With the recent announcement that artinliverpool.com would be winding back their services I thought I would hark back to the early days of Cultural information services in Liverpool, this is hardly a critical analysis (that may come later) but more a reminiscence to when things were harder and the internet was just starting to be accessible to more people.
Back in 2004, I was working for either North West Arts Board or Arts Council England, it was one or the other in an office on Duke Street. It was a lively hub of artistic activity, where cultural sector workers would come for help and advice on funding or to use the equipment we had on offer. Back then not everyone had their own computer and ours were always busy as we had broadband. We had bands, playwrights, visual artists and photographers coming in regularly to use the services and that was apart from the people who just called in to pick up information sheets on subjects wide and varied or to peruse the Library of books we had on funding. < GOOD DAYS
It was 2004 and that meant a Liverpool Biennial year and things were hotting up, projects were planned and exhibitions being prepared and marketed, but marketing in those days meant getting thousands of leaflets printed (if you had the budget) and spreading them far and wide across the city. Of course this meant as a visual arts going punter you had to pick up 20 leaflets, take them home, spread them out on the table and try to make sense of it all.
If you were really lucky you’d receive invites to private views in the post, Yep the post. But still there was so much going on it was really confusing as to what was happening when and where. There was clearly an overdose of information but no clear place where you could find that information distilled into one place – one sheet one book. So there was a real need for someone to start collating this information and condensing it into that one place, which people could access easily maybe via that new media of email and a website. Internet access was only just starting to come online for the likes of creatives who probably only had dial up access.
Luckily to solve the problem of information overload at least two people in the city stepped forward to help, Ian Jackson and I. I had started sending emails out to everyone in my address book detailing private views and exhibitions (all under the radar of my employers of course). I didn’t know Ian at the time but he had started his blog detailing the shows in the city, but it was only while walking from one show to another that his name was brought up in conversation, I was intrigued that someone was doing something similar, but it was to remain a few years before I met him. The office I worked in on Duke Street closed shortly afterwards and so my activities were curtailed but my interest in the provision of information remained.
Now I hear that Ian Jackson is just now winding up of some of artinliverpool.com’s services more on that here. http://www.artinliverpool.com/?p=25796
My comments in reply to this post are below.
Ian, yours and Minako’s work at artinliverpool.com has been a vital part of the Liverpool visual arts scene for many years and will be sadly missed by everyone who has used it.
At a time when websites still weren’t that common, you built a service that people could rely on, and quickly grew in popularity. It was a service that was provided free of charge as you shared your passion and enthusiasm publicly.
At a time when the people of Liverpool were hungry for information on Visual arts activities you were supplying it – not the council or arts council but a private individual and organisation. It has been a fascinating model for how a cultural information service can operate; it’s a model which I have always promoted in my work at the Arts Council. But alas it was a service that was not always recognised as needing support by certain funding bodies.
I remember back to the Get Digital seminar held at FACT in 2006, you weren’t that keen to present but I know that the arts professionals that attended were impressed by what you had achieved and how you ran your service. It was very supportive of the cultural sector for you to attend and share that knowledge.
You deserve a great deal of recognition and if the best form of flattery is imitation – then you should be very flattered by the number of websites that have done just that – no names here but there are many.
I have always had the deepest amount of respect for yourself and Minako and it has been a pleasure to work with you over the years and maybe, just maybe, I might encourage you to one last Art in Liverpool podcast…….. 🙂
I must post more often on Cultural Information Services.
