Over the next few minutes we will be breaking down everything we know about art in Liverpool in full detail and our first section will fully cover the best art galleries and museums near you.
After that we will get into a variety of other topics like art supply stores, events, festivals, dealers, appraisers, walking tours, local sculptures and statues, art classes, studios for rent, and the top frame shops in your area.
You can jump straight to any section that interests you most by using the table of contents on the left and we are also including a Liverpool art map with all of the spots we mention throughout the post pinned on it.
On our site you can find many other guides about art in UK towns if interested.
Best Art Galleries & Museums In Liverpool
If you want to visit the best art galleries and museums in Liverpool you can go to:
The Walker Art Gallery is open from 10am to 6pm every day but Monday and houses one of the most important and well-known collections in the UK which include European Renaissance paintings, masterpieces by Rubens, Rembrandt, Turner, and Stubbs, Pre-Raphaelite works by Rossetti and Millais, and Impressionist works by Monet. The Walker also houses a large collection of British and European decorative art ranging in date from 1300 to the present.
Sudley House is open from 10am to 4pm every day but Monday and was built in the first decade of the nineteenth century and is now one of the rare Victorian-style period homes that has many of its original characteristics. Built in 1824 and extensively renovated in the 1880’s this museum and art gallery is home to the collection of George Holt who was a shipping-line owner and previous resident of the location. Work by Thomas Gainsborough, Joshua Reynolds, Edwin Landseer, John Everett Millais, and J. M. W. Turner is included.
For a leading photographic gallery in the UK located right here on the Waterfront head to Open Eye Gallery.
When the Tate opened its doors to the public in 1897 it only had one location and displayed a tiny collection of British artworks. They now have four major sites and a national collection of British art from 1500 to the present as well as an international collection of modern and contemporary art which contains almost 70,000 works.
If you visit Lady Lever Art Gallery you can expect to find a beautiful setting in the garden village of Port Sunlight. The gallery is open from 10am to 4pm every day of the week except for Monday and it originally began operations back in 1922 but currently there are many paintings, antiquities, pieces of jewelry, and more interesting objects on display.
The Bluecoat is open from 11am to 5pm every day but Monday and is Liverpool’s contemporary arts center, a working home for artists, and a space for audiences to engage with art in innovative ways. Bluecoat offers a lively exhibition and event schedule, an award-winning family and children’s program, and a buzzing café providing great prepared meals.
The Foundation For Art & Creative Technology was founded as an organization dedicated to video and new media art presenting and curating the work of creators with little exposure in the UK. When they initially opened their doors on Wood Street in 2003 they were the first new local arts building in over 60 years since the Philharmonic Hall in 1939 and you can check out all they have to offer from 11am to 10pm daily.
The Victoria Gallery & Museum (VG&M) is a University of Liverpool-run art gallery and museum that is open from 10am to 5pm Tuesday through Saturday. VG&M is housed in the 1892 Victoria Building which is made of redbrick and Alfred Waterhouse who was a Victorian architect designed the structure which is Grade II listed. The museum reopened in May of 2008 following an £8.6 million refurbishment of the building and it currently holds the art and museum collections donated to and established by the University.
Dot Art is open from noon to 6pm every day but Sunday and started in 2006 specializing in cheap, high-quality, locally sourced art. They collaborate with over 100 creators to offer an unrivaled selection of original art and limited edition prints for the home or business as well as a variety of complementary services like commissions, art rental, consultancy, exhibition planning and implementation, bespoke framing, valuation and restoration, and artist sourcing near you.
Studio space at an affordable price for artists and creatives ranging from fine artists to illustrators and fashion designers can be found at Arena Studios which is led by a team of creators that give their time and it has an ethos that supports artistic excellence with a socially minded perspective.
The Royal Standard is open from noon to 5pm Friday through Sunday and is the oldest and largest artist-led studio and gallery in your area. It was founded in 2006 in a modest pub in Dingle, Ireland out of a desire for a medium ground halfway between smaller DIY grassroots arts incentives and larger institutions.
