This is the Press Release for the inaugural Liverpool Art Month of 2012.

Visual Art is set to dominate the city this May as ‘The Liverpool Art Month’ is officially launched.

The Liverpool Art Month is a new initiative aimed at showcasing the city’s artists during the Liverpool Art Prize exhibition. 

Metal, the organisers behind the Liverpool Art Prize, has formed a new partnership withLiverpool John Moores University’s School of Art and Design and some of the city’s leading independent arts organisations, studio groups and artist’s networks including:  Arena studios and gallery, the Bluecoat’s studio artists, the Bridewell studios, dot-art, Redwire artst’s studios, The Royal Standard, The Gallery Liverpool, Wolstenholme Creative Space, and POST female artists network.

Liverpool Art Month will bring the city’s artists together in a new series of events and exhibitions that will be spread across a number of exciting and undiscovered locations.  The network of artists and gallery spaces is hoping to attract the region’s art lovers to Liverpool city centre to see the Liverpool Art Prize exhibition alongside the creative emerging talent found in the city’s exciting making spaces.

As part of Liverpool Art Month, the inaugural Liverpool Art Show will be unveiled at Camp and Furnace on Thursday 3^rd May. Taking place until Sunday 6^th May, the Liverpool Art Show is presented by Merseyside art consultants, dot-art and Matt Ford. Combining live performance and music with fine art exhibition, The Art Show will feature four breakthrough artists from Liverpool shortlisted for their experimental perceptions of the local cityscape. Sponsored by venue Camp and Furnace, there will be live performances from The Sense of Sound Singers and DJ sets from CANT MIX WONT MIX SHDNT MIX DON’T MIX.

On Friday 4^th May Arena studios and galleries will present their 10^th annual art auction with artwork available to bid on including work by each of the five shortlisted Liverpool Art Prize artists.  This is an opportunity to buy contemporary artwork by some of Liverpool’s rising stars, viewings of the work from 6pm auction starts at 7pm.

A series of exhibitions and installations will be presented on Wednesdays and Thursdays throughout May by Red Wire Artists Studios and arts organisation Wolstenholme Creative Space. This includes the exhibition, DIRT, from 9^th-12^th May that presents video, drawing, sculpture and sounds around the perception of dirt by four artists.Spectrum, at Wolstenholme Creative Space from 10^th-27^th May, features 15 solo exhibitions with five Liverpool-based artists, duos and collectives exhibiting each week.

On 25 May – 1 June there will also be the opportunity to see the LJMU School of Art and Design final degree show at the Art and Design Academy (ADA), on Duckinfield Street (next to the Catholic Cathedral). The School’s degree show is always a key event in the city’s cultural calendar. This year’s event runs over the weekend so there’s no reason not to pop in to the ADA for a look around and a chat with the students and staff.

The final weekend in May will feature the inaugural Liverpool Art Fair (www.liverpoolartfair.com), oganised by dot-art, an exciting new open submission selling event over five days, designed to connect local artists with new art buyers on a large scale, break down barriers, and make affordable art accessible to all. It will take place across two large exhibition spaces in the newly rejuvenated Camp and Furnace (previously the A-Foundation) in Liverpool’s Baltic Triangle; launching on the evening ofThursday 31st May, and open to the public from 11am-6pm from Friday 1st – Monday 4th June.

Also look out for the many events happening across Liverpool’s Light Night on Friday 18^th May.

The Liverpool Art Month is currently accepting donations from individuals and organisations who want to see the event get even bigger and better, both this year and for the future. To achieve this, they have created a ‘Crowdfunding’ site, where donations can be made easily. In return, there are numerous tokens on offer including the opportunity for a Liverpool Art Prize Nominee to lead a workshop at your workplace or venue.