Tag: Liverpool

LIPA Community Arts Reunion: Celebrating Legacy and Growth in one Final Snapshot Countdown

The recent LIPA Community Arts Reunion celebrated over 30 ex-graduates and staff, reflecting on their journey through personal growth, creativity, and community impact. The event emphasized the course’s legacy in shaping artistic identities, fostering social connection, and promoting activism, leaving attendees inspired to continue their collective endeavors beyond the reunion.

Well, that is, as they say, a wrap. It. Finito. Done, dusted and stacked on IKEA Ding Dong shelving.   The Not-the-30th-reunion LIPA Community Arts Reunion reached its climax between the 8th and 10th August, with over 30 ex-graduates and staff meeting up in a flurry of drinking and eating, talking and walking, reflecting and inspecting across Liverpool. The weekend gave us a chance to produce a final snapshot for Adolonia (the anthology marking the event) which brought together our reflections on both the legacy of the Community Arts course at LIPA and its effects on us personally.  We heard about:

Personal Growth and Identity: how the course equipped us  with resilience, confidence and joy. It wasn’t just skills training; it helped you shape your identities and sense of agency. The course nurtured personal growth, self-awareness, and an enduring sense of privilege in being able to do this work.

Creativity and Artistic Identity: our identities as artists have been strengthened, with creativity seen as joyous, liberating, and essential to how we live. We celebrate the arts as both expressive and practical:  a vessel, a resource, even a survival mechanism. It’s both deeply serious and playfully irreverent.

Skills and Professional Pathways: how we’ve translated your training into diverse professional roles across health, education, social work, and youth settings with community arts practice providing as a practical toolkit for real-world impact. We’ve developed practical and relational skills: crisis management, facilitation and the ability to guide others while respecting boundaries.

Relationships and Connectivity: we see the work reinforcing the importance of human connection by building trust, valuing young people, and seeing relationships as central to practice.

Philosophy and Values: how the course instilled a values-based approach rooted in compassion, inclusivity, and respect for lived experience. Ubuntu philosophy (‘I am because we are’) ran through our reflections. Strong ethical commitments to empathy, fairness, and collective care are central to our practice.

Social and Political Impact: how we saw community arts practice as a form of activism and civic engagement:  politics not as parties and manifestos, but as everyday acts of empowerment and discourse. We’ve become attuned to wider social and political currents, using the arts to challenge, disrupt and stand for freedom and justice.

Community Development and Outreach: how we saw the practice tied to regeneration and outreach, embedding itself in communities at the most local level and working upwards.

Connection and Collaboration: how we’ve built networks that stretch across borders, finding ways to connect even digitally. LIPA became a launchpad for global and cross-cultural collaboration: and exposure to diversity has shaped an internationalist and inclusive outlook which embraces difference and learning across borders.

Overall, the course helped shape us into creative, ethical, empathetic practitioners who combine artistry with care, political awareness with positivity, and personal growth with collective responsibility. It was as much about becoming a better human as it was about becoming a better artist.  It has left behind more than a set of graduates: it has seeded a movement of practitioners who combine artistry with activism, care with creativity, and local practice with global connection. The legacy is joyful, political, and practical all at once: shaping lives, influencing sectors, and constantly fighting for its place in the world.

