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A unique
Merseyside celebration of Mondrian's colourful life.
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THE BBC, Tate Liverpool,
Culture Liverpool and Open Culture are joining forces to create a
spectacular artwork on the Pier Head in Liverpool made up entirely
of people from across Merseyside
On Saturday, 6 September 2014, community groups, artists and individuals
across the City will come together to form a living and breathing
Merseyside
Mondrian made entirely from people.
Inspired by the work of Dutch artist Piet Mondrian; whose most
recognised works are abstract paintings of coloured squares,
rectangles, and thick black lines and currently on display at Tate
Liverpool; the installation will be a reflection of the people and
passions of Merseyside with communities and groups coming together
to help create an abstract masterpiece.
Each of the squares will be made up of different community groups
with some performing, some wearing their designated colour and
others creating their own work of art, each of which will create a
block of colour (blue, red, yellow or white) inspired by a Mondrian
masterpiece.
An aerial view of the artwork will be photographed and filmed from
the top of the Liver Building with the final art installation
featuring on The One Show on Wednesday,10 September 2014, as part of the
BBC4 Abstract Art Season.
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Rachael Treacher, Open Culture Project Manager of Merseyside
Mondrian expresses:- "The Merseyside Mondrian project is a
fantastic opportunity for communities and individuals across
Merseyside to come together and be a part of a unique event that
will reflect the vibrancy and energy of communities throughout our
fantastic city. If you enjoy meeting new people, creating
opportunities and being part of a shared experience the Merseyside
Mondrian is definitely for you!"
Open Culture are currently seeking community groups and individuals
to be a part of the Merseyside Mondrian on the 6 September 2014.
If you or your community group would like to be part of this
exciting and unique opportunity please complete a short online form
before Sunday, 24 August 2014, which you can find
here. Or call:- 0151 478
4026 to find out more. Open Culture will be in touch shortly after
to confirm details. You can also follow them on
Facebook and on
Twitter.
All participants will receive a free ticket to the Tate Liverpool
exhibition: Mondrian and his Studios.
Pals memorial to
be unveiled in Liverpool
A Memorial to the Liverpool
Pals who served during World War One is to be unveiled by HRH The
Earl of Wessex on Sunday, 31 August 2014.
It follows a 3 year campaign by The Liverpool Pals Memorial Fund to
create a permanent tribute to remember the men and boys who
volunteered during the Great War.
The £85,000 frieze, designed by Liverpool sculptor Tom Murphy and
funded through donations, will be revealed by Prince Edward at 11am
in front of an invited audience on the main concourse at Lime Street
Railway Station.
Following the unveiling, the focus will shift to St George's Plateau
from 11:30am, where a re-enactment of the Liverpool Pals signing up
will take place; exactly 100 years to the day since it
happened, in answer to Lord Derby's call for recruits.
More than 1,000 men were recruited on 31 August 1914 alone. Over
6,000 men were initially signed up in 1914; enough soldiers to
serve in four battalions and for 2 reserve battalions. Many were
killed in action and never returned home.
During the re-enactment, part of the plateau will be transformed
into an attestation centre, a trench and a field hospital to
symbolize the different elements of the conflict.
The Liverpool Pals Memorial Fund are asking people to come along to
the re-enactment and find out more about those who sacrificed so
much.
Lt Col (retd) Anthony Hollingsworth MBE, Chair of The Liverpool Pals
Memorial Fund, said:- "We are delighted and proud that through
people's kind donations we are able to provide a fitting memorial to
those brave men and boys, albeit 100 years on.
It will allow everybody to share the proud history of the Liverpool
Pals, who were the first of all the famous Pals battalions and the
last to be stood down." Lord Mayor of Liverpool,
Councillor Erica Kemp, said:- "In
1914, many of our young men wished to serve alongside their friends,
family and work colleagues, and sadly many paid the ultimate
sacrifice.
The Liverpool Pals will always be remembered as friends, colleagues
and relations who joined up together, served together and, for so
many of them, died together.
A century on, we are rightly paying tribute to their bravery with a
fitting memorial which will be a constant reminder to all those
entering and leaving the City at Lime Street."
The memorial tells the story of the Liverpool Pals through a series
of dramatic images; from their formation through to their emotional
farewells when they left the city, onward to scenes from the
battlefield, their return from war and the commemoration this year.
Sculptor Tom Murphy said:- "It has been a privilege to be
chosen to sculpt the Liverpool Pals Memorial and I have ensured that
the theme of remembrance permeates the entire work. Each figure
depicted is lost in their own memories of someone or somewhere dear
to them; friends, loved ones or simply home. It is fitting to have
this artwork of remembrance at this major gateway to honour those
brave men and boys that did not make it back home."
Ian Joslin, area director for Network Rail, said:- "The
railway played a vital role to help mobilise troops during WWI and
it is fitting that Liverpool Lime Street will be home to this
memorial to the Liverpool Pals.
