Cultural gems

Jul 4 2008 by Phil Redmond, Liverpool Daily Post

JEWELS. Some obvious, some hidden. There are many in the region’s cultural crown. With the half-term reports delivered, some of the more obvious jewels have box offices up between 20-50% with record numbers being recorded by the Maritime Museum and the Tate.

Another jewel, the river, is witnessing a 31% increase on the Mersey Ferries.

All indicators of the year’s success so far, but perhaps also suggesting that by the time the Museum of Liverpool opens its doors, the waterfront will be quite a lively place once again.

Another lively place on Wednesday evening was one of the region’s greatest hidden jewels, the Lady Lever Art Gallery, in Port Sunlight, with the launch of a new exhibition about the man who created the whole thing, Lord Leverhulme.

It is well worth a visit as not only does it contain one of the finest collections of sculpture in the UK and one of the finest collections of Wedgwood in the world, but it is also a fascinating insight into the man himself.

There was an obvious, if tenuous, affinity for me as we both earned a living from soap, his real, mine fictional, but we appear to share a common idea.

It is not the product you make, but what you actually do with it.

He could have continued to wrap his bars of soap in plain packaging, but decided to take some of the jewels of the art world and use them to enhance the look and in so doing introduce art to his customers. You can see the originals hanging in the gallery.

It is something I have always said about my time with Grange Hill, Brookside and Hollyoaks.

It isn’t the type of programme that’s important, it’s what type of storylines and characters you use to define it and, perhaps, stretch your audience.

It’s what frustrates me about a lot of television today. The lack of ambition that churns out simply a product and contributes very little to our cultural landscape.

A real jewel in the new exhibition is a portrait Leverhulme commissioned from Augustus John, which he then hated so much that he cut out the head and shoulders and locked it away in his safe.

There it remained for nearly 30 years after his death, until it was repaired and restored.

You can still see the join if you look at the right angle, but it is also an indicator of the man’s shrewdness.

Although hating it and never wanting it on display, he didn’t actually destroy it, recognising the artist’s skill, reputation and future worth! The exhibition’s worth a visit but one final statistic for you.

Apparently, over 20% of visitors to the Klimt exhibition have a postcode at the wrong end of the M62.Surely the sign of success? When even the Mancs are queuing up to see our jewels?