A man with a green cap and plaid shirt sitting next to a woman wearing a denim jacket, both smiling and posed on a stack of bricks in an outdoor setting.
Two women seated in a workshop space, engaging in discussion while one woman holds a notepad. The woman on the left wears colorful pants, and the one on the right displays tags related to community arts activities such as social work and education.
A group of individuals gathered around a wooden outdoor table, smiling and enjoying each other's company in a sunny setting with a rustic background.
Group of people posing in front of a sign that reads 'CAINS Est. 1850', with a bright blue sky and buildings in the background.
Two individuals engaged in conversation at a table, surrounded by colorful clothing in the background.
Exterior of the Red Brick Market featuring bold, colorful murals with various artistic designs, including flowers, characters, and text. People are gathered outside, engaging in conversation.
A row of wetsuits hanging on a railing by a body of water, with buildings and trees in the background under a clear blue sky.
A scenic view of a river with buildings lining the banks, including notable architecture in the background, under a clear blue sky.
A colorful sculpture representing unity and community stands in front of a large ferris wheel against a clear blue sky.
A person standing with open arms in front of a large green heart-shaped sculpture on a sunny day.
Group of seven people standing on steps outside in a lush green area, smiling and posing for the camera.
Two smiling individuals posing for a selfie in front of colorful signage.
A colorful collection of sticky notes and materials arranged on a blue surface, featuring reflections and themes from a community arts reunion event.
A group of five smiling individuals posing for a selfie in a brightly colored room with wooden doors and a digital screen in the background.
Interior view of a bright yellow wall with an archway leading to a corridor, featuring a desk and a rolling chair in the foreground.
Two people smiling for a selfie in front of a red door labeled 'Sennheiser TV Studio' with an 'On Air' sign above.
A group of four smiling individuals posing for a selfie in a lively indoor setting, likely during a community arts reunion event, with drinks and various people in the background.
A group of four smiling people posing for a selfie in an indoor setting with colorful walls and a clock in the background.
Bronze statue of four musicians standing side by side, with a mounted figure in the background against a blue sky.
Statue of four musicians in the foreground, themed around The Beatles, with an iconic clock tower building in the background.
A group of three people standing in front of the LIPA entrance gate, with greenery in the background.
Entrance to The Paul McCartney Auditorium with a clock above and digital screens on both sides.
A reflective scene from a community arts reunion, showcasing participants engaged in discussions and activities, with colorful sticky notes displayed on a wall and a mirror reflecting their interactions.
A group of people engaged in creative activities in a spacious room with large windows, featuring a piano and various materials on a table, suggesting a dynamic artistic environment.
A person stands in front of a large mural depicting turquoise wings on a brick wall, with a message celebrating Liverpool's heritage.
A group of people gathered around tables in a vibrant, eclectic bar, with colorful decorations and memorabilia on the walls, enjoying drinks and each other's company.
A person standing in front of a mirror covered in sticky notes with various words and phrases, such as 'politics,' 'passion projects,' 'confidence,' and 'love,' reflecting a collaborative brainstorming session.
A tabletop covered with colorful sticky notes, photographs, and documents related to a community arts reunion event, featuring two baby dolls and a newspaper clipping.
Group photo of attendees at the Not-the-30th reunion, standing and sitting together in a lively gathering at The Lang Pen Company, with a brick wall backdrop and various expressions of joy.
A gathering of people enjoying drinks at a social event, with one man laughing and a woman smiling at the table. The background features plants and other attendees engaging in conversation.
Three people engaged in conversation at a bar, with drinks on the table, showcasing a lively reunion atmosphere.
A group of ex-graduates and staff gathered around a table in a cozy setting, enjoying drinks and food during the LIPA Community Arts Reunion.

And finally… we sang:

As The Time Moves On

Chorus

And we’re here now, after all these years 

With our hopes and dreams and our worries and fears, 

What do we bring back to these this place 

as the time moves on, as the time moves on?

I came here to grasp the thistle

Learning samba from Lee’s gold whistle. 

I came here to the grasp of the thistle 

As the time moves on, as the time moves on.

 I came here to light some fires

 Young people’s theatre and community choirs,

I came here to light some fires 

As the time moves on, as the time moves on.

And we’re here now, after all these years 

With our hopes and dreams and our worries and fears 

What do we bring back to these this place 

as the time moves on, as the time moves on?

 I want to leave a legacy,

For people to have a community,

Along the shores of the great Mersey,

As the tide rolls on, as the tide rolls on. 

Times of frustration, moments of joy,

Out with friends, making lots of noise,

 Time for frustration, moments of joy,

as the time moves on, as the time moves on.

And we’re here now after all these years, 

With our hopes and dreams and our worries and fears,

What do we bring back to these this place

as the time moves on, as the time moves on?

