AS LIVERPOOL approaches the run-up to its much-vaunted Capital of Culture year one of the city’s oldest arts institutions, first initiated by William Roscoe in 1810 and later home to the fabled sculptor Arthur Dooley, is facing a bleak future.
Indeed, according to gallery promoter June Lornie, by the end of this year or even sooner, the Liverpool Academy of Arts could be merely a fading chapter in the history books.
And one of the first casualties is its annual Beatles Art exhibition that has been staged for the last fourteen years to coincide with the Mathew Street Festival.
For the previous ten years, Liverpool City Council had donated £2,000 towards the cost of marketing and publicising the event that has attracted hundreds of contributing artists and thousands of visitors from all over the world.
The Academy’s ongoing livelihood depends partly on the sales of arts works from this hugely successful show.
But a bid for the funding to continue this year was turned down by the Liverpool Culture Company.
After June Lornie appealed against the decision, the company’s chief executive Jason Harborow replied: "We are fully aware of the history of the Liverpool Academy of Arts and the history of the Beatles Exhibition, its popularity and the levels of support provided by the City Council.
"As you know we had a limited amount of funding available. Unfortunately your application was unsuccessful on this occasion and I appreciate this is disappointing."
A despondent June Lornie remarked: "It is bemusing that we actually set up as a charity last year to try and access grant funding – after many years with me running it as a sole trader, although it never made any money. Instead we get nothing."
But although the loss of the Beatles Exhibition – ironically this year themed ‘Come Together’ – is a blow, the much larger crisis facing the Academy is the forced move from its current building, which is facing redevelopment.
