Independents Biennial postponed until 2021

Liverpool’s Independents Biennial has become the latest city festival to be postponed because of Coronavirus.

The announcement by organiser Art In Liverpool follows news the main Liverpool Biennial is being put back from this summer to 2021.

Now, after discussions with Biennial bosses and artists, it has been decided that the Independents event will also be held next year.

Artists who had already received commissions will have their fees – totalling around £15,000 – honoured and the public will be able to see their work when the Independents Biennial takes place in 12 months' time.

In a statement on the Art In Liverpool website, organisers added: “It will not be a response to the COVID-19 emergency. By then we’ll have had more than enough of that.

“It will be a festival of local visual art, by local visual artists, supported with every penny we can get our hands on and every ounce of energy we have, at every level of our organisation, and that of our partners.”

Independents Biennial is a festival of contemporary art from artists based in Liverpool, Wirral, St Helens, Knowsley, Sefton and Halton.

It runs concurrently with the Liverpool Biennial at dozens of venues across the city and beyond, and aims to celebrate the region’s creative life and cast a fresh perspective on how people in Merseyside see, make and use art.