Materials & Supplies Near You
When you need to buy new materials or supplies go to one of these local art stores:
R Jackson and Sons was founded in the heart of the city centre in 1866 and recently commemorating its 150th anniversary as the company remains the oldest art supply shop in your area providing artists with materials and providing a wide range of frame services.
Crafting supplies, personalised greeting cards, bespoke event stationery, craft lessons and workshops, invitations, professional printing, table plans and personalized wedding post boxes, craft supplies, and much more are available at Craftivity.
Craftys provides high-quality products at reasonable prices as well as friendly service and expert advice.
WHSmith was founded in 1792 as a family-run newsagent before becoming the world’s first retail chain. WHSmith marked its 225th anniversary in 2017 and with over 600 stores on the high street and another 600+ at airports, train stations, hospitals, and motorway services the company is now one of the UK’s largest retail groups and a household name.
You can find a multi-channel specialized retailer of value gifts, arts and crafts, toys, books, and stationery across the UK when you visit The Works.
Hobbycraft was founded in 1995 and has since expanded to a nationwide business with over 100 locations throughout the country that are ready to assist and inspire a wide range of crafts.
Cass Art initially opened its online shop in 2013 allowing them to supply the greatest art materials across the country while offering over 10,000 product lines from the world’s leading vendors including names like Winsor & Newton, Faber Castell, and Fabriano. They sell professional painting supplies including oils, acrylics, canvas, paper, and paintbrushes and they think that the greatest quality art materials should be available to everyone.
Shows & Events
Our favorite art shows, festivals, and events in your area are:
Liverpool Biennial was founded in 1998 and is the United Kingdom’s biennial of contemporary art that takes place every two years across the city’s public areas, galleries, and historic buildings. Since its beginnings the Biennial has commissioned over 380 new works and featured work by over 530 internationally recognized artists as Doug Aitken, John Akomfrah, Mona Hatoum, Yayoi Kusama, Takashi Murakami, Yoko Ono, Ai Weiwei, and Franz West are among the creators featured in prior editions.
Liverpool Art Fair debuted in May 2012 as part of Art Month at the then-new Camp and Furnace. Since then there have been very successful events in a purpose-built gallery made of five shipping containers, entertaining over 40,000 guests, presenting the work of over 100 local artists each year, and selling hundreds of pieces to consumers from all over the region, the country, and the world.
Founded in 2002 The Liverpool Arab Arts Festival remains the UK’s premier yearly Arab arts festival and it offers a dazzling celebration of Arab culture to venues throughout the city showcasing the richness of Arab culture through a jam-packed schedule of visual art, music, dance, film, theater, literature, and events.
Art Dealers & Appraisers
When you want to buy something new or learn the current value of something in your collection you can go to art dealers and appraisers near you:
Castle Fine Art is the UK’s premier retailer of limited-edition prints and original art offering international shipping and galleries across the country.
Through a statewide network of over 40 galleries Whitewall Galleries provides exquisite and inventive original paintings, collectible editions, and sculptures by internationally known artists as well as the most intriguing rising talents.
View Two Gallery took up 4,000 square feet in an 1810 banana warehouse. Outside of the London bubble, the gallery earned an international reputation for presenting and selling an extraordinary choice of contemporary art at competitive rates.
Dot Art from our best galleries near you list is another solid option.
Walking Tours
Street Art and Graffiti in the Baltic Triangle at 43 Jamaica Street is a historic area that is seeing a continuous resurgence making it one of the cool parts of town to start up shop and hang out. The Triangle has been recovered and revitalized by a burgeoning colony of creative people, entrepreneurs, and their combined enterprises that are just a stone’s throw from Albert Dock.
Sculptures & Statues
Another good way to enjoy nice weather would be to check out some of these statues and sculptures in your area:
The Beatles Statue at Pier Head
Eleanor Rigby Statue at Stanley St & Mathew St
The Drumlin’s SuperLambanana at 79 Tithebarn St
A Case History at Hope St
The Cilla Black Statue at Mathew St
In December 2015 the Beatles Statue was unveiled on the Waterfront and it was donated by the famed Cavern Club and unveiled on the 50th anniversary of the band’s last performance in town at the Empire Theatre.
