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Welcome 2008
Photographs and report by L.
Trollope.
NEW Year’s Eve
and there was along queue of people snaking back along the road to
get into………no, not night club, but Liverpool’s Anglican Cathedral!
Once admitted, many
hundreds of people stood under it cavernous roof to celebrate the
coming New Year and Liverpool’s accession as the European Capital of
Culture. They met to listen and to sing, along with worship, led by
the Roman Catholic Archbishop, Patrick Kelly, Bishop James Jones and
others. The enthusiastic and popular Gospel Choir, Love and Joy, set
the pace. Even the familiar ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’
featured in the programme. Towards midnight, the folk thronged
outside before the West Doors.
Despite the drizzle
and cold wind, the service continued until about 12 minutes to
midnight when the booming chimes of ‘Great George’,
the 14.5 tonne, rarely heard, largest bell in the world, punctuated
the prayers as 12 large candles were lit, which miraculously stayed
alight.
After the obligatory
countdown to New Year, enthusiastic greetings were given and
received and then a brilliant 2008 burst into life over the Rankin
Porch and a spectacular firework display was set off above our
heads.
This was followed by
the singing of ‘Auld Lange Syne’ and other favourites
before the crowd dispersed having seen in this special New Year in
such a unique and enjoyable fashion.
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CULTURAL CALLING
LIVERPOOL'S
reign as Capital of Culture is finally underway and to celebrate
National Museums Liverpool is offering a fantastic variety of things
to see and do in this momentous year.
Music fans, art lovers and architecture disciples are in for a real
treat - the jam-packed programme has all bases covered.
David Fleming, director of National Museums Liverpool said:-
"We will deliver a great cultural year that will change the
perception of Liverpool forever. National Museums Liverpool will put
on a fantastic series of exhibitions and events and break all our
visitor records. We will also build the Museum of Liverpool, the
biggest new national museum in this country for 100 years, as the
great physical legacy of the year for the people of Liverpool."
At the Walker Art Gallery Art in the Age of Steam (18 April to 10
August 2008), a blockbuster exhibition featuring artists such as
Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro and Edward Hopper, captures the fear
and excitement of early train travel as it explores artists’
responses to the advent of steam locomotion.
Joining some of the biggest names in art history at the Walker will
be internationally-renowned artist Ben Johnson who has been
commissioned to produce a huge architectural portrait of Liverpool
to commemorate the city becoming European Capital of Culture in
2008. The painting will be finished at the gallery before joining an
exhibition of Ben’s cityscapes including Jerusalem, Zurich and Hong
Kong in The Liverpool Cityscape 2008 and the World Panorama Series
(24 May to 2 Nov 2008).
Later in the year the Walker Art Gallery will present the 25th John
Moores Contemporary Painting Prize (20 September 2008 to 4 Jan 2009)
as part of the Liverpool Biennial. This year’s jury includes artists
Jake and Dinos Chapman.
Staying with the art galleries Masterpiece Watercolours and Drawings
(28 June to 9 Nov 2008) at the Lady Lever Art Gallery offers a rare
opportunity to view exquisite works too delicate for permanent
display from the gallery’s own collections. The exhibition features
around 35 drawings and watercolours by artists such as Turner,
Rossetti, Cox, de Wint and Burne-Jones.
World Museum Liverpool’s major exhibition for 2008 is The Beat Goes
On (12 July 2008 to 1 Nov 2009), inspired by Liverpool’s significant
contribution to popular music over the last 60 years. From the
Cavern to Creamfields, Billy Fury to the Zutons, Liverpool has been
home to a staggering range of venues, sounds, performers, fashions
and followers. The first exhibition of its kind, it draws together
material from record companies, institutions and private collectors.
Over at the Merseyside Maritime Museum the national museum of
Revenue and Customs has been under-going a redevelopment and will
reopen as Seized:Revenue and Customs Uncovered in Spring 2008. The
new gallery explores the key roles of HM Revenue and Customs in
helping to ensure that our way of life is fair, safe, civilised and
protected. Themes such as tax and anti-smuggling will form the main
stories, while also looking at fighting crime, patrolling frontiers,
detective work, endangered species, crime scene investigation and
sometimes a sneaking admiration for the bad guy!
In Autumn 2008 World Museum Liverpool will be home to a new gallery
to show the museum’s exceptional Egyptian collections which rank
among the best in the UK and are of international significance. In
this new gallery visitors will discover, through looking, touching,
smelling and listening, how this fascinating ancient civilisation
flourished for thousands of years.
Meanwhile work continues on the major legacy of the Capital of
Culture year in the shape of the Museum of Liverpool. Due to open in
2010, the museum will be one of the world’s leading city history
museums reflecting Liverpool’s global significance through its
unique geography, history and culture. It will draw on National
Museums Liverpool’s vast collections and give access to over 10,000
objects, many of which have never been on public display.
Parents use children to keep up with the Joneses
UK parents are
exaggerating their child’s academic achievements to get one up on
their neighbours and friends, according to new research from
educational foundation Edge.
Results from Edge’s Parents’ Panel reveal the competitive nature of
learning, with nearly half of (44%) parents saying they felt they
were under a lot of pressure to compare their child’s academic
achievements with those of their peers.
Almost three quarters (72%) stated that they suspected other parents
of stretching the truth about their son or daughter’s academic
prowess, yet only one in ten will actually admit to doing it
themselves.
Looking to the future, an alarming number of parents could be
setting their children up for failure through single-minded focus on
academia; more than half (53%) admitted that they wanted their
children to go to university to study for a degree above all other
options, despite only 30% thinking that their child will actually
use this as their route to a successful career.
Despite an increasing number of practical and vocational courses and
apprenticeships opening doors for young people and providing new
options, nearly a third of parents say they think that going to
university is the only way their child can fulfill his or her
potential; a statistic that Edge hopes to change.
Garry Hawkes, Edge’s chairman, said:- “Too many parents still
view degrees as the holy grail of qualifications, perhaps because
they aren’t aware of the other options open to their children. It’s
vital to keep in mind that every young person has different
strengths and weaknesses; by comparing a child’s academic
achievements with those of their friends, parents risk shutting
children off to the many practical and vocational options that they
may be more suited to and which they could be more successful at.”
Confidence of UK businesses at the lowest for two years!
THE poor high
street sales soaring oil prices and slowing house prices over the
end of 2007 has dented even further the confidence of UK businesses
says BDO Stoy Hayward. This pessimism and down turn in sales could
be a sign of worse to come and the city is now bracing it self for a
hard year a head and further interest rate cuts will be needed early
in 2008. It is hoped that lower interest rates to give businesses in
the UK them some respite from the strength of sterling. The British
Chamber of Commerce, like the BDO have added that rates should be
cut immediately to boost confidence and avoid the need for more
drastic action later this year. The Bank of England's Monetary
Policy Committee (MPC) will announce on Thursday 10 January 2008,
whether it will keep rates on hold at 5.5%, or follow up last
month's rate cut with a further reduction. |
