were almost undetectable.
And there’s surely a moral here. If you’re going to talk something up, make sure you can actually deliver it. The story of the Christmas laser lights has clearly become a part of the folk lore of London tourism. It’s evolved, rightly or wrongly, into a benchmark for How Not To Do It.
The lesson for Liverpool
In the next two or three years Liverpool is lined up to deliver enormous celebratory events, firstly, in 2007, for the 800th anniversary of the Charter of the city, and then, in 2008, for the European Capital of Culture Year.
As things stand, few of us are privy to any substantive information about what will happen in Liverpool during these two years (and even fewer of us have been involved in making proposals). All, however, are regaled on a daily basis with tales of how splendidly impressive these signal events will be.
Let’s not forget the moral of the story of the Christmas Laser Lights. A visitior disappointed is a visitor who will very likely remember for many a year to come the time and resources s/he ill-advisedly invested.
Redeeming a nondescript set of annual Christmas illuminations is one thing. Redeeming two very special and critically high profile, but ultimately nondescript, years in a world-renown city such as Liverpool would be on a different scale of significance altogether.
Christmas Activities For Children And Families
No-one has the perfect answer to the question, ‘What shall we do with (or as) the kids over Christmas?’ But here are some day-by-day suggestions for the family during the Christmas / Winter Solstice week, with an indoor, an outdoor and a foodie activity for each date. Mix and match, with something for everyone, is the general approach. And, whatever you do, have fun.
The Merseyside Entrepreneurship Commission
The launch of the final Report of the Merseyside Entrepreneurship Commission this morning has thrown up some interesting facts, some challenging ideas and a number of practical ‘can do’s’. The big question now is, where do we go next?
This morning I went to the launch of the Merseyside Entrepreneurship Commission‘s final Report. It was a well attended meeting; and I gather there are to be events throughout the week to exemplify the core messge, that enterprise is doing, not talking about it.
Is Merseyside different?
It would I think be difficult to claim that Merseyside is really different from other similar areas of Britain in terms of the need to bring the entrepreneurial message into focus. But it may be that the particular context of European Objective 1 funding makes the situation a little more striking. It’s not unusual for areas such as this to have about 60% dependency in one way or another on public funding, but perhaps the huge plethora of agencies purporting to offer ‘advice’ is fuelled by the availability of this funding stream.
Whatever, I have to agree wholeheartedly that there are too many agencies, and that they are insufficiently monitored in respect of the quality of what they have on offer. I do wonder, however, what impact there might be on Merseyside’s economy if the 300 or so agencies were ‘rationalised’ in the way some might wish. Would there be a local mini-recession? And would this kick-start or stifle further developments?
Emphasis on technology
It’s also interesting that one proposal for the way forward is to have a web forum. As I was one of, no doubt, many who suggested the web ‘ideas exchange’, I am pleased to see that this notion has now taken on a life of its own.
The web forum has been entitled ‘ucan’ (make it) and is intended to be a virtual reference point for all things entrepreneurial in Merseyside. Hopefully, it will be a means by which those other, non-e agencies can streamline and provide a joined up service for budding entrepreneurs, as well as for established followers of the mode who want to exchange news, views and so on. Perhaps it will also be able to support the educational initiatives which the Commission obviously wants to see extended and nurtured.
Where now?
The Merseyside Entrepreneurship Commission told us this morning that it has now completed its formal work. It will be interesting – if not fascinating – to see what happens next. The website is to be sponsored for six months to see how much it is used and how it develops; and the challenge is firmly presented to the many agencies and other operators to get themsleves aligned in terms of the clients’ wider experience and access.
We shall all, I suspect, watch this space with interest.
Monday Women ’05: Let’s Have A Party!
The Monday Women group in Liverpool held its end-of-year celebration this evening, bringing together women of many different experiences and walks of life. The future may continue to be challenging for us all, but there is no doubt that the women who came together tonight feel very positive about what is in store for 2006.
This evening was the annual Monday Women end-of-year event, or ‘Christmas Do’, as ever at the Everyman Bistro in Liverpool’s Hope Street. We usually meet on the first Monday of the month just from 5.30 till 7 pm, but for the December meeting only we have a rather more extended event.
This year our chosen theme, presented with great flair by two ‘members’ of the group, was our wishes for ourselves and others for the coming year – and so we found ourselves, after a meal and a drink, sitting in a big ‘circle’ (actually a four-tables-length oblong) creating paper flags, with coloured pens, glue and glitter, which then became our thirty-flag pendant-bunting for the future.
