Sculpture commemorates slavery abolition

The Freedom! sculpture, commemorating the end of the slave trade in the U.K. 200 years ago and made from recycled material by young Haitian people and Haitian sculptors, goes on display today at Liverpool’s Maritime Museum today, Feb. 26th. Commissioned by National Museums Liverpool and the charity Christian Aid, the sculpture will tour London and Bristol before returning as a permanent display in Liverpool’s new International Slavery Museum (PDF format), set to open on Aug. 23rd.  Haiti became the first black republic following the first successful slave revolt. Still, the sculpture is aimed at reflecting on existing inequalities in global trade and the need for a fairer deal for developing countries, not just the abolition of the slave trade, according to a Christian Aid press release posted on the Reuters Foundation website. The Reuters Foundation was founded in 1982 to support journalists from developing countries, and today embraces a range of educational, environmental and humanitarian projects and causes. David Fleming, Director of National Museums Liverpool, said on the Christian Aid press release: “This remarkable sculpture is an important work of art in its own right, but it also symbolizes the links between the historic transatlantic slave trade and contemporary issues of freedom, enslavement and global inequalities.” Roland Cadet, one of the young Haitian collaborators on the project, also said on the press release: “People don’t have chains on their arms and legs now, but people still have chains in their minds. When you have problems getting enough food, housing and education, you are not living in a free country.”  Liverpool’s new slavery museum will be in the former Dock Traffic Office on Liverpool’s waterfront. The government last month presented the development with a £500,000 capital grant, following up on the pledge of £250,000 of annual revenue funding from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, and a £1.65 million grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund awarded last September. The launch date for the new centre is aimed to cooincide with the UNESCO International Day for Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition.

Send a Valentine e-card from Liverpool Museums

For St Valentine’s Day tomorrow, Liverpool Museums are giving you the chance to send a free e-card based on 12 designs taken from National Museums Liverpool’s collections. The designs include vintage Valentine’s cards, the botanical print of a French rose and, from more recently, the ‘All You Need Is Love’ bedspread used by John Lennon and Yoko Ono in their bed-in for peace, in 1969. View and send a Valentine’s Day e-card. Or, for the more daring and slightly whacky, Liverpool’s World Museum has launched a Valentine’s themed appeal aimed at raising funds to extend the leaf-cutter ant enclosure at the World Museum. You can send a Rom-ANT-ic e-card - on Valentine’s Day the ants will be carrying red rose petals instead of their regular leaves – or for £5 you can name a leaf-cutter ant and have it displayed, receive a certificate and get the chance for an exclusive tour of the new enclosure when it opens.  Get all the Rom-ANT-ic information and the chance to donate.  (Ant photo (c) Liverpool Daily Post & Echo).

LFC sold

It’s a fateful day for Liverpool Football Club, which today agreed a takeover offer from US businessmen Goerge Gillett and Tom Hicks. The deal has an enterprise value of £218.9 million and includes undertakings by the pair to build and finance the planned Stanley Park Stadium, LFC’s new home, and also provide an undisclosed sum for transfers on a yearly basis.  The US pair, through an investment vehicle appropriately named Kop, were preferred by Chairman David Moores and Chief Executive Rick Parry over a previous bid from Dubai-government backed DIC. Moores has accepted the role of Honorary Life President of LFC and the current football management is to remain in place. ITV also said on Tuesday it had agreed to sell its 9.99% share for £5,000 a share, as part of the deal. Hopefully the deal means that Liverpool, already the UK’s most successful football club with 5 European Cups, 18 league titles and many more honours, can match its enviable history to the financial clout of Manchester United and Chelsea. Liverpool is currently third in the Premiership league table, behind Utd and Chelsea.

Lutyens’ Liverpool Cathedral

The Walker Art Gallery is exhibiting Sir Edwin Lutyens’ model for the design for Liverpool’s Roman Catholic cathedral, a design that was abandoned and eventually led to the construction of ”Paddy’s Wig-Wam“.  There’s a good article from The Guardian here about the model. The design was so complex and ambitious, that even the model was never completed, its domed design in some ways reminiscent of London’s St Paul’s cathedral, but with more complex detail and what appears to be a Byzantine influence.  Just the dome itself appears to be about five feet tall, and the entire model has received extensive renovation. The exhibition runs from Jan. 27 to Apr. 22. Get more information and links (image is c The Walker Art Gallery)