Long before Liverpool dominated pop music, Liverpool’s theatre scene was once the envy of all the world.
Current and former theatres spanning 250-years are to be put under the spotlight together for the first time from 8th November 2024 to March 2025, for the exhibition Lights Up on Liverpool, set to open November 2024 in the Hornby Library at Liverpool Central Library. A celebration of Liverpool’s vibrant theatre heritage and culture.
ArtsGroupie CIC have teamed up with Liverpool Libraries and Information Services for a public exhibition of Liverpool’s theatre history from the archives, courtesy of Liverpool Record Office.
Through its theatre history, the city’s social history unfolds in a vibrant tapestry. Liverpool’s groundbreaking, radical, and experimental approaches to theatre is revisited, particularly working-class contributions to UK theatre. This richly unique history makes it a one-of-a-kind journey through time, which has never been displayed so thoroughly.
The exhibition is a response to the decreasing number of working-class professionals in the performing arts. 2022 Office of National Statistics (ONS) analysis revealed that 16.4% of actors, musicians, and writers born between 1953 and 1962 came from working-class backgrounds, whereas that figure dropped to only 7.9% for those born four decades later. 2024 research from charity Arts Emergency found that fewer than 1 in 10 of all arts workers today come from working-class backgrounds.
Event Date: Friday 8th November 2024 - Friday 28th February 2025
Location: Hornby Library, Liverpool Central Library
Categories: Archive | Exhibition | Heritage | Theatre
