Truck Stop
On Saturday 9th June 2007, Metal hosted the Edge Hill International Festival to promote the European Arts project 'Open Here'. The day was a huge success with 2,000 visitors filling the un-used platforms.
‘We need a venue like this for free artistic expression and somewhere different for different people to feel a sense of belonging…’ Curtis Watt
The wide range of art forms and levels of practitioner was intended to encourage access for all, ensuring a number of different access points for participants, creatives and the general visitor. The work and ideas generated through the European project and the Truck itself provided a critical approach to the topic of migration and that the performers and participants, which included refugee and migrant groups, offered a different take on the theme.
Metal felt it especially important to present a fun, vibrant day where a diverse range of participants responded to the theme in their own way. The event highlighted the quality of creative talent in the surrounding neighbourhoods and that we could work together to produce something positive, that sets out our ambition for the future in an inclusive way.
The response to the event was incredibly positive and we hope to build on its success with the launch of the Pavilion in May 2008 and the restoration of the buildings across the tracks on platforms 1 & 2 developing the space into an arts venue for culture, debate and community in early 2009.
"It's a brilliant idea for restoring our history and heritage, and it will be a really good resource for capturing the imagination of our young people about the possibilities of the past and of the future. "
Paul Nicholson - local resident and Chair of Kensington Fields Community Centre.
TRUCK STOP on Liverpool Stories:
http://liverpoolstories.blogspot.com/2007/06/edge-hill-international-festival.html
open here: consTRUCKtions - conNEXTions was the first EU-bound project run by the Department of Arts and Culture, City of Munich and it was developed in partnership with Ottakring (Vienna), Divadelní Ústav (Prague), Metal Culture (Liverpool), Cola Production (Marseilles) and Cosmos of Culture (Athens).The central theme of the European project was migration and cultural diversity.
http://www.open-here.eu