It is a reminder of the sacrifices the soldiers made and is an
honour for the station to be its permanent home." For more information about The Liverpool Pals Memorial Fund, visit
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MENTAL HEALTH
AND ME WRITING COMPETITION
LITERATURE'S love affair
with the mind is an age old tradition where creativity has always
been closely entwined with mental distress, yet the subject of
mental health is still widely considered a taboo subject. We hope
that this competition will challenge the stigma around mental
distress and promote social inclusion by giving entrants the
opportunity to explore this topic using traditional and/or
alternative forms of writing.
Has mental distress affected you or someone close to you? Are you
particularly interested in the subject of mental health? Are you a
carer or have you worked with people suffering from mental distress
and want to share your experience? If the answer's yes, we'd love to
hear from you!
Liverpool's Mental Health Consortium, in partnership with Writing on
the Wall, is launching a writing competition to mark World Mental
Health Day on Friday, 10 October 2014. We are calling on members of
the public to submit an original writing piece under the theme of
'Mental Health and Me.' You can send us a poem, a short story, a diary
piece or a blog post, a letter, a piece of journalism or even a
tweet, yes – a tweet!
The competition will be judged in 6 different categories by an
exciting judging panel comprising of very talented, professional
writers, Journalists, Social Media Experts and people with personal
experience of mental distress. The winners of each category will
form the shortlist from which the overall winner will be selected
and will win the crown trophy! All entries which are shortlisted
including the winner will have their work published in an anthology
and will be awarded a free copy and more will be available to buy
online and in shops.
Sarah Butler Boycott, Involvement Worker at The Liverpool Mental
Health Consortium says:- "We are thrilled to be organising
'Mental Health and Me with Writing on the Wall, we hope that by
exploring the mind through creativity and writing, we will be able
to challenge the stigma around mental health issues, create a
positive effect and allow people to explore and discuss mental
distress more openly."
THE JUDGING PANEL
Introducing 1. Short Stories Category
Helen Walsh – Award winning novelist and author of The Lemon Grove,
Go to Sleep and Brass will be among the judging panel for the short
story category.
Colin Watts - writer, poet, playwright and teacher. (Getting the
Hang of it; Singing the City; Human Geography)
2. Journalism Category
Catherine Jones – Liverpool Echo's Arts Editor and WW1
commemorations coverage coordinator.
Brian Reade - Award Winning Journalist and best-selling author who
has two weekly opinion columns, one on sports, for the Daily Mirror.
Richard Adamson – Participant of What's Your Story? group with the
Liverpool Mental Health Consortium and Rainbow writer.
3. Tweets Category
Jo Austin, Engagement and Digital Marketing Coordinator at The
Women's Organisation Liverpool - Social Media Expert. Jo Austin will
be judging the Tweet category.
Wendy Brown - Social Media Editor at Canter Levin & Berg and
committed social media enthusiast. Nominated for 'Business
Development Manager of the Year' at the 10th Annual 'Livercool'
Awards.
Rosa Murdoch, Writing on the Wall's own Social Media Coordinator.
4. Letters
Tony Wailey – Published Author of Edgy Cities, Migrant Women and
American Women, with a particular interest in historical research
including Liverpool Seamen in 1985. He was also a tutor for The
George Garrett Archive project founded by Writing on the Wall.
Maria NG - Bookseller and Joint Director at News From Nowhere,
Liverpool's independent radical bookshop. Maria is involved with all
aspects of the business with running the book store and selecting
books which inspire, inform and empower people.
5. Poetry
Curtis Watt - performance poet, rapper, beatboxer, actor, presenter,
musician, workshop leader and author of Children's History of
Liverpool. He has worked internationally on both stage and screen,
and is recognised as one of Liverpool's most versatile artists,
voted 43 in Diverse Magazine's Top 50 Black Merseysiders.
Sal Woodward – Bookseller and Joint Director at News From Nowhere,
Liverpool's independent radical bookshop. Sal is involved with all
aspects of the business with running the book store and selecting
books which inspire, inform and empower people.
Sarah Maclennan - Coordinator of Liverpool's Dead Good Poets Society
and teaches creative writing at Liverpool John Moores University and
for the Open University.
6. Blog/Diary Entries
Seaneen Molloy – Mental Health Blogger and mental health activist.
She is also a columnist for BBC Ouch!, a regular contributor to 1
in 4 magazine and has written for The Guardian and The Observer.
Her blog 'The Secret Life of a Manic Depressive' was adapted for BBC
Radio 4 under the title, Do's and Don'ts for the Mentally
Interesting which won the award for Best Radio Drama at 2009 Mind
Mental Health Media Awards.
Mike Morris, Project Manager of Writing on the Wall, playwright of
Waiting for Brando and was part of the writing team for Dockers
(Channel 4 1999), and a director and producer of the ground breaking
documentary, Liverpool's Cunard Yanks (Granada TV, 2008) He also
regularly blogs for WoW.
To enter, please see the full guidelines and terms and conditions
click on
here.
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