New Culture Network for Liverpool City Region

A new network has been launched for cultural organisations and companies across the Liverpool city region.

Culture Network LCR CIC aims to strengthen the region’s ‘already vibrant culture offer’ by bringing together its large and wide-ranging arts and culture community - encouraging networking, joint promotion and programming and shared planning and learning.

And importantly, it also hopes to use the power of ‘one advocating voice’ to promote and support culture across the whole region.

The network was officially launched at an event at the Museum of Liverpool last week attended by representatives of more than 90 organisations and venues from the Empire Theatre and ACC Liverpool to All Things Considered, Paperwork and Kitchen Sink theatre companies.

They included both those from the new network's current 45 members and potential new members interested in hearing more.

Culture Network LCR includes members of two existing groups – LARC (Liverpool Arts Regeneration Consortium) and COoL (Creative Organisations of Liverpool) which were both set up around Liverpool Capital of Culture to bring arts organisations together.

But the ambition is to have representatives from throughout the area including Wirral, Sefton, Knowsley, Halton and St Helens, with The Atkinson in Southport an early supporter of the newly formed CIC.

Charlotte Corrie, director of the city’s Open Culture CIC, has been appointed as executive director of the new network.

She said: “The Culture Network now feels more important than ever. We want it to be small supporting the large, and the large supporting the small.

“Done right we can create a beautiful and incredibly useful community interest company.”

Liverpool Irish Festival Emma Smith and dot-art’s Lucy Byrne are two of the network’s board of directors.

Smith, emphasising the advocacy and lobbying power of a united group from across the region’s six boroughs, says: “I’ve been involved in this process from very early on. We wanted to make sure culture was able to amplify itself better.”

And Byrne agrees: “We’ve been working on this behind the scenes for a long time, and we specifically want people from the whole city region to get involved.”

More information about the Culture Network LCR CIC is available HERE

Top: The Culture Network LCR CIC launch at the Museum of Liverpool. Photo by Mark McNulty.