Judging has taken place on more than 300 entries to the inaugural Liverpool City Region Culture and Creativity Awards, with the finalists now revealed.

The awards have been created by the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority to celebrate outstanding contribution and commitment to art, culture and creativity across Halton, Knowsley, Liverpool, Sefton, St Helens and Wirral.

Entries came in from a wide variety of organisations. A panel of judges including Phil Redmond the Chair of the Culture Partnership, Alastair Machray the Editor in Chief of the Liverpool Echo and Michelle Charters who’s the CEO of the Kuumba Imani Centre, chose the finalists as well as bestowing the Inspiration Award for Lifetime Achievement which will be presented on the night.

Six of the finalists – those for the People’s Choice award – will now go to a public vote.

They are:

2. Africa Oyé
4. Imaginarium Theatre
6. Jennifer John
8. Fiona Philpott for Terracotta Warriors
10. Royal Liverpool Philharmonic
12. Wirral Council’s Culture and Visitor Economy team

The details of each of the projects and how you can vote for them are available here.

In addition to an award, winners will be offered the services of a film maker to develop a three minute bespoke film tailored to the audience that the winner wishes to reach, providing an advocacy tool for future progression.

Metro Mayor of the Liverpool City Region Steve Rotheram said:

“Congratulations to all of the finalists. We’ve been delighted to see so many organisations from across the Liverpool City Region engage with us and enter the first ever Culture and Creativity Awards. As the first Combined Authority to have powers over culture in our devolution deal, I believe we can have a massive impact across the Liverpool City Region as a whole. Culture and the creative arts are an incredibly important part of our identity. We are hugely proud of our cultural heritage and want to celebrate what makes all of our areas special to the people who live and work within them.”

The Culture and Creativity Awards are part of the Metro Mayor’s Culture Programme for the Liverpool City Region which includes investment in key cultural projects such as £10.55m for the construction of the Shakespeare North Playhouse in Prescot and £5m support for the Liverpool 2018 celebrations, which brought the Giants back to the city region for the final time.

This investment is in addition to the activity around the yearly Borough of Culture title and the 1% for Culture initiative, where the equivalent of 1% of the £30 million annual devolution funding is used to stimulate cultural and creative opportunities.

The red carpet ceremony will be hosted by award-winning actor, screenwriter and recent BAFTA Cymru winner, Celyn Jones who will be joined by a number of guest presenters.

Sponsored by Paddock Johnson Partnership, Liverpool John Lennon Airport, The Handmade Gin Company and USP Creative, the awards will take place on 28th November 2019 at the Lady Lever Art Gallery in the 2019 Liverpool City Region ‘Borough of Culture’, Wirral.