Since late 2012, twenty six very different organisations have been running a range of exciting and innovative programmes promoting wellbeing across Liverpool through arts and culture. Those programmes, funded by Culture Liverpool and Liverpool Primary Care Trust as a keystone of the city’s Decade of Wellbeing, were celebrated at Thinking Back, Looking Forward, a major exhibition at one of Liverpool’s landmark Victorian buildings, St George’s Hall.
We’re no strangers to curating exhibitions, having designed The Forest of Dreams for Knowsley Council – but Looking Back, Thinking Forward represented a huge leap forward for us in terms of scale and complexity. Inspired by the subterranean areas the displays inhabit, with their ever-changing perspectives, we drew on some of the themes of Alice in Wonderland as we designed the exhibition
“Thank you so much – what you’ve done is brilliant!” (Bryn Wiiliams, dot-art)
Looking Back, Thinking Forward was launched at a special event on the evening of April 24th, where representatives of each of the programmes gathered in St George’s majestic Concert Room. We were entertained – and made to think - by Dingle Community Theatre, Crass Routes, the Liverpool Arabic Centre, Merseyside Polonia, Taciturn Dance, One Latin Culture, Rotunda ABC, the Voices Never Forget Choir and the Royal Liverpool Hospital Staff Choir. And we heard just how important all this work is from representatives of the city council, the Primary Care Trust, Mersey Care and the new Liverpool Clinical Commissioning Group
“It’s wonderful – and so inspiring. Thank you for inviting me” (Lord Mayor of Liverpool)