Community Cohesion: Open Eye Gallery is a finalist in the Liverpool City Region Culture & Creativity Awards-2026

We are proud to have been shortlisted for the Liverpool City Region Culture & Creativity Awards 2026 in the Community Cohesion category. The Awards recognise and celebrate the incredible contribution that culture and creativity make to the city region.

Sarah Fisher, Open Eye Gallery’s Executive Director, said: “With ‘gallery’ in our name, many people are not aware of our work with communities, which is over 50% of our programme. We have a national lead for Socially Engaged Photography, and our value-driven work brings photographers together with communities over a period of time to co-create work that is meaningful to them.

Many of these communities don’t feel heard. Our programme in 2025 was an excellent example of how, through these collaborations, communities can have a public voice for the first time and through exhibitions, the broader communities can better understand their perspectives.

As part of our social practice programme, the gallery worked on important projects that used culture and creativity for positive transformation. Here are just some of them: People of Anfield and the Garston Residency both focused on creative place-making together with the communities and platforming local voices. Unsung Heroes celebrated grassroots boxing in the Liverpool City Region. Finally, the Photo Here project brought socially engaged photography to the local communities in each borough of the Liverpool City Region, including refugee groups, nature volunteers, the Deaf community, and local photographers. This project culminated in the Liverpool City Region Photo Awards, supporting local photographic talent and giving them a chance to have an exhibition in the gallery space.

The People of Anfield project engaged with more than 800 people in the Anfield area through events, exhibitions, workshops, social media discussions. People from diverse backgrounds, including refugees and asylum seekers, participated in the creative writing and photography sessions.

Garston Residency looked at the needs of the local community through creative place-making together with children. It included workshops, exhibitions, and study visits.150 people engaged through workshops and interviews (the oldest participant was 90; the youngest was 3). An art trail through local businesses was created. 

Unsung Heroes reached over 50,000 people through exhibitions, film and bus stops. The project celebrates coaches, volunteers, and athletes who use boxing to build resilience, confidence, and connection, particularly for young people. It demonstrated the sport as a social force, revealing Boxing Clubs as a space for mentorship, belonging, and community pride, and highlighting the strength of creative collaboration in platforming grassroots community stories. Crucially, Unsung Heroes also champions inclusivity within the creative process itself. The project was co-led by Katie Richardson, marking her first professional commission. By supporting emerging and underrepresented creatives, Open Eye Gallery ensures that lived experience and diverse perspectives shape how community stories are told.

Photo Here had established groups, including refugees and asylum seekers, members of the LGBTQI+ community and D/deaf and BSL users, tell their stories and the stories of the areas they live in with the help of professional socially engaged photographers in residence. Each group was supported to curate their own exhibition in each of the city region’s boroughs.

The project culminated in the Liverpool City Region Photo Awards open call, which gave the Liverpool City Region photographers a chance to be featured in the gallery’s exhibition. Paul Henry, one of the open call finalists, said:

“The nature of the Liverpool City Region Photo Awards also meant the competition was local by nature and intended for local photographers. It was interesting to include some images from within the City Region to tell the story of the panel with a local flavour. I enjoyed the presentation evening for the awards and it was striking how, though there were winners, there were no ‘losers’ – just a collection of photographers who were as delighted for everybody else as they were for themselves.”

Previously, Open Eye Gallery was shortlisted as Art Organisation Of The Year in 2024 and 2025 and won the Environmental Award in 2025.