Comment: Liverpool’s art festival dividend

Oct 30 2007 Liverpool Daily Post

IT GOES without saying that contemporary visual art provokes a strong reaction, and so it has proved with the Liverpool Biennial festival.

Over the years, it has brought all manner of weird and wonderful exhibits to the city – some widely praised, some derided, some met with outrage, but few ignored.

Nevertheless, if anyone needed any proof that the event has put the city firmly on the map in the arts world, they need look no further than the figures produced by The Mersey Partnership (TMP) tourist agency in a new and encouraging report yesterday.

They show that the art festival brought over £13.5m to the city last year, with 89% of visitors rating their visit as very good or good.

This bodes well for the next festival during Capital of Culture year, when it will enjoy an even higher profile and is expected to attract over 500,000 people.

The report provides some useful guidance as to how the visitor experience for next year’s event can be improved, such as better signposting to help people find the exhibits showcased at venues all over the city.

As Martin King, the director of tourism at TMP, says, the research underlines the huge benefits associated with Liverpool Biennial, and reveals the very significant impact the event created for the visitor economy.

The festival has made highly imaginative use of well-known Liverpool landmarks – such as the bombed-out St Luke’s Church, at the top of Bold Street, the River Mersey, and St George’s Plateau.

This makes it a truly democratic event in the arts world, which is often viewed as elitist or intimidating by the general public.

But with great figures such as these, the Biennial should be able to look forward to the future with confidence and even more bumper results during the city’s year in the national and international spotlight.