Liverpool Independents Biennial 2021 reveals first artists
Liverpool’s Independents Biennial has made the first announcement about its delayed festival programme – and offered a teaser about one unusual venue which will become a giant gallery.
The event, in its 22nd year, was due to have taken place this summer alongside the Liverpool Biennial, but both were postponed because of the Coronavirus pandemic.
Artists who had already received commissions for the 2020 festival will be involved in the new Independents Biennial which runs from March 20 to June 6.
In 2018 the Independents' event involved 530 artists at 75 venues including the old George Henry Lee department store which was transformed into three floors of galleries.
And organisers plan to do something similar in 2021 although they are yet to reveal the location of the empty space they are taking over.
Meanwhile the Liverpool Biennial team has announced it is set to use two floors of the old Lewis's building in Ranelagh Street as a gallery.
The Independents programme, coordinated by Art in Liverpool and with funding support from Arts Council England, will be a combination of live and digital arts and, for the first time, will have all funded public activity taking place in one building.
The Independents Biennial is working in partnership with Metal Liverpool which is offering access to free studio space for four artists - Pierce Starre, Sufea Noor, Jay Hampton and Sorrel Kerrison – leading up to the opening of the event on March 20.
There are also partnerships with the Open Eye Gallery on Mann Island, working with Sam Venables, Feiyi Wen and Monste Mosquera, and St Helens Council’s Arts in Libraries service.
More artists are yet to be announced.
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.
The Liverpool Independents Biennial runs from March 20 to June 6 2021.