I came here to change the world, 

Peace and justice,

Our power unfurled,

I came here to change the world,

as the time moves on, as the time moves on.

Our time at LIPA planted some seeds,

We spread our joy to those in need,

Our time at LIPA planted some seeds,

As the time moves on and the time moves on. 

And we’re here now, after all these years,

With our hopes and dreams and our worries and fears,

What do we bring back to these this place

as the time moves on, as the time moves on?

As the time moves on.

Or, in the true spirit of the Not-the-30th reunion, this is Not-the-End but just a temporary pause before we resume our collective endeavours, collectively. I’ve seen so much passion, joy, skill, intelligence and expertise in the room and online over the last 3 days, I’m thinking ‘what next?’ for us all and the people and communities we are part of? 

Because there will be – there has to be – something else, somewhere, somehow.

‘Community Arts’ may have reached an end in the institution where we all met; but communities and relationships will never end, the power of the arts to transform lives is a constant in this ever changing world and there will always be people like us to catalyse those transformations.

Adolonia and Other Escape Routes: The Not-The-30th-Reunion Reunion Community Arts Anthology

Adolonia and Other Escape Routes: The Not-The-30th-Reunion Reunion Community Arts Anthology

Adolonia and Other Escape Routes celebrates the work of the Community Arts undergraduate degree programme at Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts after its ‘opening’ in 1995.

This anthology is intended as a vehicle to collect some of the memories, writings and work of those early years at LIPA and  provides snapshots of some of the work we taught, learned and performed together; postcards of the voices, ambitions and dreams that we had during those early formative years.

If you weren’t one of those who went through those years together with us, then I hope our anthology provides you with some interesting ideas on how you might develop your own interest and practice in that contested field which calls itself “Community Arts”…

Contents

  • Not-the-30th-Reunion Reunion: Why Here, Why Now? by Nick Owen
  • The Student Handbook 1995
  • The Gangster Girls and The Pathways Out with Caroline Murphy
  • Early Reunion Misgivings
  • Our First Sacking – The Induction Weekend
  • Is This the Way for the Actor’s Reunion?
  • The Dog Ate My Homework: Rewriting Your Dissertation 30 Years On
  • The Students and Staff Who Signed Up
  • The Poignancy of the Old School Photo Album
  • Level 1 Collaborative Performance Project: The Tin Drum
  • A Week in the Life by Roger Hill
  • Anyone up for a Harry Potter Community Drama workshop?
  • Trawling the LIPA Metaverse: Community Music, My LIPA, and Questions of Research and Scholarship by Lee Higgins
  • What is Art?  Reflections by Anissa Ladjemi
  • Improvisation and the Power for Social Change Reflections by Anissa Ladjemi
  • Emigrant (Masters of Our Own Destiny?)
  • Adolonia and Other Escape Routes
  • And what ever happened to… Jake Ryan?
  • Community Arts? What’s that going to be then?
  • Exit Down South by Claire French
  • Some Early… and Final Words from Julie Mayor
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Remembering Jude Bird: the Most Curious of Minds in Her Own Words

22 June 2025: The Celebration of life of Jude Bird at Theatre Porto, Ellesmere Port

In the spring of 2008 at the beginning of Liverpool’s European Capital of Culture year, we at the Aspire Trust were commissioned by Kensington Life Bank to co-construct an arts and creativity strategy for the Life Bank and to identify mechanisms for how this strategy might be implemented and sustained. We called the project, Listening to the Life Bank, and engaged a team of five artist researchers to undertake the research in collaboration with the staff, users and other stakeholders who were part of the Kensington Life Bank community. Our approach involved interviews, observations and taking notes through a series of 3-day visits spread over one ‘typical’ Life Bank week.  Our aim was to ‘listen’ to Kensington Life Bank and collect data – opinions, photographs, sounds, movements – to inform the development of that future arts and creativity strategy.

Jude Bird was a central member of our team and ‘listened to the life bank’ with us through her own creativity lens, dance and movement.

