Liverpool City Council’s Culture Liverpool has launched a major new Creative Neighbourhoods programme celebrating the identity, creativity, and character of Liverpool’s communities.
Home: A Celebration of Place will build on the success of previous Creative Neighbourhoods and Creative Communities initiatives, and will deliver a city-wide programme of cultural activity throughout 2026/27 – bringing together artists, community organisations, and residents to explore a simple but powerful question: What makes a place a home?
The programme has been designed to recognise and showcase the unique stories, identities, and achievements of Liverpool’s neighbourhoods through community-led arts and culture. It aims to strengthen belonging, connection, pride and participation while helping to address inequalities in access to cultural opportunities across the city.
Using evidence including the Indices of Deprivation and local intelligence, the programme is targeting investment towards neighbourhoods where it can have the greatest impact, helping to strengthen cultural provision and support community creativity in areas that have historically received less cultural investment.
The programme forms part of Liverpool City Council’s commitment to supporting culture in communities, increasing participation, and ensuring residents across the city can help shape and celebrate the places they call home.
Earlier this year, Culture Liverpool invited proposals from artists and arts organisations to deliver ambitious, place-based residencies that would work closely with communities to create meaningful and memorable cultural experiences.
The commissioned artists and organisations were selected for their creative vision, track record of high-quality delivery and commitment to collaborative, community-led practice.
The successful commissions are MAKE CIC, Cut to the Chase Productions, Breaking Barriers, LUMA Creations, and dot-art.
Through residencies, engagement activities, creative workshops, events and performances, the commissioned projects will work alongside residents to create new artistic work that celebrates neighbourhood identity, strengthens community connections, and leaves a lasting legacy.
Alongside the artist commissions, Culture Liverpool is also in the process of awarding the first round of Home community grants.
The grants programme offers funding of between £500 and £5,000 to support grassroots arts activity, community celebrations, creative projects, and neighbourhood festivals that bring people together and celebrate local identity.
The fund is designed to enhance existing cultural activity across Liverpool and support organisations with established roots within their communities. Successful projects will take place between 10 July and 30 September 2026. Based on the success of this first round, a second funding opportunity will be announced later in the year.
The funded projects represent a diverse range of creative activity and will help more residents engage with arts and culture in their neighbourhoods, creating opportunities for participation, celebration, and connection.
Home: A Celebration of Place places participation, accessibility, and inclusion at its heart. The programme will bring together residents of all ages, backgrounds, and abilities, ensuring communities play a central role in shaping cultural activity in their area. The programme’s themes include tackling isolation, strengthening community cohesion, building resilience, promoting integration, and fostering feelings of trust, belonging, and joy. Delivery will be supported through partnerships between artists, community groups, schools, elected members, and local organisations.
Activity will take place from summer 2026 through to early 2027, culminating in a wider city celebration showcasing the creativity, stories and achievements emerging from Liverpool’s neighbourhoods.
The successful commissions are:
MAKE CIC – In My Liverpool Home
MAKE CIC’s In My Liverpool Home will celebrate the rich heritage, creativity and diversity of Liverpool’s North Docks, using music, storytelling and public art to explore what makes a place feel like home. Centred on Vauxhall and the Ten Streets district, the project takes inspiration from Pete McGovern’s iconic song In My Liverpool Home and the area’s history as a place shaped by immigration, industry and community. Working with residents, schools, youth organisations and cultural partners, MAKE CIC will collect oral histories, create new musical and spoken-word responses, and co-design a landmark public artwork on Regent Street. Through intergenerational storytelling, community celebrations and creative participation, the project will connect the neighbourhood’s past with its future, fostering pride in place, social cohesion and a shared vision for Liverpool’s evolving waterfront communities.
