Culture capital in progress

The Arts:Liverpool's inclusive approach as European Capital of Culture is a success, despite its usual political intrigues, writes Tony Clayton-Lea.

'Anyone who knows Liverpool's recent history of the last 30 years will recognise the city had to break a cycle of depopulation and economic downturn and the social impact of those setbacks," says Liverpool city councillor Mike Storey. "That was the challenge the council took on in the late 1990s when I became council leader, and I quickly learnt from other city leaders that to kick-start a recovery you begin by building confidence and talking up the positives at every opportunity. And then one day I received a letter from the Department of Culture, Media and Sports saying they were inviting all UK's cities to bid to be European Capital of Culture in 2008.

"Knowing Liverpool's cultural track record - which goes way beyond The Beatles - there was no question in my mind we had to bid. This was the perfect opportunity to showcase what we had to offer and to accelerate the regeneration the city was undertaking."

Storey is relating his vision for his city, and how he went about repositioning the way people think about the city, and the way in which the city thinks about itself. The key element of the bid - which more than anything else gave the City of Culture organisers an idea of how Liverpool would actually celebrate 2008 - was its focus on ensuring that communities did the on-the-ground creative work, giving them the opportunity to celebrate their own culture.

Celebration, however, doesn't necessarily mean harmony. Storey departed as leader in 2005, a move that was accompanied by the usual arts-administration gossip (about political spats, resignations and budget overruns) around the water- cooler. Shortly afterwards, the Liverpool Culture Company (LCC) was formed, specifically to coordinate the programme for Liverpool City of Culture in 2008.

This body was also beset by problems, notably in its appointment of artistic director Robyn Archer, an Australian who was brought on board to programme the cultural calendar. According to an LCC source, Archer "didn't spend too much time in the city. Her brief was that she travelled the world setting up commissions for Liverpool '08. The globe was her workplace, but that didn't necessarily go down well in a city that wants a person in such a job to embrace and be part of it."

Archer quit after four months, and was paid an undisclosed sum of money for her troubles. Phil Redmond was appointed creative director in her place, but further problems arose, notably last month's resignation of LCC chief executive Jason Harborow, who also, according to a number of sources, received a sizable pay-off. Factor in a shortfall in the cultural programme of £20 million (€26.9 million) and you've got plenty of fuss and bother. Redmond likened the goings-on to a Scouse wedding - "euphoria, pride, followed by multi-agency competition, local politicians getting panicky and then a mad scramble to get it right".

NOT THAT THEvisitor to the city would be aware of any of this. Less than two months into its tenure as European Capital of Culture, Liverpool is bringing art to native and tourist by making its tenure as multi-stranded as possible. The organisers listened to (and commissioned) people who had no background in the arts but who had good ideas, as well as artists themselves. At every point, the level of artistic excellence was investigated: was this something that the Liverpool '08 organisers hadn't seen before? Was it saying something that hadn't been said before? And, crucially, what did it say about Liverpool?

The reasoning behind the majority (if not all) of the commissions was that there was no point in saying yes to a project if it said nothing about the city today. Art with a Liverpool accent was the key. According to Redmond, "the year will not be provided by, or for, those living in yuppie flats at the docks".

And what about the year's legacy? According to Fiona Gasper, LCC artistic programme manager, the questions that needed to be asked included: "Is it a one-off project that no one will gain expertise from? Are you developing an audience on the back on the project? Is there a theme that you could roll out over the next couple of years?"

"Legacy didn't loom hugely over us," she adds, "but it was important to us that as many organisations as possible within the city could grow on the back of the Capital of Culture status. Inasmuch as the big organisations can."

The city's culture body was set up in 2000 to work on a bid in 2003, and once the pitch was chosen, the organisation had to rethink how it was going to plan the 2008 event. Themed years were introduced - 2005 was the Year of the Sea, 2006 the Year of Performance, 2007 the Year of Heritage - as practice runs that would help to iron out any possible future problems.

"We've made mistakes across those years," says executive producer Claire McColgan, "and we know what does and doesn't work. In Liverpool, art is a very broad and collaborative word - it isn't just pop music. The themed-years approach has been essential in developing relationships, operationally, in the run-up to '08."

To avoid the common problem of a post-culture-year hangover, the organisers intend to continue with themed years: 2009 will be the Year of Environment, and 2010 the Year of Innovation.

"Here we celebrate the city's creativity," adds McColgan, "in that where Liverpool workers used to make Hornby train sets and Meccano, now they're involved in creating Sony games for Playstation. The themes provide a focus for what the city wants to say about itself, and it's an approach many cities are beginning to adopt."

There are many creative delights to wallow in as you stroll from one end of the compact city to the other. Over in the Culture Quarter, where St George's Hall and the Walker Art Gallery size each other up as Lime Street Station looks on casually, there is a range of exhibitions to keep even the jaded art-lovers interested. Of particular note is The Liverpool Cityscape 2008, a work-in-progress by artist Ben Johnson, who is painting live and in-situ an impressively large panorama of the city viewed from an imaginary vantage-point high above the Mersey. Due to be completed in late spring, it's the kind of smart work that could be more interesting to see in progress than actually completed.

Another quirky and typically witty piece is artist Richard Wilson's Turning the Place Over, on view throughout the year at Cross Keys House in the Moorfields district of the city. In what has been described by some as the most adventurous piece of public art ever commissioned in the UK, Wilson has literally has turned a portion of Cross Keys House inside out. And then made it spin.

Mind-boggling? Absolutely, but it is exactly the kind of item that acts as both an ingenious piece of art/architecture and a talking point over a pint in one of the city's traditional pubs.

THE OVERRIDING CHARACTERISTICof Liverpool '08 is undoubtedly its strong sense of inclusivity. There are major arts organisations putting on blockbuster events; there are small-to-medium arts organisations presenting work indelibly linked to Liverpool; and there are creative community groups developing youth drama productions. Then there is what the Liverpool '08 organisers term "open culture", which is pretty much an organisation within an organisation, ensuring that anyone with a half-decent idea is listened to. In other words, there is no excuse not to participate - unless a decision is made to close the curtains and stay in bed until Christmas.

But what will happen come December? Will the city close down culturally? In terms of the LCC and its existence, that will depend on how this year goes and what the political leadership of the city wants to achieve over the coming years. A cultural strategy is currently being developed, but at the moment nothing is definite.

"Internationally, Liverpool is one of the most recognisable cities on the planet," says the leader of Liverpool City Council, Liberal Democrat councillor Warren Bradley. "After Liverpool '08 we will have a greatly enhanced reputation. We all knew people were going to come here this year, but you've got to give them a reason to come back again and again. That's why more than £300 million (€404 million) has been invested in the cultural infrastructure - be it a new arena, art galleries or a cruise-liner facility - to make sure the city can compete on an international stage and maximise its cultural offerings to the full."