Robbie Williams sends inspirational message to creative and performing arts students

THE global pop star Robbie Williams was among the voices sharing their advice and insight to aspiring actors, musicians and filmmakers, as part of an exclusive event.

Hosted by performing arts and media institution LMA, YOU Festival brought together more than 120 industry experts who led masterclasses, ran workshops and showcased their skills over the course of the 3 day event.

The festival, which was held at the M&S Bank Arena from:- 20 January to 22 January 2025, was staged exclusively for LMA students and alumni, plus international students, in a bid to help build quality industry connections and pave the way for career success.

Kicking off the event was a special video message from LMA Co-Owner Robbie Williams, who told youngsters how to follow their dreams and believe in themselves.

Robbie, Co-Owner of LMA, said:- “Your dreams choose you, you don’t choose them and you are compelled to go and achieve. I’m sure you have things in your mind saying ‘why me?’ but if not you, then who? I suggest you take whatever dreams you have and multiply them by 5; think bigger, always think bigger. Having dreams is vitally important; it’s the everything.”

As part of YOU Festival, Radio 1 DJ and I'm a Celebrity… star Dean McCullough hosted a special 80s themed after party on Wednesday to close the event, while comedy duo Dick and Dom led a party night on Tuesday.

A range of specialists from various industries were also on hand to share their skills and forge connections with students, both past and present.

Among those lending their expertise were major names from the worlds of dance, acting, musical theatre, filmmaking, music and gaming, giving attendees the chance to learn from those at the very top of their game.

From performers such as:- West End royalty Kerry Ellis, and global choreographers such as:- Duwane Taylor who has collaborated with Sony and Nike, to The Gentlemen actress Ruby Sear and Grammy Award winning producer Jason Perry, students had their pick of the best of the best.

Now in its 2nd year, YOU Festival; a free event to all LMA students; was created as part of LMA’s ongoing growth and integration into industry.

Based across 2 campuses at the Metquarter, in Liverpool and Here East in London, the performing arts and media institution is home to 2,500 students across media, music and performing arts, delivering qualifications from BTEC through to BA degrees.

In 2024 LMA London expanded by more than 50,000 sqft to take over a film and TV studios, plus recording and acting studios. In addition to student classes, the studios are now hired out to the likes of EA Sports, Netflix, Prime Video and a range of artists preparing for tours and music festivals.

Richard Wallace, who founded LMA with brother Simon in 2009, said:- “Building industry connections and hearing from those who are living out what our students dream of is incredibly important for both skills development and self belief. It is something that we’re extremely passionate about giving to our students. We launched YOU Festival to do just that and we were blown away by its success and the feedback, not only from students but also from the industry specialists themselves. The event enables those working on the ground to meet with, and coach, the young talent we have here, helping to create relationships that can lay the foundations for collaborations later. The event enables those working on the ground to meet with, and coach, the young talent we have here, helping to create relationships that can lay the foundations for collaborations later. This year’s festival has been a huge success and it is a true testament to the quality of speakers, performers and exhibitors we have had here. We're now looking forward to what the next year will bring and we have already started making plans for next year's YOU Festival, so watch this space!"

For more information about YOU Festival, visit:- LMA.AC.UK.

Should universal access to the Internet be a human right?
Bassam Issa Al-Sabah, Jennifer Mehigan, Uncensored Lilac, transmediale 2024. Courtesy the artist. Photo by Luca Girardini

FACT Liverpool, the UK's leading centre for art, film, and creative technology, announces its dynamic 2025 programme, featuring solo exhibitions, collaborative projects, and immersive experiences that push the boundaries of contemporary art and technology. The programme is highlighted by extraordinary international co-commissions and locally embedded participatory projects that bring together artists from multiple disciplines and practices.

• 21 February to 11 May 2025: FACT presents 2 compelling solo exhibitions that explore the intersection of media, technology, and global politics: Christopher Kulendran Thomas' Safe Zone and Bahar Noorizadeh's Free to Choose.
  

