A vibrant city in England's north-west, Liverpool – home to the Beatles, Anfield and the historic Albert Dock – is not short of cultural attractions. This summer, you can visit exhibitions about birds and bees, see historic paintings depicting local Liverpool views and discover the evolution of the city's studio spaces.
The Custom House, Liverpool, Looking South
Another great reason to visit is the return of the Liverpool Biennial, a free festival of contemporary art. The Biennial has just launched its own unique guide on the Bloomberg Connects app – a free digital guide to cultural organisations featuring exclusive content and behind-the-scenes commentary.
There are other Liverpool guides worth exploring too, so download Bloomberg Connects and begin your tour of the city now!
Liverpool Biennial
This is the 13th edition of the Biennial – the UK's largest free festival of contemporary art – and its theme 'Bedrock' invites artists to consider the sandstone on which Liverpool is built alongside the traditions and histories that have also shaped it – not least its role as a port city shaped by empire and colonialism. But the theme also acknowledges other foundational forces such as family, language and land.
The Biennial features a range of museum exhibitions (some of which are outlined later in this piece) and site-specific works around the city. This includes unexpected settings such as Eurochemist on Berry St or The Baltic's 20 Jordan St, which houses an installation by Turkish artist Cevdet Erek capturing the energy and noise of a football stadium.
Part of the Liverpool Biennial, 2025
Installation view, 'Cevdet Erek, Away Terrace (Us and Them)' at 20 Jordan Street, Liverpool, 2025
Part of the Liverpool Biennial, 2025
You can find out more about the 30 artists and collectives participating in this year's Biennial on the Bloomberg Connects guide.
The guide also includes information about a series of newly commissioned outdoor artworks, installed at sites across the city. Don't miss Alice Rekab's vinyl artwork at Liverpool ONE, which takes as its starting point her own mixed race Irish identity to consider ideas around migration and family. Elsewhere, Anna Gonzalez Noguchi has created a sculpture for the waterfront location of Mann Island, a perfect setting for a work referencing Liverpool's historical import of foreign plants.
Installation view, 'Alice Rekab, Bunchlann, Buncharraig’ at Liverpool ONE, 2025
Installation view, 'Alice Rekab, Bunchlann, Buncharraig’ at Liverpool ONE, 2025
Part of the Liverpool Biennial, 2025
One of the standout pieces from the show is Elizabeth Price's film, shown at civic centre The Black-E on the fringes of Liverpool's Chinatown, meditating on the proliferation of Catholic modernist churches built in post-war Britain as a result of increased Irish Catholic immigration.
Film Still from 'HERE WE ARE' (2025) by Elizabeth Price
Film Still from 'HERE WE ARE' (2025) by Elizabeth Price
Shown at the Black E, Liverpool, as part of the Liverpool Biennial, 2025
Another film, Dear Othermother, by Liverpool-born artist Amber Akaunu, on show at Bluecoat, celebrates matriarchal connections in Toxteth, home to one of the oldest Black communities in the UK.
Shown at Bluecoat, Liverpool, as part of the Liverpool Biennial, 2025
Still from ‘Dear Othermother’ (2024) by Amber Akaunu
Shown at Bluecoat, Liverpool, as part of the Liverpool Biennial, 2025
As the Bloomberg Connects guide makes clear, you can also look out for a range of permanent artworks installed across the city – from Ugo Rondinone's fluorescent sculpture Liverpool Mountain and Jaume Plensa's Dream to Antony Gormley's Another Place, a series of figures installed on Crosby beach.
Dream
Dream 2009
Jaume Plensa (b.1955) and Evans Concrete (founded 1990?)
Sutton Manor Woodland, Jubitts Lane, St Helens, Merseyside
Another Place
Another Place 2005
Antony Gormley (b.1950) and Joseph & Jesse Siddons (founded 1846) and Hargreaves Foundry
Crosby beach, Crosby, Lancashire
Liverpool Cathedral
As part of the Biennial, the Liverpool Anglican Cathedral – an iconic sandstone emblem of the city – presents an installation by Cypriot artist Maria Loizidou. The woven tapestry, ethereal in the stately space, features figures held aloft, surrounded by migratory birds inspired by those that visit and nest around the Cathedral grounds.
Installation view, 'Maria Loizidou, Where Am I Now’ at Liverpool Cathedral, 2025
Installation view, 'Maria Loizidou, Where Am I Now’ at Liverpool Cathedral, 2025
Part of the Liverpool Biennial, 2025
But as the guide on Bloomberg Connects makes clear, the Cathedral is also home to a range of permanent artworks – not least Elisabeth Frink's monumental Risen Christ. As the guide explains, the artist died a few days after it was unveiled in 1993, 'but the sculpture was enough to establish her as one of the foremost religious sculptors of the century'. For Frink, this sculpture of a resurrected Christ poignantly symbolised rebirth.
