One of the Liverpool Biennial Children’s Workshops of Summer 2025

As previously mentioned, this summer I’ve been working with the prestigious Liverpool Biennial. I’ve been asked to photograph the brilliant Children’s Workshops that they have running through the whole summer hols – and it’s been a blast!

The workshops are taking place in the fantastic Liverpool Central Library, one of the city’s most aesthetically pleasing buildings. Famous for its boss ceiling:

The workshops have been based around a different activity each week, related to the Biennial exhibitions this year. Fair play to the team for coming up with new things to do each week!

The opening week saw children make their own tote bags, using paints, stamps, pens, whatever they could find:

This tied in really well with the setting, as the totes are the perfect tools to transport home books from the library itself!

The second week I was there in mid-July was even more hands-on. Based on work by the artist Manthan, the kids were invited to build their own cardboard city in the library. Each child – with parent participation strongly encouraged – could design whatever building they wanted, with it all coming together as one location.

Very few constraints meant imaginations could run wild with some excellent/unique results. Also dead good to see kids making actual things bigger than themselves!

The most recent workshop had an underwater theme. Lots of sharks, jellyfish, whales – you name it. Children could make their own out of paper or materials. There was also a station asking kids to think of a positive change in the world they would like to make. They were then invited to hang this up – making them all “exhibited artists”!

Liverpool Biennial Children’s Workshops are running every Saturday for the rest of the summer holidays – and they’re all free!