I’d like to share some of the notes taken from Jude’s own listenings. Her expertise and commitment to communities and her own creativity shine through and I hope we can hear a unique, force of nature at work whose vocational calling was unquestionable, inspiring and always entertaining.  I won’t be attempting a Kiwi accent.  Liberally scattered through her words are quotes from other inspirational figures which she brought to bear on her own reflections of what she was experiencing in Kensington Life Bank in particular, and perhaps her own life’s journey in general.

DAY 1

At the still point of the turning world. Neither flesh nor fleshless;

Neither from nor towards; at the still point, there the dance is,

But neither arrest nor movement. And do not call it fixity,

Where past and future are gathered. Neither movement from nor towards,

Neither ascent nor decline. Except for the point, the still point,

There would be no dance, and there is only the dance.

(T.S. Elliot, Burnt Norton, The Four Quartets)

My starting point. Mon dieu I have 12 pages of notes. I have spent a fortnight cursing you all for your discursive notes and now I know why!! I reflect on Nicko’s last posting: phrases of dance: Enter / sign / converse / move -I can choreograph that! Greet / welcome / direct / sign / inform / navigate / orientate – this is developing into a full-length work.

A friendly lad directs me to Lyn. A warm, light airy welcoming space after the first frost. I’m offered a drink and introduced to Mary and Allan. Wend my way upstairs and bump into John who I know slightly from zazen meditation. I like the mezzanine (where does that word come from? mezze is mixture) it’s a Birds Eye View -just right for me.

I ask about the history of the site. it used to be Brae St school (of course, when I worked at the Everyman Youth Theatre, we did outreach work there) Outside is a sandstone Liver Bird and the old school belltower. There used to be a park and 3 bowling greens here. (where past and future are gathered?)

Esther arrives and we greet as long-lost friends. She tells Mary and Alan about the multi-cultural project I was involved in at Blackburne House nursery when she was there. Lyn appears and she and Esther hug each other. Colin from finance appears. He is gathering folk to explain the complexities of the finance system: a nice tableau. Two people on either sofa and a person on each chair. In a square. A still point. Entrances and exits. Comings and goings. To-ings and fro-ings. I decide to go and observe from those perspectives and go downstairs.
Two men are learning on the breakfast bar. They keep shifting position-leaning, standing, leaning, step back, step forward, turn into room, sit at table. get up in unison and move to doorway, meet and greet Yolande and are gone. I have just witnessed a duet.

I’m observing when clip clop clip the heels of a smart professional enters stage left. Asks me if I’m being seen to! I say thanks I’m actually doing something. She says she was just checking I wasn’t being ignored. (The observer affects what is being observed. if you look away the particles behave differently. )

What am I manifesting? Anne Melia, who I know from a past incarnation when i did training with the early years Behaviour Team, is cursing because the Pilates teacher hasn’t turned up. Well dear reader I ended up teaching the Pilates class. Went well, very responsive and positive feedback. Saaed then arrived and was duly told off by the women.  I mention Capoeira and he is keen. I tell him about Lisa Harrison who is the dance teacher at the academy  and suggest he contacts her as they have a community remit. he asks me if I want to take over the Pilates class as it looks as though I had something going with the women. We get “on one” about health and safety, risk assessments, the nanny state.

Sit upstairs on the sofa-feeling a bit talked out. Reflections on glass table top.
Flowers in vase, windows and lampshades, blue sky. A still point. Below the sounds of children and adults talking, feet scuffling, chairs moving, cutlery clattering- a soundscape of the building.

Anne finds me and asks if I will teach the Pilates class in future! I say I will think about it. Downstairs I meet baby Daniel. he is doing a hand dance, he points to the corner and raises his arms to the ceiling. I sit opposite him and give him my hands, he “teaches” me to clap.  Small groups are scattered about the space talking and eating. two toddlers are moving amongst the tables. baby daniel is peeling a banana.

