We welcomed the start of summer with the Make Huyton Village Showcase!
Hosted at Make on the Corner, the showcase brought creativity directly to the heart of the high street and the local community. It was open from the 14th to 21st May, and we kicked things off with a launch event where we welcomed in our residents, guests and wider community to celebrate with us. A special thank you to Kier, whose generous sponsorship helped make this happen!
We featured a range of creative practices including fine art painting, multi-media work, performance, photography, research, home scents and interactive pieces that invited visitors to engage with the art. We welcomed 74 visitors over 6 days and showcased 10 of our resident creatives. The work was made by our creative community in our studios at Make Huyton Village, and featured Cath Garvey, Emily Edwards, Katy Lancaster, Kevin Armstrong, Leebo Luby, Olivia McIntosh, Lisa Woods, Phaedra Bell, Tom Hyland-Wilson and Willow Faye.
Make Huyton Village residents Tom Hyland-Wilson, Phaedra Bell, Lisa Woods, Katy Lancaster, Lee Shannon and Cath Garvey.
Cath Garvey is a local illustrator and animator who made a treasure hunt called “Pizza Cat and Friends”, where visitors were invited to find 3D printed figures of pizza cat, alien cat and devil cat that were hidden throughout the showcase. In the words of Cath “I want to make it harder than last year”, so we made sure that pizza cat and its friends were well hidden! You can buy pizza cat and friends at our artist-led shop, Made in Huyton, at Make Huyton Village. It’s open Thursday to Saturday, 11am to 4pm, and sells one of a kind items made by our residents and local makers.
Emily Edwards is a painter and illustrator whose work explores themes of local heritage, identity and place. She is one of our artists in residency for cohort one of This Place, This Stage and she showcased a body of research in progress. Emily’s mutli-media collage explores the changing identity of the former Mayfair Cinema in Huyton Village, tracing its transformation from cinema, to retail space, to its current use as artist studios. Using a series of archival photographs, Emily’s research documents these shifts over time while reinterpreting them through drawn Western imagery. The Mayfair Cinema was locally nicknamed “The Ranch” referencing the Western films once shown there, which has become a key visual and conceptual thread within their work. By drawing directly onto the photographic surfaces, the work layers past and present, combining documentation with imagination. It reflects an ongoing research process into local heritage, memory, and working class cultural histories, forming part of a wider body of work in development.
Katy Lancaster is a multi-media painter and crochet artist who returned to her creative practice a few years ago after taking a long break. Katy had 3 paintings in the showcase titled “The Colours of Liverpool”, “Together” and “When Blue Meets Green”. She draws inspiration from the world around her, from her being a part of a supportive local creative community and lets each piece develop in its own way. Katy also runs beginner-friendly art workshops alongside fellow studio member Olivia McIntosh. You can purchase a range of Katy’s makes in the Made in Huyton shop.
Kevin Armstrong works across photography, graphic design and printmaking. The Make Huyton Village Showcase features “Escalators of the Berlin Underground” (photographs of different locations in Berlin) and “Eleven” (a photographic series of the Berlin TV Tower). Each series of images was turned into a booklet so visitors could take a piece of the exhibition home with them. Kevin is also behind San Remo Social Club (cycling inspired printed items with great design and everyday life at its core) and Heyworth Design Company (unique printed artworks, notebooks, tote bags and t-shirts).
Leebo Luby (aka Lee Shannon) is a performer, writer, playwright and facilitator who focuses on contemporary Clowning and Bouffon. Lee showed a theatre’s show posters and a film that featured previous performance work that he made with the theatre company, Teatro Pomodoro, and as a solo performer. Some of the performances shown have toured across the UK and internationally. Recently, Lee has taken part in a range of artist development programmes and is currently making work that’s part of Developing Your Creative Practice programme by Arts Council England.
Olivia McIntosh is a painter, illustrator, and tattoo artist. Olivia treats her creative practice as “practice”, so Olivia does not identify with a particular genre of the arts which is demonstrated in her varied and experimental approach to painting. Two works were featured in the Make Huyton Village Showcase – “Tulips”, an exercise in focusing on the creative flow using oil paints, and “Paint Palette”, a repurposed wardrobe shelf that has a build up of paint mixing from several years. Olivia is also a backer of accessible arts, and hosts beginner friendly workshops alongside artist Katy Lancaster to generate local interest in creativity as self care. A selection of Olivia’s paintings can be purchased in the Made in Huyton shop.
Lisa Woods is the founder of independent family business Lisa Woods Home that’s based in Liverpool, specialising in hand crafted, refillable home fragrance. Lisa showcased “The Sun Dial Collection” which features wax melts and reed diffusers with scents inspired by dew-drenched air of a waking garden, warmth of tropical air and the cooling shadows of secluded woodland. They are passionate about reducing the environmental impact of our products, and use plastic free packaging. All products are created in small batches, using high quality ingredients. You can purchase products by Lisa Woods Home in the Made in Huyton shop, or on their website.
Phaedra Bell is a Liverpool-based multidisciplinary artist, creative producer, and director of Pyromancy Productions CIC Her work, spanning performance, movement, craft, and community-led practice, merges art, wellbeing, and alternative culture. Phaedra created a communal collage called “Fractured Deco” that was based on decorative features in the original architecture of the Make Huyton Village building. Visitors were invited to add pieces of cut out card to the collage which became a collaboration between artist, visitors and history. Phaedra also runs a range of programmes that promote wellbeing, mindfulness and connection through creativity, making and movement.
The Urban Pagan (aka Tom Hyland-Wilson) created a multi-media series of work of painting and sculpture – “Found Art” (a multi-media piece made of a collection of repurposed items that were collected over the past two years), “British Summertime” (a painting of a grey miserable summer’s day) and “Generational Trauma” (a painting about the propensity of parent and guardian figures putting their children through dangerous institutions). Tom describes himself as “an eternal hobbyist”, his practice has grown in recent years from painted miniature figures to 2D painting and sculpture.
Willow Faye (aka Claire Wanless) has a self-taught multi-disciplinary practice. Her passion is helping people however she can by using natural healing techniques to encourage them to achieve their full potential. Sometimes simply a listening ear and caring heart is all that is needed, sometimes a little creativity and hard-work. Her 3D sculpture “Springtime Dreams” was featured in the Make Huyton Village Showcase and created from repurposing found materials from local parks.
To stay in the loop with our future events, sign up to our newsletter here and follow us on Instagram (@make.cic) here! Our next event is the Make North Docks Showcase, book your free ticket to the launch event on Thursday 16th July, 6:30pm to 9pm, here. The showcase is open to the public from Friday 17th July to Thursday 23rd July, 10am to 4pm (closed on Sunday).
Make Huyton Village residents Kate Cook, Lee Shannon, Tom Hyland-Wilson, Lisa Woods, Katy Lancaster, Cath Garvey and Emily Edwards.
Make CIC team members Liam Kelly, Joel Murray, Dan Chan, Maria Popezuk and Louise Cross.
You can hire our space, Make on the Corner, for your own showcase, workshops, meetings or anything else! Get in touch to express your interest in hiring any of our spaces by emailing hello@makecic.org. We offer discounted rates to CICs and Make residents, so let us know if this applies to you!
All photographs from the Make Huyton Village Showcase were taken by Kristian Lawrence (@kristianacts on Instagram).