Unveiled in 1993 at Liverpool Cathedral
The Welcoming Christ sculpture by Elisabeth Frink
Unveiled in 1993 at Liverpool Cathedral
Elsewhere, find works by Craigie Aitchison, Christopher Le Brun, and Adrian Wiszniewski.
You can also take a tour of the building's beautiful stained-glass windows and listen to some audio highlights from the Cathedral's staff. The Great West Window, designed by Carl Edwards, is one of the largest stained-glass windows in the world (a Tracey Emin neon work is installed below), while the Laymen's Window in the Nave celebrates the tradesmen and architects who built the Cathedral.
TATE LIVERPOOL + RIBA NORTH
Tate Liverpool + RIBA North's contribution to the Biennial is in a display of works by artists examining their connection to people and places – in particular family links. Don't miss the tactile, sculptural work Grand Boules (2009) by Sheila Hicks – circular forms covered in colourful threads from garments previously owned by the artist's friends and family. A key motif in her work, Hicks refer to these boules as 'memory balls'.
Installation view, Sheila Hicks, ‘Grand Boules’ (2009) at Tate Liverpool + RIBA North, 2025
Installation view, Sheila Hicks, ‘Grand Boules’ (2009) at Tate Liverpool + RIBA North, 2025
Part of the Liverpool Biennial, 2025
Also on show is 'Where the Work Begins' (until 25th August), curated by RIBA and drawing on their collection, which examines the relationship between art and architecture.
Antony Gormley's workshop and studio
Antony Gormley's workshop and studio
Inspired by the Biennial's 'Bedrock' theme, the show looks at the growth in artists' studio spaces since the 1800s – particularly in relation to Liverpool.
Warehouse, South Dock, Liverpool
Warehouse, South Dock, Liverpool
FACT
At FACT, three artists and collectives exhibiting as part of the Liverpool Biennial examine our relationship with the natural world: Kara Chin, DARCH, and Linda Lamignan. Chin's dizzying multimedia installation offers some comedic respite – here you'll find AI seagulls and strange robotic assemblages.
Part of the Liverpool Biennial, 2025
Installation view, 'Kara Chin, Mapping the Wasteland_ PAY AND DISPLAY' at FACT Liverpool, 2025
Part of the Liverpool Biennial, 2025
Also on show is an exhibition by British artist Amartey Golding who presents new work from his ongoing Chainmail series, begun in 2015.
Installation view, 'Amartey Golding, Chainmail 4: Silent Knight', FACT Liverpool, 2025
Installation view, 'Amartey Golding, Chainmail 4: Silent Knight', FACT Liverpool, 2025
The guide to the exhibition on Bloomberg Connects tells us that since 2023, Amartey has been working with prisoners at HMP Altcourse in Fazakerley to make a suit of armour as a way of thinking through the ways we protect ourselves – and more broadly what masculinity means today. Weighing more than 200 kilos, Silent Knight is the largest suit in the series, yet its construction resembles a duvet giving it a softer, more vulnerable quality.
OPEN EYE GALLERY
Photography space Open Eye is also a Biennial venue, presenting work by three international artists – Nandan Ghiya, Widline Cadet and Katarzyna Perlak – whose work reflects on their own identity. Cadet's photographs, made between 2021 and 2024 chart the difficulties of emigrating from Haiti to the US, while Perlak's new film examining queer identity is set in the Adelphi hotel, once a popular stop for travellers heading to North America via Liverpool.
You can find out more about the exhibition on Bloomberg Connects.
Part of the Liverpool Biennial, 2025
Installation view, 'Katarzyna Perlak, The Land Beneath Sleeps Lightly' at Open Eye Gallery, Liverpoo
Part of the Liverpool Biennial, 2025
The Open Eye guide on Bloomberg Connects talks about the gallery's history via an audio, which details how the gallery takes a lead on promoting socially engaged photography and the importance of reflecting multiple voices.
WALKER ART GALLERY
You can also catch a new large-scale textile and embroidery work by Perlak at the Walker Art Gallery, another Biennial venue but also home to an impressive art collection – find out more on the Walker's Bloomberg Connects guide. A detailed audio tour talks through the most renowned works in the collection, including Rembrandt's Self Portrait as a Young Man and Dante's Dream by Rossetti
Dante's Dream
There's still time to visit the current exhibition by Graham Crowley, winner of the 2023 John Moores Painting Prize. 'I Paint Shadows' (until 13th July) reveals the artist's focus of everyday scenes via his unique examination of light and shade.
You can explore more works by Crowley on Art UK, from his earlier Tug (1975) to the more recent Yellow Rockery (2003), a vivid meditation on landscape now part of the Jerwood Collection.
Yellow Rockery
SUDLEY HOUSE
For more impressive historic art, head to Sudley House in the Liverpool suburb of Aigburgh. Once the home of merchant and ship owner George Holt, the house, which he bought in 1883, is now a museum filled with Holt's collection of masterpieces by artists such as Burne-Jones, Turner, Romney and Landseer. Remarkably, Sudley House remains the only surviving UK Victorian merchant art collection still hanging in its original setting.
