Glimpses of gardens and secrets of the universe
5 handpicked cultural things to do this week: Friday 17 July to Thursday 23 July
As the school summer holidays descend, you’ll notice a few family exhibitions and activities creeping into my weekly lists of cultural things to do. Unfortunately my son now regularly states: ‘I hate museums.’ I’m not sure where he has got this idea from as I’ve not taken him to one for ages - except when I helped out on a school trip to Chester Deva Roman experience, where the kids got to attack the teachers and parents with bean bag swords. He definitely loved that. Anyway challenge this summer is to take him to exhibitions so engaging that he forgets he’s in a museum at all.
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5 things to do this week
EXHIBITIONS: Is This a Garden & The Perfect Flower, Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool
These two LOOK Photo Biennial exhibitions are on my list to get to over the next week as they explore the same subjects as an oral history project I’m currently working on - How do gardens shape the people around them? and How do social conditions, histories and environments shape the gardens?
Curated by Gary Bratchford and Stuart Whipps, Is this a Garden? is about gardens as the backdrop to everyday life. The group show displays photographs in which they appear only incidentally - on the edges of images, behind subjects, glimpsed through windows, embedded within everyday life rather than presented as grand statements of horticulture or design.
Meanwhile, Yan Wang Preston’s The Perfect Flower project, charts the development of hydrangeas in the UK, exploring what a perfect flower is and the journey to get it. Ends Monday 31 August, free entry
FESTIVAL: Liverpool Arab Arts Festival, various locations
The UK’s longest running annual festival of Arab arts, culture and heritage opens today (Friday) with a programme around the concept of ‘home’, whether that’s rooted in place and territory, shaped through family and relationships or carried through memory, movement, environment and social or geographic experience.
I am most tempted by Sudanese Culinary Arts and Literature on Saturday 18 July at The Black-E, an evening spent exploring the meaning of home through food, art and storytelling, with British-Sudanese food archivist Omer Al Tijani (tickets £7). And of course the joyous LAAF Family Day at Sefton Park Palm House on Sunday 26 July, 12-5pm, free entry. I’m also keen to see the two exhibitions that you can read about in the last edition of Stored Honey. Friday 17 to Sunday 26 July, various locations and ticket prices
EXHIBITION: Horrible Science: Cosmic Chaos, Science & Industry Museum, Manchester
Characters from the BBC’s Horrible Science TV series lead you on a cosmic adventure to walk in the shoes of astronauts and discover far-off worlds, dance on an alien disco planet and journey through the depths of space to uncover the secrets of our universe. All the while, watch out for evil genius Dr Big Brain. Ends Sunday 3 January 2027, adult £10, child tickets from £8.70 this summer, as part of the government’s Great British Summer Savings scheme.
THEATRE: The Spy Who Came in From the Cold, Lowry, Salford
Ralf Little stars as disillusioned British intelligence officer Alec Leamas in the stage version of John le Carre’s thriller, with Gráinne Dromgoole as the idealistic, left-wing librarian Liz Gold and Tony Turner as George Smiley. Wednesday 22 to Saturday 25 July, standard tickets from £37
EXHIBITION: Summer of Senses, Windermere Jetty Museum
Featuring hands-on sensory stations and fascinating creatures, families can discover how humans and animals use their incredible senses to explore the world. The fun continues with a trail throughout the museum. Saturday 18 July to Sunday 30 August, entry is free with a ticket for the museum, which are priced £12 for an adult annual pass, £6 for an annual pass for ages 5-15, and there are other concessions too.
And one thing for the diary…
EXHIBITION: 70 Years of The Cavern Club, Museum of Liverpool
Announced this week - an exhibition celebrating 70 years of one of the world’s most iconic live music venues: The Cavern Club. Internationally recognised as the birthplace of The Beatles and the defining venue of Merseybeat, it will present The Cavern Club’s story as inseparable from that of Liverpool itself, shaped by the same social, cultural and economic fortunes as the city around it.
Over the years, I’ve had the privilege of interviewing many people connected to The Cavern, including Paul McCartney, Pete Best and some of the (no longer) teenagers who spent their lunchtimes dancing to live music in that smelly cellar. It’ll be interesting to see how this exhibition will evoke, in a gallery space, the exciting atmosphere that still makes their eyes light up today. And I’m particularly keen to find out more about its life as a jazz bar, before the arrival of Merseybeat. Opening Saturday 16 January, 2027
In case you missed it
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I’m off now to celebrate the last day of the school term with my kids.
Have a great week,
Laura
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