A mixed group, but a strong commitment
The Monday Women ‘group’ is a completely free, and totally accessible, company of women from all walks of life who simply chose whenever they can to come together to talk and share. Sometimes this coming together is via the Monday Women Yahoo e-group, and sometimes it’s in the physical space of the Everyman Bistro.
People come and people go, but there is always a welcome when they appear; no-one organises it, the appearances and the welcome are both offered without reservation or condition. Some of those involved are young, some really quite a bit older, some already know each other, some when they arrive do not. It really doesn’t matter. Despite the variety of Monday Women, though, there is a strong sense of shared values and commitment, to the human condition in general and to the specific part/s women take in it.
Wishes for a strong and fair future for us all
Perhaps it is not surprising that the women this evening, some first-timers, some now ‘old friends’, shared a common optimism and good will as they surveyed the year ahead.
No-one, as I saw it, considered that issues of equality have now been resolved; no-one thought these were not worthy still of consideration; but everyone saw their future as positive.
We have (literally) flown our paper flags for 2006, and we have written ourselves good wishes for the coming year which we shall revisit next December. The evening was a lively, positive affirmation of our hopes for what is to come, both for those of us who were there in the Everyman this evening, and for women everywhere.
Social Enterprise Day – Today!
Social Enterprise is a bit of a mystery to some people… so today is a chance to find out more.
Today is Social Enterprise Day. Perhaps you knew that already, or perhaps you didn’t; but it’s also Social Enterprise Week, focusing primarily on young people, so there is bound to be a bit of media activity.
So what is Social Enterprise?
The Government’s definition of it is ‘a business with primarily social objectives whose surpluses are principally reinvested for that purpose inthe business or the community, rather than being driven by the need to maximise profit for shareholders and owners.’
In other words, social businesses are set up to ‘make a difference’ for society or the environment.
More of them than you think…
Recent research has shown that there are some 15,000 UK businesses which are social enterprises. That’s about £18 billion per year generated in the economy, and around 475,000 jobs. This includes activities as varied as Jamie Oliver’s Fifteen restaurant, Cafedirect, and the Eden Project, or Liverpool’s own Furniture Resource Centre.
You can find out more about all this from the Social Enterprise Coalition or from the Enterprise Week website.
Why The Merseyside Economy Needs More SciTech Research & Development
A recent meeting of the North West Business Leadership Forum and The Mersey Partnership has focused minds on how to engage the Knowledge Economy at its highest levels. Reseach and Development are universally understood to enhance economies. The challenge now for Merseyside entrepreneurs and businesses is therefore to grasp the exciting opportunities emerging via our growing high-tech knowledge base.
On Thursday (10 November) this week I went to a joint North West Business Leadership Forum / Mersey Partnership forum in Liverpool. Attendance was high, this being the first opportunity for some of us to hear the views of Robert Crawford, the new Chief Executive of The Mersey Partnership.
Robert’s analysis of where Merseyside ‘is at’ was of course worth hearing. In just six weeks he has obviously seen and digested a great deal, and he shared some of his initial thoughts with us during his talk. What particularly encouraged me, however, was his emphasis on the Knowledge Economy at the highest levels: his questions around retention of post-grads as well as first degree graduates, and his challenge to our three local universities to increase ‘Reach In’ – the term used by States-side colleges for close alignment with local businesses, especially at a time when private corporates have to some extent reduced their own in-house research and development.
Nations don’t compete; businesses compete
Innovation, productivity and skills development, as MIT and other studies have told us, are globally the key to enterprise success. It follows therefore research and development are at least as important in Merseyside as anywhere else. Our sub-regional productivity is lower than elsewhere, but our higher education base is robust. The task is to bring the potential for R&D into play to increase productivity, as has happened dramatically in parts of China and elsewhere. Knowledge inevitably traverses continents freely, but it is up to businesses to engage it for their own use.
Places as far apart as Bangalore, North Carolina and Ireland have found ways to bolster their economies using very high skills. We in the North West of England now have the opportunity to do the same. Fortunately we have just secured a huge advantage via the new-found confidence in North West science at Daresbury and in Liverpool’s own university science base. It needs to be said, however, that this work is in every sense regional and (inter)national, as well as sub-regional. Merseyside will get nowhere in this vast emerging network of science and technology without collaboration with our erstwhile city-region competitors. None of us is big enough to do it on our own.
Moving forward
For the Merseyside economy and its people to flourish in this new context, as Robert Crawford said in his address, we need mechanisms in place to define our own sub-regional partnerships, and to identify and remove local impediments to progress. For this to happen we also need to map our baseline/s and to have confidence that public sector intervention will be carefully considered, timely and appropriate.
