Liverpool Academy of Arts

The Academy has been in existence since 1810 although its origins are even earlier as it began as a short-lived exhibiting society in 1769. The instigator of the Academy as it is today was a Liverpool MP, banker and anti-slave campaigner one William Roscoe. In its 200 year plus history it has had more than a dozen incarnations having closed and reopened by city stalwarts through the ages. It covers a broad spectrum of creativity across a range of social divides. In doing so it makes art accessible to people who might not otherwise have the opportunity to so connect and affords the chance for local people of all means, to acquire work for their own homes.

The current Liverpool Academy of Arts was re-established in 1988 by Arthur Dooley, its aim being to carry on the work of the previous Academy headed by Adrian Henri. Dooley was a prominent local sculptor who died in 1994, his archive is held by the Academy. Well over 2000 artists have shown their works at the Academy which as one would expect runs an annual Beatles Exhibition attracting a worldwide audience of both visitors and exhibitors. Over the years the majority of exhibitions have been staged at the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool but more recently in 2007 the Academy acquired new premises in Seel Street close to the Docks.