A four-storey mural of Grand National champion Red Rum, a parabolic light cloud and and the spectacular Nightingale’s Song projected onto three landmark buildings were among the many landmarks of the 2020 Sefton Borough Of Culture.
The year began with some very ambitious plans in place to engage with residents in Sefton and visitors from across the North West with some truly eye-catching events.
But the project was impacted significantly when the Covid-19 pandemic struck the UK in March and some of the exciting things that had been planned never happened.
However, Sefton Council moved swiftly to create a number of online cultural events to amaze and delight people during lockdown.
Here are some of the highlights:
1 – Constellations
A series of launch events kick-started Sefton’s year of Culture in November 2019. A small handover ceremony during the Constellations event at Crosby Marina saw the Mayor of Wirral handover the Borough of Culture baton to the Mayor of Sefton.
Thousands of residents and visitors came together to view the spectacular parabolic light cloud and enjoy some talented Sefton artists performing over the three-day event.
The Bootle Children’s Literature Festival was launched to celebrate the opening of Kingsley & Co in Bootle Strand, and Wirral also held a small formal handover at the 2019 Culture Awards.
2 – Sefton Stories
The public vote on Sefton stories saw more than 850 votes cast to identify local stories aligned to our local history and heritage; the winners, including Frank Hornby, Kenny Everett and Christiana Hartley, form part of the comic strip trail that will be finalised by the end of the year.
3 – Schools Planting Programme
More than 44,000 spring flowering bulbs have been planted by primary school children across Sefton.
Crocus and daffodil bulbs were planted during November and December 2019 in preparation for Sefton Borough of Culture year in many of our beautiful greenspaces throughout the borough.
4 – We Love Sefton Project
In February, Sefton Council kickstarted the ‘We Love Sefton’ project, which saw a series of posts on social media displaying the many wonderful and unique qualities we love about our borough.
5 – The Nightingale’s Song
March welcomed the spectacular Nightingale’s Song, a spectacular show by Illuminos to portray the history of the borough on three civic buildings throughout the borough, over three nights. The story followed the Birkdale Nightingale on their journey through Sefton’s history and heritage, flora and fauna and the unique creatures that reside in our borough at The Atkinson in Southport; Waterloo Town Hall; and Bootle Town Hall.
6 – Giant Red Rum Mural
March also saw the unveiling of a huge four-storey mural of the legendary racehorse Red Rum in Southport by artist Paul Curtis.
The artwork, located on Scarisbrick Avenue, has been enjoyed by thousands of residents and visitors alike and will continue to do so throughout and beyond our 2020 year.
7 – Beyond The War Memorial
Run by Sefton Council’s Libraries team, the Beyond The War Memorial project aims to tell stories of the heroes and heroines of conflict who are listed on memorials across the borough, uploaded to a dedicated website by volunteers.
8 – The Sefton Saga
This was also launched earlier this year, which is a living story. Each month budding authors from all ages across the borough had a chance for their story to be chosen as the next chapter of the book. Once complete, the story will be turned into a booklet with the contributors listed as co-authors.
9 – Red Squirrel Origami
Community-led projects such as the Red Squirrel Origami project still went ahead, albeit remotely online, via post, etc. Community by Nature and Rule of Three’s Arts launched their playing out packs, dedicated to the local area’s history of play. Three artistic activity packs have been providing vulnerable children in Bootle with activities throughout the lockdown period and summer holidays.
10 – Birkdale Hub Photography competition
This became The In Isolation Lockdown Photography Competition where residents of all ages uploaded pictures that they think summed up their time in isolation.
11 – Memory Boxes
SING Plus adapted their project to support the older generation through the lockdown period by providing them with memory boxes and instruments to map out their memories of Sefton. They also provided diaries to the younger people across Seaforth and have captured videos of how they feel about their time in isolation. All of the information captured will be kept and stored in the Sefton Archive.
12 – Sefton Comedy Hub
This was set up so that people could submit clips of themselves telling their favourite joke, recalling amusing anecdotes and humorous stories and reciting funny poems and comedy impressions with prizes awarded for the video of the week. The Hub Facebook page, run by Brendan Riley and Val Brady, has 850 followers and 1000s views each week.
13 – Sefton Comedy Bingo via Zoom
A huge success with 48 Zoom windows for each show, entertaining up to 100 people at a time. The shows, run by Brendan Riley and Val Brady – organisers of the annual Southport Comedy Festival – ran twice weekly for 6 weeks throughout the lockdown period.
14 – Sefton Time Capsule
Packs were sent out to families across Sefton as an initiative to keep children occupied throughout the lockdown period by capturing young people’s views of their time in isolation through this wonderful keepsake. The Sefton Time Capsule which will contain entries from all the Borough of Culture projects, newspaper clippings, cabinet papers, etc, and will be buried in Derby Park in Bootle (for their 125th anniversary) with a blossom tree to mark the spot.
15 – Bootle Festival of Ideas
Bootle Festival Of Ideas is part of Sefton Council’s new call for ideas to inspire the ‘Build Back Better’ ethos sweeping the country, as part of its Borough of Culture 2020 programme.
The eight week programme was designed to inspire local people to share ideas related to five themes – making and selling; food and growing; music and culture; health and wellbeing; and spaces for change.
Six events – a mixture of online and offline activities – were designed to inspire people to think about their ideas, which could then be developed through a share of a £6,000 development fund.
People were asked what they’d like to see in the area, creating citizen-led impetus for change, which will be recorded and displayed in an eye-catching new temporary artwork.
16 – Sefton Open
The Atkinson in Southport made it accessible for people by providing digital platforms for various projects such as The Sefton Open, which provides the opportunity to view 190 artworks online in The Atkinson’s annual Sefton Open exhibition, celebrating the creativity and artistic talent across the borough; The Young Artist of The Year – encouraging people aged 11-18 living in the Sefton Borough to submit artwork to their annual competition which will be displayed online; The Festival of Hope – pioneering festival that places young people at the heart of design, making, programming & production.
17 – LEGO Brick Wonders
The most popular exhibition at The Atkinson was undoubtedly Brick Wonders, a recreation of the seven wonders of the world in LEGO, attracting 10,000 visitors in the few short weeks that it was open.
18 – Vivienne Westwood Exhibition
The Atkinson began the Borough of Culture celebrations with the ‘Vivienne Westwood’ exhibition, developed with students and staff at Manchester Metropolitan University and giving us the chance to work with Sefton New Beginnings and Open Eye Gallery to explore the role of fashion as a form of protest.
Other highlights of the year included ‘Cats on the Page’ a touring exhibition from the British Library, and Fatal Attraction, examining the changing perception of the femme fatale in art, with key loans from National Museums Liverpool, The Williamson in Birkenhead and the British Museum. As The Atkinson went into lockdown the exhibitions were digitised and have become a popular online attraction, alongside participatory online art exhibitions, webinars and local history courses.
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