Dave joins me and asks about Pilates. He says he has a back problem and he can feel it in his testicles. it only happens every 18 months, he says he has a long back and short legs. We discuss backs and remedial exercise, core stability and Masai barefoot technology. Group leader starts and introduces a drum to a circle of parents and toddlers. We do heads shoulders knees and toes, then the wheels on the bus, then musical statues. The leader talks into the cacophony and I don’t hear what she is saying. The instruments are put back in the box.  Doe a deer is played on the CD player. I reflect that I know every b- word to every song from the Sound of Music. Street cred in the gutter. 

Shakers are given out and the group shakes along to the song. Shakers are put back and the drums are given out. i consider here that it would be a good opportunity for the kids to make choices but that ain’t happening. 

Out come the disinfected wipes and the shakers are wiped down by the workers and put back in the box. The kids beat 7 bales out of the drums. the drums are collected in. Whistles are given out and we are all assured they are sterilised.  A  child starts to dance in the middle of the circle and is told to sit down so she goes outside the circle and dances. Go out and sit in the table and chair area. write up notes. have a brew. Brain death is feeling imminent. Now I have to go home and write this up AAARGH!!!

DAY 2

A relief to see Ellie and Nick We agree all the work should have been done in two’s. Brew and discussion of a triangulated approach. i feedback about yesterday.
We agree 3 points in downstairs open space where we will sit. Write for 10 mins feedback in Atrium then move to next spot and repeat. Kind of researchers’ musical chairs.

Lyn comes past me and we talk about yesterday. She thanks me for doing Pilates and wants me to do more. A group of 3 women sit at a table in a triangular formation. Backs: someone stands at tea servery and the serving person has her back towards her. Activity on the landing. Door’s opening. Footsteps. 

More people join the group of 3. I’m surrounded by books about Liverpool.  i open the one about galleries and museums on Merseyside at the page about the Lady Lever which is billed as the Taj Mahal of Merseyside. Funny I’ve not long ago referred to the Lifebank in those terms. I make contact with a couple of women who recognise me from work i did in Kensington a couple of years ago.

The signage is all at adult level apart from the signs saying job vacancies!! Loo signs with legs, skirts and a sitting person with a circle. I always feel a fraud going to the skirt loo as I’m usually wearing trousers. 

Two women arrive with a big display case-they are setting something up in the entrance area. Ann and someone else walk past me two people are in reception.
Two people are on the beige sofa. Two men walk past me with yellow rubbish bags. This is a moment when people are in pairs. Percussive feet, deliberate steps, pathways, floor patterns, socked feet, tyre tracks, heels and toes.

Image on the door a baby with a breast- says breastfeeding is welcome here. Too cold to get boobs out today. I could be really bad. We play writing poems line by line. its good fun. begin to descend into mild hysteria as we take turns going into the Respect exhibition full of stall holders however zero public as kids not allowed upstairs therefore the parents aren’t going! 

Ellie goes for a massage, Nicko goes to investigate. He has collected heaps of glossy publicity and reads a list of physical conditions and then a strapline about self esteem which he didn’t think was a physical condition. What on earth are we witnessing, the downfall of resilience. a society where no child can play without 3 adults supervising and an over professionalised world. Debilitating professions -thank you Ivan Illich.

DAY 3

How nice to go to the same place 3 consecutive days-oh the joy of the freelancer’s life. It is a different energy when I am here on my own. I blend in more. Everyone is being ultra helpful and accommodating.

It’s a largely female environment. Given a chance women want to co-operate. Today I am surrounded by co-operation. I am reminded of tribal societies. The women co-operate and support each other to rear the kids, make clothing, gather and prepare food. The men are “out there” doing the hunting. What about the subgroup apinae of the social group Apidae. Bees. Yes, this is a hive. The workers buzz about and feed the larvae. The queens have ultimate control. The odd drone drops in and out.

Nick arrives in a flurry all of a doo da having been to a meeting at Clubmoor. Nick asks me to visit Clubmoor that afternoon to rekkie it!

I meet Liz who works in the garden and outdoor spaces. She started coming to the Lifebank as a parent. She was a software engineer but since having children has / is re-training in horticulture. She started off wanting to grow things at the back of the site and then delivered a course for parents. Last week she did bulb planting with the nursery- she did most of it so it wasn’t “too messy”. I ask if messy is a problem. 