Tommy Steele created the Eleanor Rigby Statue as a thank you to the people for all the good days he had spent in this city that he loved. Tommy revealed Eleanor to the world on December 3, 1982 when he claimed that he had inserted a lot of artifacts inside the figure so she would be full of magical abilities.
Taro Chiezo who is a Japanese artist created the SuperLambBanana which was commissioned in 1998 for Britain’s Art Transpennine show and it has become one of the city’s most popular and instantly recognizable works of public sculpture.
The fascinating sculpture A Case History by John King may be found on Hope Street at the top of Mount Street.
On Mathew Street there is a life-size bronze statue of Cilla Black that was unveiled in 2017 which is a tribute to the local icon who worked as a cloak room lady at the Cavern before going on to have a successful music career.
Liverpool Art Classes
Whether you are trying to find lessons for kids, teens, or adults some of the best Liverpool art schools and classes can be found at:
John Moores University which is also known as LJMU is an English public research university that can be traced back to the Liverpool Mechanics’ School of Arts that was founded in 1823 and following an Act of Parliament the Polytechnic was renamed John Moores University in 1992.
The first and only instructional course that teaches you how to create gorgeous impressionistic watercolours using Brusho paint powder can be found at Brusho Secrets which assumes you’re brand new to Brusho and walks you through Joanne’s step-by-step process for creating bright surprising effects and turning them into one-of-a-kind pieces of contemporary art.
The Academy of Arts is a unique organization that fosters creativity across a variety of socioeconomic divisions, makes art accessible to those who might not otherwise connect with it, and allows locals of all income levels to acquire work for their own homes.
Located in the heart of the city’s creative sector Baltic Clay provides space and equipment for independent ceramicists to continue creating work in a shared studio environment.
The Liver Sketching Club is England’s oldest continuously operating art club that has been holding life and portrait drawing and painting classes since the early 1870’s.
Studios For Rent Near You
When you are ready to start your next project consider renting art studio space at:
Since 2012 Road Studios has acted as a creative hub and artist-led organization in the heart of the city.
Bridewell Studios was founded in 1976 by a small group of artists who hired a dilapidated police station. They are affiliated with Artspace Merseyside which was founded in 1981 as a non-profit limited company to administer the organization and once Merseyside County Council was dissolved the artists received a loan to purchase the land.
Hub Studios is home to an independent community of local artists and creatives, the majority of whom are refugees from the urban redevelopment that witnessed the final destruction and deterioration of small transient studios in your area.
Arena Studios, The Royal Standart, and Dot Art might also have studio space available.
Framing
For the most highly recommended places to go for art framing in Liverpool head to:
Penny Lane Art and Framing provides an economical value-for-money framing service that can complement most works.
Fully customized picture frame services for the home, business, restaurants, hotels, stores, and art galleries can be found at Beatnik Framing.
Dingle Picture Frames carries over 200 different moulding designs and colors and has access to a supply network that can accommodate most home decor themes plus all frames are custom-made using high-quality materials.
Artisan Hand Crafted Picture Framing knows that conservation framing is the process of enhancing and preserving prints, posters, paintings, pictures, and memorabilia via the use of materials and procedures.
Dot Art can also do quality custom framing near you.
Just so you know we have also guides like this for other cities like:
That is about all we know about the art scene near you. We listed the best local galleries, museums, events, shows, supply stores, dealers, appraisers, walking tours, sculptures, classes, studios, and framers in your area.
You can let us know about any of your own area tips and tricks in the comments at the end of the post, or please also let us know if we got anything wrong or if anything we posted has become dated.
Have fun going to the galleries, museums, buying supplies, or doing anything that has to do with art in Liverpool!
This post and all of the posts on our site are edited by Dan Soloman who has been a huge fan of art since he was a little kid. His mother was a good local artist, and she taught him the trade from a very early age. He studied art and its history in both high school and college, has worked at multiple galleries, and recently has begun creating and editing online content for this site and some other online media platforms.
