Introduction

For five days, in the early autumn of 2014, a group of artists, curators, designers, writers and community organisers gathered to consider how Liverpool Biennial might inhabit its city in more significant ways. Discussions, that week, explored connections between a multiplicity of issues, practices, times and places. Their starting point was the state of housing in the district of Toxteth, Liverpool 8. Partially derelict since the 1980s when changes in industrialisation combined with government policy saw a steep decline in population, the neighbourhood has been a site of conflict and activism, where questions have been raised about local government housing policy. This complex, loaded situation acted as the prompt for a week of research and inquiry.

This issue of Stages is a series of letters that emerged from The Resident, written by Dominic Willsdon, Curatorial Correspondent for Liverpool Biennial, and part of the Curatorial Faculty for 2016.

Attendees:

Mike Aitken (Director, Royal Standard)

Stuart Bailey (graphic designer and co-editor of The Serving Library)

Francesca Bertolotti (Head of Production and International Projects, Liverpool Biennial)

Bryan Biggs (Artistic Director, the Bluecoat)

Vanessa Boni (Curator of Public Programmes, Liverpool Biennial)

Polly Brannan (Education Curator, Liverpool Biennial)

Adam Chodzko (artist)

Nina Edge (artist and activist)

Ellen Grieg (Assistant Curator, Liverpool Biennial 2014)

Joseph Grima (Curatorial Correspondent, Liverpool Biennial)

James Harper (Director, Royal Standard)

Elizabeth Hayden (Education Intern, Liverpool Biennial)

Maria Hlavajova (Artistic Director, BAK)

Irene Hoffman (Phillips Director and Chief Curator, SITE Santa Fe)

Kevin Hunt (artist)

Samantha Jones (artist)

Joe Farrag (Granby Four Streets Community Land Trust)

Theresa McDermott (Granby Four Streets Community Land Trust)

Simone Mair (Assistant Curator, Liverpool Biennial 2014)

Francesco Manacorda (Artistic Director, Tate Liverpool)

Rosalind Nashashibi (artist)

Sophia Olascoaga (Curator, MUAC)

Louis Palliser-Ames (Director, Royal Standard)

Paula Ridley (Chair, Liverpool Biennial)

Emma Riley (Mediation Fellow, Liverpool Biennial 2014)

Laura Robertson (The Double Negative)

Lucia Sanroman (Independent Curator, Mexico / San Diego)

Mike Stubbs (Director, FACT)

Sally Tallant (Director, Liverpool Biennial)

Isobel Whitelegg (Senior Lecturer in Art History and Exhibition Studies at Liverpool John Moores University / Research Curator at Tate Liverpool)

Dominic Willsdon (Curatorial Correspondent, Liverpool Biennial / Leanne and George Roberts Curator of Education and Public Practice, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art)

Note Takers:

Ameena Atiq (Mediator, Liverpool Biennial 2014)

Victoria Ellis (Mediator, Liverpool Biennial 2014)

Jenny Gleadhill (Mediation Fellow, Liverpool Biennial 2014)

Grace Harrison (Mediation Fellow, Liverpool Biennial 2014)

Holly Rimmer-Tagoe (Mediation Fellow, Liverpool Biennial 2014)