Liverpool is a city bursting with creativity! Even more so on Hope Street, the heart of the ingenious creatives and soon to be home to a new innovative venue.
Have you ever heard stories of the Everyman Bistro? How it was home to creative minds, who spent their nights conjuring up new and whacky ideas, all whilst filling up on couscous and cheap wine. Or how Mello-Mello was a Mecca for Liverpool’s musicians, flocking in their hundreds for impromptu jazz nights and well, cheap wine. It is venues like them where people could push boundaries, voice opinions and give birth to creative ideas. Hope Street is Liverpool’s unwritten creative district, acting as a landlord to noisy, theatrical and musical tenants. You can catch a show or gig, dine in top quality restaurants and even catch a ghost story or two. BUT Hope Street is about to have a new and exciting addition…
The Liverpool Arts Society is a collective of creative practitioners with the shared passion for the arts in Liverpool. They strive to do three things; support and subsidise the creation of new work, provide a platform for other performers to showcase their talents and to create their own innovative productions in new and exciting spaces. Now in their third year of function and running from their HUB in the heart of Liverpool’s creative quarter, they are moving on to one of their biggest and most exciting projects yet.
Liverpool Arts Society will be taking control of what is currently the Hope Street Cocktail bar, attached to the new home of Liverpool Fringe Theatre, the ‘Hope Street Theatre’, with plans to change the venue in to a fresh, new and creative space taking the name of the ‘Liverpool Arts Bar’. They vow to open a comfortable and fun café/bar where artists can come to develop new ideas, work on new projects and meet like-minded creatives. They will be encouraging daytime jamming sessions with local musicians, offering a quiet library space filled with scripts of old and new where theatre makers can come for inspiration and also, give artists the opportunity to hang and sell their work. If you’re a musician with material on Spotify, you can request to be put on their local music playlist. If you’re putting on a theatre production, you can advertise auditions on their notice board and if you’re an artist with no studio space you can use the bar during the day to work on your projects. The venue is also directly linked to the Arts Society rehearsal studio that already offers subsidised hire to help the development of new work.
Artistic Director, Alex Medlicott, said; “We’re so excited by this new venture. It is a dream come true and we can’t wait to get to work. After returning from the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2015 we got together and decided we wanted to create something that helped us do three things; meet new people, share ideas and create new work. Now, after years of working with so many amazing people we feel that this venue will bring to life that ethos and bring together a community of creative people that all share a huge passion.”
The stage is currently being built and the venue is set to open its doors on Friday 5th July. They’ll be serving a wide range of hot and cold drinks as well as vegan pies made by the ‘Gluten Free Pie Company’ just across the road. Opening hours are advertised as noon till late and this certainly promises to be one of Hope Streets hottest new haunts. Make sure you check it out!
