Liverpool's Cultural Renaissance

If you look very carefully you can see snowdrops peeping through the grass, crocuses nestling under tress, and tiny buds of blossom on the tips of twigs. Spring, it seems, is just around the corner.

In Liverpool, however, spring has already arrived. As though tuning itself to fit the season everything about the city is fresh, new and re-energised. Liverpool, labelled European Capital of Culture 2008, has burst into a vibrant array of unequalled colour.

Yet Liverpool’s blossoming did not happen overnight. Nobody clicked their fingers and gasped as it happened just like that, on the contrary, Liverpool's cultural transformation has been a long time in the making.

Liverpool began its process of regeneration way back in the late 70s by becoming part of the Merseyside Development Corporation. The project, set up by Margaret Thatcher’s government, aimed to rejuvenate failing Mersey docklands. Dilapidated, crumbling and almost destroyed Liverpool’s Albert dock was caught just before it fell.

Pumping vast amounts of money and creative flare into the dock the city, over the years, has managed to revive a forgotten feature. Stroll through the centre and out along the wide-open streets now and the dock is a different place. Painted boats rock gently on the water, Liverbirds perch proudly atop stately roofs, cast iron statues weave there way through the crowds of tumbling tourists and, just as you think it couldn't get any more culturally flamboyant, Tate Liverpool pops up.

Inspired by Liverpool's cultural renaissance in 1979 the Director and Trustees of the Tate Gallery decided to set up a new gallery. The chosen location, brimming with history, was the Albert dock. Heading the city’ s artistic scene Tate Liverpool is today giving artists a say. With exhibitions that range from the philosophically entangled William Blake to Glenn Brown’s modern takes on famous paintings, there is a daring traversing of the artistic spectrum. Having hosted the Turner Prize in 2007 nothing is to big or to bold for Tate Liverpool.

Stepping off the train, it was as a result of its fame, that Langwith Arts Team eagerly sought Tate Liverpool. The icing on the cake was not the gallery itself, however, but a chance to talk to the people behind it. Speaking to the curators and publicists who run this organisation we heard about the necessity of planning in advance, of knowing your audience, of inspiring the public and making sure that each exhibition has something new to offer. What it all boiled down to really, was the importance of being enthusiastic and of truly wanting to get art to the masses.

It is this energetic spirit of enthusiasm and appreciation of art that pervades Liverpool. There is nothing snootily aloof about any of the museums or galleries. There are no silent vacuums or icy chambers through which stiff women click in their high heals. Instead every gallery that we visited seemed friendly and inclusive.

Liverpool Academy of Arts beginning in 1769 was even specifically designed to bring art to more people, to break down social barriers and throw away people’s gallery fears. Now in a larger venue it continues to do just this on a larger scale. Talking to the Academy’s curator, a small woman in green sparkly money-penny glasses, we learnt of the importance of offering a relaxed environment and of making art fun. The Academy's latest exhibition is all about buttons, buttons sewn on hats, painted buttons, clay buttons, collages of buttons… And, to top it all off, you get a free button at the end of it! Mine is now stitched onto my coat.

Walking back through the city, past buildings that flick upwards with flighty steel curves and shop windows filled with flowers and photos of temping Tuscan villas, you can't help but wish you were staying in this artfully composed place for just a little longer.

Sitting on the train as it flashes home through the grey lonely landscape it feels a bit like returning to winter.

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