The arts are an important part of the city of Liverpool, whether it is visual or performing arts. There are tons of museums, theaters, and art galleries. I’ve been to two theaters in the city. I have gone to multiple museums in my first weeks in Liverpool. In fact, I just went to an art gallery called the Tate down by Alberts Dock last Friday. I was already heading to Liverpool One, the main shopping center in the city, to watch Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (which was so good btw, a must-watch), so I thought I might as well stop at the Tate. Going to an art gallery was a part of my assignment for my introduction to Fine Arts class. We were making contextual/personal journals.
The purpose of a contextual journal, according to my professors, is to contain wider information and research about art, including reflections on gallery visits. Personal journals, on the other hand, are meant to contain the process you use to create your art in case you wish to repeat that process in the future. Since I won't be in the class as long as other students, I'm mixing the two ideas into one presentation.
The Tate was an interesting experience. There were several floors; three were free to the public, but you still needed a ticket to get in. Art is so important to the city that students could have gotten into the paid exhibit for free. I didn't know that until later into this week, so I only went to the free floors. I might have to visit again to view the paid exhibit.
There wasn't a theme to the artwork on the first floor of the Tate. There were plaques for each piece including the name of the artist, the country and year the artist was born (and death year if they had died), the country where they work (or worked), the name of the artwork, the materials used to create the artwork (which I found as an interesting and unexpected addition), the context for the work, and a question about for viewers related to the artwork.
The arts are important to me as well; I’m a Creative Writing major and I minor in Theatre. I will continue to take advantage of my time here to participate in the arts where I can.
IMPORTANT NOTE: It is important to mention that many of the teachers are striking next week. Like I mentioned before, I completely respect and value a worker’s right to want something better; I'm a socialist. I mentioned the university strikes before in the post “The Calm Before The Storm,” but the staff was striking as opposed to teachers. This will be the first time since I started my study abroad journey at Liverpool that educators were striking. My professors are striking next Friday, and other international students said their professors were doing the same on Thursday and Friday, which means no classes. One of my friends said her professor was striking because the university pays her less than her male peers by 20%, which is so messed up but also common. When my Introduction to Social Policy professor discussed the strike with the class, he asked us if we thought he would go on strike. Social Policy is a pretty left leaning discipline, so the answer was obvious. Of course, he would strike. Then, he asked us if he would strike to the detriment of our studies at Liverpool Hope University, and that was a little harder to answer. Wasn’t the point of striking to disrupt the status quo? His answer was no. After class, I talked to him a bit about striking, and how different the attitude toward it was in comparison to America. He said he was striking to prevent job insecurity and for students, they are the future professors and educators. It made sense to want a better future for the students of now.