One part of this positive partnership development will be the increasing involvement of high-achieving people who have links with our city and sub-region; they may not all live here, but there are many other ways in which win-win synergies can be developed.
For me, such synergies clearly include the huge numbers of high-skills liaisons which occur virtually and person-to-person in the North West’s world-class science programmes. But whilst there can be huge benefits for Merseyside which arise from these endeavours, we must never escape forget that the science itself is funded internationally, and its potential impact is global. Only if Merseyside’s local entrepreneurs take the time to grasp the opportunities to hand will we benefit particularly. The next challenge is to persuade enough of them that such apparently esoteric activity actually has relevance for their bottom line.
HOPES Millennium Commission Presentation (London, 22 September 2000)
HOPES: The Hope Street Association (Liverpool) was honoured by being invited in September 2000 to give the ‘community festival’ perspective at a national meeting in London attended by the Secretary of State for Culture, Chris Smith M.P., the Millennium Commissioners and their special guests. The paper which follows was presented on this occasion by HOPES Hon. Chair, Hilary Burrage.
HOPES: The Hope Street Association
Presentation to the Secretary of State for Culture, the Rt Hon Chris Smith MP, and the Millennium Commission
London, 22 September 2000
Maintaining the Momentum of Change: Making connections – building communities
THE HOPE STREET MILLENNIUM FESTIVAL (LIVERPOOL)
The Liverpool Hope Street Millennium Public Arts Route
Background
HOPES: The Hope Street Association came into being in 1994/5 as a result of the on-going campaign to support Liverpool’s Everyman and Playhouse Theatres and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, all of which were then under serious threat of financial calamity. Since 1991/2 The Campaign to Promote the Arts on Merseyside (CAMPAM – now amalgamated with HOPES) had proclaimed of these vital elements of Liverpool’s cultural life that ‘once lost, we will not get them back’.
The Hope Street Quarter is an area at the downtown edge of Liverpool City Centre which covers approximately a square kilometre. It is probably unique in the density of civic resources it offers, with an amazing number of cultural and educational institutions lined along and on either side of Hope Street itself.
Almost all of these institutions are members or partners of HOPES, including both Cathedrals and both Universities, several colleges and training centres in the area, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra / Hall, and the Everyman and Unity Theatres. Other HOPES members importantly include local traders, professional businesses, residents and private individuals.
HOPES’ Aims
From the very beginning, HOPES had a number of stated aims:
– to establish the area around Hope Street as a formal Quarter, thereby gaining for it and its constituent parts serious recognition as a springboard for appropriate, managed development;
– to establish formal liaison with decision-makers in the City of Liverpool in order to promote and develop the many aspects of Hope Street Quarter which put together would offer a striking synergy for renaissance of the area and the city as a whole;
– to establish a special identity as a not-for-profit body with links with national and other local bodies involved in regeneration and social entrepreneurship;
– to gain Millennium Commission recognition and support, especially for celebratory activities which brought together members of the local community and a wide range of artists and other professionals in the area.
It can be said in general terms that the year 2000 has seen a significant measure of success in all four of these objectives, and not least, in the first three cases, because of the impetus which Festival support from the Millennium Commission has provided.
Moving towards the Hope Street Millennium Festival
Hope Street’s Festival has been focused, although not exclusively, on the Midsummer period. We began earlier in the year with some ‘taster’ small concerts and children’s workshops in local community venues, and we will continue with these, and with other educational and arts projects, until the end of the year, and beyond. But the main focus has been Midsummer, following from a practice of running Midsummer Festivals which began in 1977, with the celebration of HM Queen’s Silver Jubilee and a pageant on Hope Street arising from Malcolm Arnold’s work, The Valley and the Hill. On that first occasion some 17,000 school children were involved, but from this grew a number of other Hope Street Midsummer Festivals which might be compared with, say, early Three Choirs Festivals in terms of content and delivery.
By the mid-1980s, however, this series of festivals had come to an end, and the first, tentative, festival of the current series was organised by the Hope Street Association in 1996. This first, modest venture was over one weekend only, but, encouraged by the interest it engendered, we have since developed annual programmes over longer periods, with the Millennium Midsummer Festival extending over the entire month of June.
Preparations for the Hope Street Millennium Festival have their roots in the very first decisions made by HOPES. We agreed at a well-attended public meeting to make an application to the Millennium Commission for a significant capital award to support the physical regeneration of the Hope Street Quarter – a bid, put together entirely on a volunteer / pro-bono basis, which was unsuccessful but which also drew considerable attention to the Quarter at a time when we were also seeking (ultimately successfully) to have the Quarter so designated by the city authorities. Several early rejections of economic development and arts-related bids, however, left us if anything more determined to succeed in a significant bid which would highlight the unique and exciting features of our Quarter. And so further work and public consultation led to the successful Millennium Festival Award which has now been delivered and employed with very real effect.