• 25 April to 26 April 2025: To mark the closing weekend of Art Plays Games, an exhibition dedicated to games made by artists, FACT hosts a 2 day symposium to explore storytelling in games, featuring discussions on world building, interactivity, avatar creation, and immersive design with artists, performers, game designers, and industry professionals.
  

• 22 May to 10 August 2025: Amartey Golding's solo exhibition marks the culmination of FACT's multi year Resolution project, featuring a film and chainmail sculpture created in collaboration with imprisoned men from HMP Altcourse.
  

• 7 June to 14 September 2025: FACT welcomes the return of Liverpool Biennial, the UK's largest contemporary art festival, for its 13th edition.
  

• 29 August to 17 November 2025: A Studio/Lab Exhibition will showcase works by artist members and residency artists, highlighting local talent and providing a unique opportunity to explore FACT's vibrant creative community.
  

• 16 October 2025 to 22 February 2026: FACT presents 2 powerful solo exhibitions: a new commission by Bassam Issa Al-Sabah and Nina Davies' collaborative project with participants from The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre's Teenager and Young Adults Unit.

Nicola Triscott, Director and CEO at FACT Liverpool, said:- "From pioneering co-commissions that bring global perspectives to Liverpool to participatory projects that engage and uplift our local communities, we are proud to be at the forefront of exploring and redefining the intersections of art, screen media, technology and society. With a national and international reputation for bold, innovative programming that pushes the boundaries of creative practice, our 2025 programme celebrates the remarkable creativity of artists across disciplines while affirming FACT's position as a leader in fostering a more inclusive and forward-thinking cultural dialogue."

Maitreyi Maheshwari, Head of Programme at FACT Liverpool, said:- “FACT's programme in 2025 is a year of ambitious collaborations that examine how the political and the personal continue to impact each other through our ever changing relationship with technology. Building national and international partnerships within the cultural sector and broader social systems is vital to unpacking and sharing the urgent questions artists address in their works in an increasingly divisive political and economic climate. We're thrilled to be kicking off the year with works by Christopher Kulendran Thomas and Bahar Noorizadeh, produced in partnership with WIELS (Brussels) and Artspace Sydney (Australia), and our collaboration with The Otolith Collective. Through the summer, our partnerships focus locally with the conclusion of our work with the justice system, our longstanding collaboration with Liverpool Biennial, and a presentation of works from our Studio/Lab artists. In Autumn, we conclude the year with Nina Davies' collaboration with The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre alongside new works by Bassam Issa Al-Sabah that playfully subvert technology and social media uses as we exercise personal agency and choice."

Christopher Kulendran Thomas; Safe Zone and Bahar Noorizadeh; Free to Choose (21 February to 11 May 2025)

FACT kicks off 2025 with 2 compelling solo exhibitions by artists Christopher Kulendran Thomas and Bahar Noorizadeh. The exhibitions invite visitors to explore the intersection of media, technology, and global politics. Christopher Kulendran Thomas showcases a major new body of work, Safe Zone, alongside a reimagined staging of Bahar Noorizadeh's film Free to Choose. Within these powerful exhibitions, the artists encourage audiences to reconsider their relationship with politics, technology, economics, and societal structures while reflecting on how momentous events have shaped the world as we understand it today.

Christopher Kulendran Thomas's work explores the legacies of imperialism. A British artist of Sri Lankan Tamil descent, Kulendran Thomas has been using artificial intelligence technologies over the last decade to examine the foundational fictions of Western individualism. His new exhibition, Safe Zone, features 2 bodies of work that metabolise the historical mediums of soft power: a series of paintings and a video work that auto-edits television footage. The exhibition at FACT marks the work's UK premiere.

Bahar Noorizadeh is a UK based artist, writer, and filmmaker whose work explores finance, technology, and alternative futures, offering a critical perspective on capitalism and its global impact. Presented at FACT and in the UK for the first time, Noorizadeh showcases her film Free to Choose. This financial science-fiction opera delves into themes of time travel and neoliberal economics through a story set in Hong Kong, spanning decades.

