Our Statement of Unity set out a collective promise: to stand against racism and build a more equitable cultural community across Liverpool City Region.
These case studies share how our member organisations are putting those words into action – through projects, partnerships, and everyday practices that champion inclusion, representation, and respect.
We’re proud to share the following of our members’ stories as part of our ongoing journey toward equity and unity.
Liverpool Biennial
Liverpool Irish Festival
Make it Write Productions CIC
Open Eye Gallery
Pagoda Arts
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic
Sole Rebel C.I.C
St. Helens Council
Tate Liverpool
The ACC Liverpool Group
The Bluecoat
The Windows Project
Writing on the Wall
Open Eye Gallery is fast-tracking 3 people from diverse backgrounds with settled status to become socially engaged photographers. Tangible support has included: free Crossing Sectors Socially Engaged training for all 3; covering fees for 1 on our M.A. with University of Salford; providing P/T residency employment for all 3 via our 5-year New Faces, New Focus programme supported by the Art Fund, Knowsley, Sefton and St Helens Council.
WoW’s Creative Heritage projects – from the George Garrett and Dorothy Kuya Archives to Great War to Race Riots and The L8 Archive – reclaim Black, anti-racist and working class hidden histories. Working with communities, Creative Heritage invites artistic responses to archive material, which bring these neglected historical experiences to life.
WoW‘s Super Heroes: Words Are Our Power affirms that we can all be Superheroes. The project brings a diverse group of writers into primary schools, helping children use their imaginations through creative writing, play and story creation. The project anthology Diverse Stories for a Diverse World features 14 award-winning storytellers and poets.
Pagoda Arts is a Chinese-led hybrid arts and social centre promoting racial equality through culture. Their programmes empower East and Southeast Asian artists and young people, amplify underrepresented voices, and build community cohesion. Through intercultural collaborations and heritage projects, they challenge stereotypes and foster inclusion across Liverpool’s diverse communities.
Originally a charity school for orphans, Bluecoat‘s 300-year-old building was largely funded by transatlantic slavery profits. In their heritage participation project, ‘Echoes and Origins’, Global Majority young people collaborated with artists, writers, an academic and others to interrogate this history through poetry, performance, digital and visual art. They demonstrated how confronting ‘colonial legacies’ and inequities of the past through creative interpretation can powerfully resonate as anti-racism.
As an anti-racist organisation – committed to eliminating race-based oppression – Liverpool Irish Festival informs Ireland’s diaspora strategy through its Director’s role on the Emigrant Services Advisory Committee. Their work on mixed-heritage Irish experiences and racial assumptions provides crucial insights, ensuring government policy reflects progressive, inclusive approaches that recognise diverse Irish identities and challenge exclusionary narratives within diaspora communities.
The ACC Liverpool Group are actively building an anti-racist workplace through conscious leadership and a strong, ongoing commitment to equity and inclusion. Anti-racism is embedded in the culture through inclusive recruitment, fair pay practices, regular staff training, and actions informed by regular staff surveys. Their ED&I staff forum gives our employees a voice, ensuring our anti-racism commitments are meaningful, measurable, and continuously evolving to drive lasting, positive change.
Liverpool Philharmonic’s Schools’ Concerts, “The World in One City – A Musical Journey”, 10th–14th March 2025, welcomed over 12,050 students and teachers. Concerts showcased global music rooted in Liverpool, featuring videos and learning materials from cultural partners—Africa Oyé, Liverpool Irish Festival, MILAP, and Pagoda Arts. These videos introduced each piece and composer, offering insights into the music’s origins and context, celebrating the rich cultural diversity within Liverpool.
Liverpool Biennial presented projects by Maria Loizidou, Kara Chin, Odur Ronald, Alice Rekab and Karen Tam at the 13th edition, BEDROCK, which examined the impact of forced, voluntary and familial experiences of migration, diasporic identities, and the rise of political alienation and disaffection.
Make it Write has consistently encouraged its writers to create plays that reflect the communities they live in. The company produced an all-Black play about fatherhood in collaboration with Big Condo and Kai Jolly, as well as Passing Moustache, which featured people from diverse backgrounds sharing their life experiences. At last year’s Fringe, Make it Write also presented a one-woman show exploring mixed heritage and identity.
For the past two years, Arts in Libraries has been an active contributor to the St Helens Refugee Week festival, organising a range of creative activities and performances — including our Heart Art sessions, tapestry and textile workshops, and other community events. In 2025, the team hosted a performance of the play Idlib and supported the first-ever St Helens Refugee Cinema Festival. These initiatives offer a meaningful way to show our support for newly arrived families through the power of art.
Tate Liverpool’s ‘The Threads that Bind Us’ was a fashion and style exhibition by Tiber Young Producers.
Showcasing garments designed and made by Toxteth 13-18-year-olds, featuring portraits of the group wearing their designs, their reflections on being a young person and how collaboration creates positive change.
The project took place during the 2024 riots and the group chose the title to encourage community and connection at a time of unrest.
Sole Rebel C.I.C. celebrates rhythm tap as a joyful connector of people and cultures. We honour jazz’s Black roots and work regularly with asylum seekers, welcoming all members of our community without prejudice. Through inclusive creative spaces, we use rhythm to build resilience, foster understanding, and challenge divisive narratives—empowering participants to express themselves, connect across difference, and create a shared sense of hope and belonging.
The Windows Project reported in 2024/25 an estimated total of 3,412 participants.
27% of the work was specifically with people with additional needs, or those in need of care.
8% of the work was specifically with communities of the Global Majority.
Equal Opportunities Monitoring
19 writers, artists, placements and volunteers, of whom
15 identified as women (79%)
4 identified as men (21%)
9 were Global Majority (47%)
5 had additional needs (26%).
The Culture Network LCR 