Charlotte Bettesworth (c.1755–1841), Mrs John Sargent
Find out more about the house's decor in an audio tour on Bloomberg Connects, which includes information about the Holt family portraits. The guide also shows what each room looks like and what works you can find there.
Sudley House Dining Room
Sudley House Dining Room
The ongoing display 'Home and Away' includes paintings of local and foreign views – the latter drawn from Holt's collection as a reminder of his interest in travel. The show includes Bold Street from Waterloo Place (1893) by Charles Trevor Prescott, on loan from the Walker Art Gallery. It gives an idea of how Liverpool would have looked in the late nineteenth century when Holt was alive.
Bold Street from Waterloo Place
PORT SUNLIGHT VILLAGE & MUSEUM
If you fancy something a little different then why not visit Port Sunlight Village, established in 1888 to provide accommodation for working-class people, and now home to more than 900 Grade-II listed buildings in a unique parkland setting. The Village's guide on Bloomberg Connects includes a video providing a snapshot of what it looks like today.
The guide also includes a brief history of Port Sunlight which, we are told, was built by William Hesketh Lever to house those working in his soap factory, Lever Brothers, and which reveals his commitment to providing architecturally pleasing, sanitary housing. The guide also makes clear how Lever was instrumental in setting up plantations in places such as the Belgian Congo, suggesting that his colonial exploits should be read alongside his domestic operations.
William Hesketh Lever (1851–1925), 1st Viscount Leverhulme, Bt
Be sure to check out the fantastic audio tour on Bloomberg Connects which takes you on a journey through the early days of Port Sunlight, as seen through the eyes of Nellie – the first child born in the Village.
The Village is also home to Port Sunlight Museum, which outlines how the Village developed and allows you to step inside one of the Worker's Cottages to get some sense of the living conditions in 1913. As the Bloomberg Connects guide to the museum outlines, the cottage 'is a typical example of a kitchen cottage... recreated with period furniture and fittings'.
Worker's Cottage, Port Sunlight Museum
Worker's Cottage, Port Sunlight Museum
Scroll through the museum's 'Top Five Things to See' on Bloomberg Connects, which includes nostalgic soap packaging and a letter from Brian Epstein, the Beatles' manager, in which he discusses the details of the Fab Four's performance at Port Sunlight Village's Hulme Hall. You can also listen to the groups first radio interview in the Village, in October 1962.
Port Sunlight is home to the Lady Lever Art Gallery, founded in 1922 by Lever (later Lord Leverhulme) and containing an eclectic mix of antiques, furniture, sculpture and paintings. You can read more about the gallery in this Art UK story.
The collection is especially strong in Pre-Raphaelite works by Millais, Leighton and Alma-Tadema. Take the audio highlights tour on the gallery's Bloomberg Connects guide.
The Black Brunswicker
This summer, you can also see around 45 paintings of British birds by Jim Moir – best known as the comedian Vic Reeves. Moir has long been fascinated by the natural world and his paintings reveal his studied approach and knowledge of each species (until 2nd November).
Sunlight Soap products in Port Sunlight Museum
Sunlight Soap products in Port Sunlight Museum
WORLD MUSEUM LIVERPOOL
If birds take your fancy, then perhaps you'll also be interested in an exhibition at the World Museum Liverpool which puts bees in the spotlight. 'Bees: A Story of Survival' (until 28th September) brings together art and science to explore the impact this tiny creature has on earth – and the threat it now faces in a time of climate emergency.
Installation view, 'Dawn to Dusk: Birds by Jim Moir', Lady Lever Art Gallery, 2025
Installation view, 'Dawn to Dusk: Birds by Jim Moir', Lady Lever Art Gallery, 2025
Across eight rooms, artist Wolfgang Buttress creates an immersive experience with accompanying soundscapes individually created for each room. This music has a wider purpose; to reveal the extent to which sound – or more specifically, vibration – impacts bees and how it mirrors the activity in the hive. The museum has created an audio guide for the exhibition which you can also access here.
Discover more on the museum's Bloomberg Connects guide which includes an amazing video and the chance to discover 10 brilliant bee facts! Did you know, for example, that most bees are loners?
LIVERPOOL BOTANICAL COLLECTION
There's more to discover about the natural world at Liverpool Botanical Collection at Croxteth Hall, which includes four historic glasshouses holding a wide range of rare species.
Find out more on the museum's Bloomberg Connects guide, which highlights these rare botanical items and the Victorian Walled Garden, built in the mid-nineteenth century to provide fresh fruit, vegetables and flowers to Croxteth Hall.
An in-depth audio on the guide also outlines the development of the botanical collection and its movement across five Liverpool sites over the last 220 years. This history begins in 1802 at Mount Pleasant; we are told that by the 1820s, Liverpool Botanical Collection had earned a leading reputation for its cultivation of many species of orchids.
Imelda Barnard, Commissioning Editor – Exhibitions and Bloomberg Connects, Art UK
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This content was funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies