2019 People’s Choice winners, Africa Oyé

The finalists in the 2020 Liverpool City Region Culture and Creativity Awards have been chosen from more than 700 nominations in a huge show of support for the cultural sector across the whole city region, which has suffered a massive impact in the face of Covid-19.

The judging panel, including Chairs of the Culture Partnership, Phil Redmond and Maggie O’ Carroll;  CEO of the Kuumba Imani Centre, Michelle Charters and the Liverpool Echo’s Laura Davis; met to consider nominations from across the city region to decide the list of finalists and choose the recipient of the Inspiration Award for Lifetime Achievement.

They also chose the 6 finalists for The People’s Choice award for Outstanding Contribution to Culture.

They are:

• BlackFest – A grassroots Arts festival developing work by Black artists including music, theatre, film, visual arts, spoken word and poetry.
• Gaynor La Rocca – The Artistic Director at Imaginarium Theatre, a community arts based theatre organisation, which provides an extensive creative community programme for local people.
• Milap – an Indian Arts and Culture company, producing a performance programme of festivals, events and tours, for Indian music and dance students and artists.
• The Atkinson – Sefton’s home for music, theatre, art, literature and history offering an exciting and varied destination for families, cultural tourists and arts enthusiasts.
• Bill Elms – Liverpool Theatre Festival – The Liverpool Theatre Festival held 19 show stopping performances of 12 productions for live performance fans for its inaugural staging at St Luke’s Bombed Out Church in Liverpool.
• Writing on The Wall – WoW promotes and supports equality, diversity and inclusion. Their exciting writing development programme nurtures new and aspiring novelists, poets and spoken word artists.

More details will be revealed about how people can vote for their People’s Choice winner in the New Year.

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought a different feel to the awards which will take place via a digital ceremony in February and include a best dressed competition. It also brought two new specially created impact awards to recognise and acknowledge individuals and organisations who used culture and creativity to make a significant impact on people’s lives during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Nominations to these two award categories – Covid-19 Creative Response (organisation) and Covid-19 Creative Response (individual) – made up more than a quarter of this year’s nominations and the judges had a difficult time choosing the finalists.

Metro Mayor of the Liverpool City Region Steve Rotheram said:

“Our City Region’s amazing creative talent is in our DNA, so it’s right that it’s being recognised with this really strong and diverse list of finalists from a high number of nominations.  Congratulations to all the finalists.

“2020 has been incredibly tough year for the Culture and the creative arts and while we’ve been able to support some sectors, they need more support to sustain them to be a key part of the economic recovery.  The quality of the field this year has been really high and I wish all the finalists the best of luck.”

Chair of the Culture Partnership Phil Redmond said:

“Once again it was a difficult task choosing this year’s finalists which, once again demonstrated the vast array of talent across the city region and it’s heartening, especially in this difficult time, that so many people made the effort to nominate those who they felt had made a significant impact to culture and creativity.”

The Culture and Creativity awards were created as part of the Metro Mayor’s Percent for Culture initiative, to recognise the value and power for change that the arts, cultural and creative sector can bring in reinforcing the city region as one of the most vibrant and exciting places to live, work, study, visit or do business.

This year’s awards cover arts and cultural events, innovation and creative activity that has taken place within the Liverpool City Region during the period 1st April 2019 to 12th November 2020.

All entrants must live, study and/or work in the Liverpool City Region (e.g. Halton, Knowsley, Liverpool, Sefton, St Helens and Wirral) or have created work/projects that significantly benefit the residents or visitors to the Liverpool City Region and/or has positively contributed to the development of the local economy.

For more information about the categories please go to: https://www.liverpoolcityregion-ca.gov.uk/lcr-culture-creativity-awards-2020/