Make CIC Collaborates with Culture Liverpool on ‘Liverpool Loves Taylor’ art installations
Make has been commissioned by Liverpool City Council to curate the Liverpool Loves Taylor project, commissioning eleven artworks across the city, working with twelve local makers to create a vibrant trail to celebrate the arrival of American singer Taylor Swift in Liverpool in June.
As the latest event in the city’s ‘Liverpool Loves’ campaign, the aim is for the whole city to come alive for the gigs and show why Liverpool is the UK’s best major event city.
The Taylor Town Trail will be the centerpiece with 11 art installations, each inspired by a different Taylor Swift Era.
From Saturday 8 until Sunday 16 June , locations such as Liverpool ONE, Royal Albert Dock Liverpool and the MetQuarter will play host to new works which reflect the style and stories of each album to create amazing Swiftie Selfie locations!
Liverpool City Council’s Culture Liverpool team has partnered up with creative social enterprise Make CIC and a whole host of artists and makers from across the Liverpool City Region to curate the installations which will include:
· A moss-covered grand piano to represent the Folklore Era
· A ‘red room’ to represent the Red era
· Giant hearts representing the Lover era
· A mural inspired by the number 13 and the Fearless era
As part of the project. Make is delivering a series of bespoke workshops for Taylor Swift fans in the Met Quarter, including denim upcycling, cupcake decoration and t-shirt transformation. Four local practitioners will lead the workshops, taking place on the weekends of 8 June and 13 June.
For more information and to book a place on one of our Liverpool Loves Taylor (Crafts Version) workshops here.
What does this mean for Make and the City?
Make is home to 134 makers across the city region at its venues in Birkenhead, Liverpool’s North Docks and Huyton and runs ‘Made by Make’, which commissions work from local artists to create bespoke installations for clients across the country. This not only supports Make and its maker community, employing a hyper-local workforce, but feeds through to local suppliers, encourages collaboration and reuses materials.
Tay Tay’s arrival in Liverpool is a coup for the city, as the only non-capital city in the UK that the singer will visit. She has gained a reputation for the impact of ‘Swiftonomics’ – the economic influence of her work. Her Eras Tour began in 2023, and swiftly became the highest-grossing tour on record – the first to gross more than $1 billion – in its first eight months. That was at Christmas 2023, with almost a year of the tour still to run.
Swift’s financial clout is renowned for boosting local economies in the cities it visits, with ‘Swifties’ flocking to host cities to spend money on accommodation, food, transport and merchandise. Accommodation in Liverpool (and Edinburgh and Cardiff) sold out in August 2023, for the UK leg of the tour this year.
Eras concerts averaged 54,000 fans per concert during the first leg of the U.S. tour – a study by global research company QuestionPro showed that the average spend for an Eras Tour attendee is $1,327.74.
Liverpool has learnt from its stint hosting Eurovision in May 2023 and has championed a visitor welcome across the city, supporting the hospitality amidst the cost-of-living crisis.
Liverpool City Council’s Cabinet Member for Culture, Health and wellbeing, Councillor Harry Doyle, said:
“If there was ever going to be a city that would go all-out with a welcome for Taylor Swift and the Swifties it was bound to be Liverpool!
“For more than a year we’ve been watching the impact Taylor has at every location on her tour date – wherever she goes, an entourage of adoring fans follow, and latest figures show they are travelling from across the globe to enjoy the European leg of the tour.
“We’re a city well-versed in welcoming visitors from across the globe – Eurovision being a prime example – and we wanted to use the unrivalled creative talent in this City to develop a unique trail which will attract people to the city centre, give them an experience they won’t get in any other location, and as a result encourage them to spend time making the most of our hospitality and leisure offer.
“This is all about using that Team Liverpool approach which works so well and has a tangible impact when it comes to boosting the local economy and supporting local businesses – and even though Taylor may only be in town for a matter of days, we hope the sector feels the impact for months to come.”
In fact, independent studies show that the additional spend for Eurovision in Liverpool was £54.8 million. Globally renowned as the birthplace of the Beatles, Liverpool has been at the forefront of music tourism for decades – but Liverpool Loves Taylor shows how Liverpool City Council is determined to create a legacy for local people from cultural events.
Kirsten Little, Make’s COO, is leading the project. “Liverpool has proved its cultural impact over decades now, but it’s great to create an opportunity for local artists and makers to take part in these high-profile events. It supports their work and our creative ecosystem, and makes a difference for hospitality venues across the city region, too.
Your money goes further here – because we have a strong, established network of local artists and makers; because part of our ethos is to use reclaimed materials and because we’re already geared up to work like this, you get more for your money. When you work with Make you create local impact: you support local microbusinesses AND your role sees us reinvest fees to support training and development, affordable studio space and accessible classes”
What is Made by Make?
More than 120 call Make CIC their second home and in 2017 we used that creative energy to launch Made By Make. By tapping into the abundance of skilled artisans in our makerspaces and local community, clients commission Made By Make to produce high-quality, unique work, with a hyper-local workforce and locally-sourced materials. From concept to creation, clients can work with our highly skilled community, creating significant impact. Made By Make has a razor sharp focus on environmental sustainability, with a thrifty approach to reducing waste and managing carbon impacts.
At Make, we guarantee that the work is done locally, supporting Liverpool’s City Region’s economy and grassroots network of artists, makers and designers
The result will be a low carbon solution, reducing CO2 emissions. This is because we reuse and recycle materials, including from other regional suppliers, and reduce the impact of transport by making things locally. Think of it as a ‘second life’.
