Cathy's Art Diary

Touching exhibition at the Museum of Liverpool marking the closing of Goodison Park, the Everton football stadium. The club are moving to a new ground on the banks of the Mersey at the start of the new season and the museum marked this with a display of photographs of match day rituals and activities in the surrounding streets. I loved this one of a man eating his regular chips on a wall. I hope he finds a new wall soon. Closes 21 September 2025    

Lovely exhibition at the Museum of Liverpool looking at the life of April Ashley, one of the first people in the world to undergo gender reassignment surgery. It told the story of her life from her birth in Liverpool as George Jamieson, through her career as a model, the surgery and her life as a campaigner. This was set against a time line of trans gender history from a Roman emperor who was assassinated in 22AD for trying to get sex change surgery through to the present day and in particular the change in the law in 2005 that allowed April Ashley, and others, to have their change of sex recognised with a new birth certificate.

Small but interesting display at the Museum of Liverpool on the story of HIV on Merseyside. I lived in Liverpool 30 years ago this autumn and felt that was the year I starting reading about HIV and AIDS in the newspapers as a disease in America. I was therefore stunned to see that someone had already died of the condition in Liverpool the year before.   The display was interesting in that it showed not only early reaction to the illness but also how people were now being supported on Merseyside by Sahir House who had helped to mount this show.