Redmond appointed to make city a cultural powerhouse

THE man behind TV soaps Brookside and Hollyoaks as well as children’s series Grange Hill has been appointed to help make Liverpool City Region the cultural and creative powerhouse of the North.

Prof Phil Redmond, UK City of Culture head and Mersey TV founder, will chair the Cultural Partnership, which will bring together different organisations and their resources to support a common cultural strategy to stimulate creativity in all of its forms.

Its aim is to maximise the promotion of existing activity, events and initiatives so they reach as wide an audience as possible and, for example, encourage exhibitions to tour the city region rather than being based in one location.

Mayor of Liverpool and chair of the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority, Joe Anderson, said: “I am delighted that Phil Redmond has accepted my invitation to Chair the Cultural Partnership.

“This body is absolutely fundamental to building on the success we have seen over the last decade and is also integral to the success of the city region’s devolution deal with the Government.”

Redmond said: “We know what happened in 2008 and what has followed since then and it is easy to forget that only a few years before all of that Liverpool was in turmoil, with some in London suggesting it should be allowed to fail.
 
“In the 1980s, only 30 years ago, the Maritime Museum was the first symbol of hope in the Albert Dock when it became the first stage of the waterfront’s regeneration. The Museum of Liverpool is the latest, and in 2018 Tate will be celebrating 30 years in Liverpool.
 
“All of this seems like no time at all and just as it seems like the time is right to celebrate the tenth anniversary of Liverpool’s time as UK Host to the European Capital of Culture programme, it also feels the right time to start the cultural debate about what sort of city region we can forge with that same sort of collaborative effort.”

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