Facing the challenges
The Hope Street Association has however been seriously challenged in delivering such a festival. HOPES has almost no direct income (other than modest membership fees and occasional individual donations); but it does receive significant in-kind support from many sources, the most sustained of which has been provision of an office and facilities by the Liverpool Business School and, latterly, by the Liverpool Architecture and Design Trust. This generous support is matched by ‘staff’ who are young graduates on management-training placements from our Universities (mostly the Language Learning Centre of the University of Liverpool).
These young people are mentored and supervised by HOPES’s Chair, a semi-retired lecturer who has hands-on involvement in the day-to-day running of the organisation. Without the enthusiasm and energy of HOPES’s ‘staff’ trainees the close community links and many activities of the Association and its Festival would not be possible – young people bring their own very valuable momentum to events!
Participating in the Hope Street Millennium Festival
A key aim of HOPES’ approach to the Millennium Festival has been community participation at every level. Our objective has been to deliver artistic and educational activities using highly-skilled professionals working with local people who have a close knowledge of the community – thereby, we hope, breaking down possible psychological and other barriers to collaboration in the renaissance of the Hope Street Quarter and helping where we can to bring about also the longed-for renaissance of Liverpool.
Over many months the following outline programme for the Hope Street Millennium Festival developed and has now been delivered:
Involvement of Merseyside schools in the Festival,, especially through
– an extended Banners project led by an Egyptian teacher, Nivien Mahmoud, who has come with her family to Liverpool whilst her husband studies at the University
– invitations to schools to involve their students in the now-established annual Hotfoot on Hope Street Midsummer concert at Philharmonic Hall
– poetry and arts / science ‘creativity’ projects led by HOPES graduate trainee Development Officer, Jo Doyle, with volunteer expert advice and support
Involvement of top-level artists and educationalists such as players from the Royal Liverpool Orchestra in a number of activities such as
– the Gala Midsummer Hotfoot on Hope Street concert at Philharmonic Hall, in which talented young amateur instrumentalists and singers performed music ranging from Peter and the Wolf to Beatles arrangements alongside players RLPO professionals
– informal chamber concerts by Live-A-Music, a group of RLPO players, at venues like St Bride’s Church, Toxteth (at the invitation of the Vicar) and Liverpool Town Hall (at the invitation, on BBC Music Live Day, of the Lord Mayor)
– music workshops for children (and their parents) run alongside these concerts by another Live-A-Music / RLPO player, Richard Gordon-Smith (also HOPES’ Composer-in-Residence) at community venues such as St Bride’s and The Blackie
– an emphasis on music by ‘minority’ composers and performers, eg: Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (researched by Live-A-Music’s Director, Martin Anthony (Tony) Burrage) and the Saurang Orchestra, initiated by Surinder Sandhu, which brings together professional players from the Indian, Western and Jazz traditions – and which this time included performance of the international Ode to Joy, supported by Liverpool City Council Arts Unit and David Ellwand of Summer Music
– the creation overall of 60+ engagements in the city for professional performers, as well as encouragement for new composers via a competition offering opportunities for winning entries to be performed by a professional group of musicians
Involvement of the wider local and Merseyside community through
– widespread media coverage, local leafleting / newsletters, consultation meetings etc
– a longer-term commitment to establish a Hope Street Millennium Public Arts Route celebrating the activities of all who have been involved in our Millennium Festival
– maintaining contacts in local communities through friends and colleagues made whilst HOPES provided administrative support for the 1998 Liverpool Windrush activities (at the initial suggestion of Jeffrey Morris of BBC Television)
– development of an on-going website
– a dazzling pre-Launch performance at the Metropolitan (RC) Cathedral by Sicilian flag-throwers, arranged by Mrs Nunzia Bertali, Italian consul for Merseyside
– engagement of local people to provide voluntary advice and assistance in the development, marketing and promotion of all the Festival activities, through an informal network of Festival Committee members and helpers – including Arthur Bowling, a Millennium Fellow who was introduced to HOPES by the Commission
– concerts and free workshops over several months which had marketing campaigns targeted particularly at local communities around Hope Street, for which, in addition to wider promotional support from the RLPS, we delivered leaflets door-to-door
– producing and displaying the HOPES Banners all along Hope Street for the Midsummer weekend, in a collaboration with schools, Liverpool University Student Guild and their Organiser Emily Coombes, the Youth Service, the Probation Service (who provided community service probationers to actually mount the banners) – and, crucially, the owners of all the stretches of iron railing along the street
– a ‘Family Fun Day’ on Sunday 18 June, when we collaborated with the Dingle SALE (Southern Area Local Enterprise), the Police, Liverpool John Moores University and other authorities to close a stretch of Hope Street and offer free family entertainment (Brownies and local dance groups, young popular musicians, balloons, craft and activity stalls in the John Moores University car park on the corner of Hope Street, etc.) which many people enjoyed – in brilliant sunshine!