LUMA Creations
LUMA Creations will work with communities in Dingle, Toxteth, Princes Park, and Arundel, and collaborate with other arts organisations from around the L8 area, to explore ideas of belonging, identity and cultural exchange, drawing on the organisation’s extensive experience of creating high-quality, inclusive cultural programmes that bring people together through creativity. Renowned for producing the internationally celebrated LA FERIA festival, LUMA has a strong track record of championing diverse voices, fostering community cohesion and creating welcoming spaces for participation. Through workshops, creative engagement and collaborative artistic activity, the commission will invite residents to share their stories, experiences and connections to place, celebrating the rich cultural diversity that helps make Liverpool’s neighbourhoods feel like home. Audience evaluation of LA FERIA 2025 highlighted LUMA’s success in strengthening community connections, promoting cultural understanding and delivering high-quality artistic experiences that inspire pride, belonging and participation.
Cut to the Chase Productions – H.O.M.E. (House. Ours. Memory. EnJOYment.)
Working across Tuebook, Larkhill, Stoneycroft and Old Swan West, Cut to the Chase Productions will deliver H.O.M.E. (House. Ours. Memory. EnJOYment.), an ambitious community-led cine-theatre project exploring belonging, identity and the stories that connect people to place. Led by award-winning creative producer and director Jen Heyes, the project will bring residents together through story-gathering, film-making, music workshops, creative exchanges and community celebrations, culminating in a large-scale immersive performance combining film, live music, storytelling and community participation. Developed with local people at every stage, the project will celebrate the joy, creativity and cultural richness of these neighbourhoods while creating a lasting archive of stories, memories and creative work.
Breaking Barriers – Stories We Tell: Liverpool
Breaking Barriers will work in Yewtree, Knotty Ash, and Dovecot Park to deliver Stories We Tell: Liverpool, a large-scale immersive storytelling project created with residents. Through oral history sessions, creative workshops and community co-creation activities, local people will share stories of belonging, migration, family, memory and community that will be transformed into an innovative audio-visual experience. Combining binaural sound, projection, archive material and live performance, audiences will journey through neighbourhood streets guided by residents’ voices, encountering the places, people and stories that make the area unique. The project will place community voices at the heart of the artistic experience while creating opportunities for young people to develop creative skills through a dedicated Young Company programme.
dot-art – Word for Home: Belle Vale
In Belle Vale, dot-art will work with artists Austin Wilde and local resident Jodie Cavanagh to create a series of large-scale public murals celebrating the language, identity and character of the neighbourhood. Residents will be invited to share the sayings, phrases and expressions that define Belle Vale, which will then be transformed into bold text-based artworks enhanced by vibrant colour and design. Alongside the murals, the project will create a community-sourced dictionary of local sayings, together with printed artwork, badges and stickers distributed across the area. Rooted in community participation and local pride, the project will leave a permanent artistic legacy that reflects Belle Vale’s unique voice and sense of home.
Councillor Harry Doyle, Cabinet Member for Health, Wellbeing and Culture, said: “Liverpool’s neighbourhoods are the heartbeat of our city, and Home: A Celebration of Place is about recognising the creativity, resilience, and pride that exists within every community.
“These commissions and community grants will empower local people to tell their own stories, celebrate what makes their area unique, and work with artists and cultural organisations to create something truly special.
“We want residents to play a leading role in shaping the programme, ensuring it reflects the identities, experiences and aspirations of the people who call these neighbourhoods home.
“Culture has the power to bring people together, build confidence and strengthen connections, and that’s exactly what this programme aims to do.
“I’m delighted to see such a diverse range of projects and organisations involved, and I look forward to seeing communities across Liverpool come together to celebrate the places that matter most to them.”
Kirsten Little, Creative Director, Make CIC, said: “It feels like the perfect moment to come together and celebrate the diversity and stories of what makes Liverpool feel like home.
“We are excited to partner with Culture Liverpool so we can shine a spotlight on the past, present, and future of North Liverpool with the area’s deep cultural roots as the gateway to the world, and celebrate the working-class immigrant heritage that shaped Liverpool’s identity, its accent, and its music.
“By capturing family stories, engaging people through music, and installing landmark public art, HOME will connect the scouse diaspora of the dockland communities of old to those who call Liverpool home today.
“This celebration of place will be framed by the song “In my Liverpool home” written by Peter McGovern who was born 99 years ago in Liverpool’s dockland.”
For more information about Home: A Celebration of Place, visit https://cultureliverpool.co.uk/.