She pauses and says well they are asked not to come in their best clothes. maybe we will get some kneelers outside. Now she does the garden although initially it was a change of role and she felt she had to “prove it”. A professional came to look at the community garden and she felt he had an attitude and looked down on her. They are thinking of branching out and developing an allotment project. 

I say that’s a great idea you could produce food for the Lifebank. Someone stops to chat and Liz says she is being cross examined. She says she really likes working out the front because people stop to chat to her. She has a huge pile of marmite butties and a lot of bulb catalogues. I am sharing Carolina’s dates.  I ask her why she is in Liverpool (she comes from Alicante)-because of the cheap housing she says. She has made friends at the Lifebank and the school is good.

Time to go to Costa del Clubmoor……..exit Jude stage left.



“The world fears a new experience more than it fears anything. Because a new experience displaces so many old ones. The world doesn’t fear a new idea. it can pigeon-hole an idea. But it can’t pigeon-hole a real experience. ( D.H. Lawrence, Studies in Classic American Literature (1923)

RIP Jude Bird, 1 May 2025

One of the many results of the Listening to the Life Bank research was the production of the ‘Creative Dining Tables’ which did exactly what they said on the tin: reflect the creativity of the Life Bank communities through the media of art and food. Here are some examples.

The Arts and Creativity Strategy which we produced for Kensington Life Bank is also available here:

Arts and Creativity Strategy KLBMay08Download

Available this week: Tabloid!!! a new(ish) musical by Gary Carpenter and Nick Owen

It was after the 1979 election that Margaret Thatcher was said to have mis-spoke the immortal lines of Francis of Assisi…

“Where there is peace, let there be strife,

Where there is love, let there be hate,

Where there is hunger, let there be greed,

Where there is knowledge, let there be ignorance,

Where there is life, let there be death”

… and whilst it would be naive to suggest that the state of Britain’s politics and civic life ever since has been entirely down to her, she certainly left her mark over the following decades.

Fast forward to 1995, and Liverpool was about to witness the birth of a significant new cultural educational presence: the Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts (LIPA). Paul McCartney’s fame school (as it rapidly was referred to) launched in a media storm at the time with international students arriving in the city and mixing it with local students and the city’s cultural moguls in sometimes easy, sometimes awkward alignments. But mix it they well and truly did, despite the building not being ready on time. Whilst this was especially awkward for those students who had flown across the planet to be there, many opportunities opened up for them and the resident staff of LIPA which allowed for some inspiring cultural experiences: with the additional benefit of not needing to be assessed by LIPA’s assessment protocols. Perhaps for the first and only time in LIPA’s history, we were able to produce art without having to measure the state of students’ learning outcomes.

One of these was a new musical written and produced by Gary Carpenter and Nick Owen: Tabloid!!! Gary and Nick had been Heads of Music and Community Arts at LIPA at the time and used the hiatus between students arriving and classes starting by producing the musical at Liverpool’s Unity Theatre. Its first performance was Friday 13 October 1995 so we think it’s fitting to celebrate the 29th birthday of the production by publishing the full script this week.

Tabloid!!! is based on the Guy De Maupassant novel, Bel Ami, which is set in Paris in the late 1880s. We transposed the story to the London of the late 1980s and found an easy equivalence between the challenges that the French ‘Bel Ami’ found on his return from the war in Algeria and our hero, Roy Bellamy and his return from the Falklands. We were, after all, dealing with a period when corruption in the press, in politics, in the economy was rife. We were in the dog days of ‘Greed is Good’ and ‘loadsamoney‘ attitudes and so the story lent itself to a timely interpretation and production.

Fast forward to 2024, and despite the hope of the new Labour administration following their election in July, an uneasy stench of corruption and sleaze is beginning to drift up out of the gutters again: the ‘effluence of affluence‘ (as Gary wrote in the opening number to the show) is making its mark again.

Tabloid!!! will be available through Nick Owen Publishing from 8pm, 13 October 2024. If you’d like a copy, just leave your details here:

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