Involvement of HOPES members, regeneration professionals and other interested practitioners, students and citizens through
– displays, newspaper articles and radio / TV interviews about the Festival and regeneration of the Quarter
– a formal Festival Launch when Angela Heslop, Arts Editor of Radio Merseyside, gave the Annual HOPES State of the Arts on Merseyside address
– displays, newspaper articles and radio / TV interviews about the Festival etc
– a HOPES Millennium Gala Dinner, attended by Guests of Honour The Lord Mayor of Liverpool, Mrs Louise Ellman MP for Liverpool Riverside, Councillor Mike Storey as Leader of Liverpool City Council, and David Scougall, a Director of the British Urban Regeneration Association, as speaker, with many other significant figures in Liverpool’s regeneration alongside other members and supporters of HOPES
– liaison with bodies such as the Musicians’ Union and others, in an informal network
– a National Conference, Art at the Heart: The Role of Established Cultural Quarters in City Renaissance, which had as Keynote Speaker Chris Brown of the Urban Task Force, as well as a wide range of other development practitioners and academics
– production after this conference of a publication, The Hope Street Papers, which contains professional presentations from actual speakers and others, as well as responses from members of the public who attended the conference as participants.
HOPES’ current position
Whilst HOPES remains an organisation dependent almost entirely on volunteer activity and support, with many professionals and members of the community giving their services freely, our position has shifted very positively during our Millennium Festival year. Significant factors in this change include
– strengthening of community links, eg, through collaboration with Dingle SALE, the St Bride’s (Canning / Toxteth) community and the University of Liverpool Students’ Guild community volunteers
– greater involvement with the Universities and Colleges (eg: invitations to work with fifth year Architecture students at Liverpool and LJMU, to perform a community chamber concert at Liverpool Art School, to collaborate with the University of Liverpool and Liverpool Institute for Performing Art in a science theatre proposal, and to collaborate with music students at Liverpool Hope University College)
– agreement from the Charity Commission that HOPES can register in the near future as an arts, educational and conservation etc charity, expressly to benefit the City of Liverpool and the local community
– much strengthened links with the British Urban Regeneration Association, the North-West Regional Development Agency, the NW Arts Board, the Liverpool Architecture and Design Trust , Liverpool Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Local Agenda 21, Aurora, the Musicians’ Union and other significant organisations
– establishing working contact with the London-based School for Social Entrepreneurs, especially since this year our graduate trainee Development Officer, Jo Doyle, has at HOPES’ initial suggestion been studying there; she is currently developing a HOPES programme which will bring together professional musicians (eg: from the RLPO / Live-A-Music) and community-based practitioners to engage young popular musicians in a New Deal scheme addressing social exclusion
– development of a formal relationship with the City of Liverpool’s Youth (Life Long Learning) Service, which has agreed to offer financial support for Jo Doyle’s project
– making professional musical connections with the Samuel Coleridge-Taylor Society (based in Croydon, where he lived) and members of the Saurang Orchestra (who visit Liverpool to play in it from India and the United States) – so providing proof positive that ‘classical’ music is not the preserve simply of a certain type of person
– increasingly strong connections with the innovative public-private partnership city-centre development agency, Liverpool Vision, and with the City of Liverpool’s new Regeneration Directorate (who very helpfully introduced us to the Youth Service)
– establishing as a priority consideration of mechanisms for graduate retention in Liverpool, beyond simply the post-graduate management training phase
– achieving the prime objective of the Association, which is to establish the need for acknowledgement and renaissance of the Hope Street Quarter – this was recently accomplished after submissions to and high-level discussions with the City’s Unitary Development Plan office and then with the new City Centre Development Company, Liverpool Vision, which in July revised its strategy to include Hope Street Quarter as a primary location for attention, having initially not done so at all.
The advantage of Millennium Funding
For all these developments the advantage of Festival funding from the Millennium Commission has been enormous. It allowed us to plan a Festival in confidence, knowing that we could pay at least essential bills; and, most importantly, it gave us credibility and a new and higher profile. That’s worth more than almost anything else.
Dreaming Realist 