Other dates for you to make note of:-

• Art Plays Games Symposium (25 April to 26 April 2025)
  
  To mark the closing weekend of Art Plays Games (25 September 2024 to 27 April 2025), FACT will bring together artists, performers, games designers, critical thinkers and industry professionals to consider how artists' games offer compelling forms of storytelling. Over 2 days, the symposium held at FACT will include:- discussions, performances, live music, and gaming workshops that explore approaches to world-building, interactivity, avatar creation and immersivity through sound and spatial design. The programme will examine how artists reconsider approaches to control, gamification and decision-making whilst questioning what the games industry can learn from the arts. Working in collaboration with cultural producer Anne Duffau, the symposium includes the forthcoming edition of Always Coming Home, a series of events by Duffau that further the ideas of immersion, speculative worlds and conscious listening. Previous iterations of the event series have been held at Iklectik (London, 2023) and Matt's Gallery (London, 2024). Collaborators and speakers across the 2 days include researcher and FACT's Research Curator Stella Sideli, workshops and performances by art collective Babeworld, and artist Zein Majali with Jeremy Chen, with more artists and experts from the digital storytelling world to be announced. The symposium's findings will be published in the 3rd edition of FACT's journal in Spring 2026.
  

• Amartey Golding (22 May to 10 August 2025)
  
  Amartey Golding's solo exhibition marks the conclusion of FACT's multi-year Resolution project, which explores how art can affect public attitudes and influence decision making in the justice system. Known for his emotionally impactful work, Golding collaborates with imprisoned men at HMP Altcourse (Liverpool, UK) to create a large scale chainmail sculpture weighing over 200 kilograms. Together, the group have crafted an intricate garment that represents their shared stories and explores themes of trauma, identity, and societal behaviours. The exhibition will feature the resulting chainmail garment alongside a new film, inviting visitors to reflect on how art can affect public attitudes and create a space for dialogue and representation.
  
  Alongside the exhibition, FACT will publish the next edition of its journal, an open access contemporary art resource that delves into the centre's artistic programme with essays, images and perspectives from Resolution's collaborators, artists and scholars.
  

• Liverpool Biennial 2025: BEDROCK (7 June to 14 September 2025)
  
  FACT is proud to host once again the next edition of Liverpool Biennial, the UK's largest festival of contemporary art. For its 13th edition, titled BEDROCK, the festival is inspired by Liverpool's physical and social foundations and the people, places and values that ground us. Curated by Marie Anne McQuay, works by 30 artists and collectives will be unveiled across the city from 7 June 2024, with FACT's exhibiting artists to be announced in March 2025.
  

• Studio / Lab Artist Members Group Exhibition (29 August to 17 November 2025)
  
  An exhibition of works created in Studio/Lab by some of FACT's residency artists over the last year. This is a chance to experience some of the more developed works produced by FACT's artist development programme, embedded within its vibrant artist community. This showcase of local and international talent will coincide with the conclusion of the Liverpool Biennial 2025. During this exhibition, outside the gallery, there will also be a longer term installation which dives more into Studio/Lab's artist community and their works in progress.
  

• Bassam Issa Al-Sabah and Nina Davies (16 October 2025 to 22 February 2026)
  
  FACT closes 2025 with 2 powerful solo exhibitions. Bassam Issa Al-Sabah works across digital animation, painting, sculpture and textiles to create visions of resistance, transformation and queer possibility. At the core of his practice is investigating how digital culture and virtual environments mediate experiences of trauma, displacement, and loss. The worlds he constructs provide a framework for reimagining personal and collective histories, where the fantastical functions as a refuge and a site of confrontation. For this new commission, Al-Sabah will create an immersive multi-sensory installation environment that explores the instability and superficiality of the digital self. Concurrently, Nina Davies collaborates with participants from The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre's Teenager and Young Adults Unit. Building on her practice in dance and performance, Davies' project invites participants who are currently being treated for cancer or recently completed cancer treatment to share their lived experiences. The project transforms personal stories into knowledge that encapsulates an experience of cancer and the body in digital and physical realms.

FACT's 2025 programme continues to cement its position as a leader at the intersection of art, technology, society, and culture. It offers visitors unparalleled opportunities to experience cutting-edge contemporary art in the heart of Liverpool. For more information please visit:- Fact.Co.UK.

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