FACT (Foundation for Art and Creative Technology) has been leading the UK video, film and new media arts scene for 20 years with groundbreaking exhibitions, education and research projects. The organisation aims to pioneer new forms of artistic and social interaction with individuals and communities.
During its history, FACT has commissioned and presented over 250 digital media works with artists including Pipilotti Rist, Bill Viola, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Vito Acconci and Isaac Julien.
FACT is a member of LARC (Liverpool Arts Regeneration Consortium), a partnership of eight of the leading cultural organisations in Liverpool set up to help ensure that the cultural sector plays a significant role in the regeneration of the Liverpool City Region. The organisation is based in the heart of the RopeWalks area of the city and is central to the regeneration of the area.
Since 1992, FACT's Engagement Team (formerly Education & Collaborations) has been delivering a range of programmes aimed at addressing issues such as community cohesion, social exclusion, technological exclusion, citizenship and civic participation.
With programmes dedicated to schools and colleges, communities, young people, families, interest groups, health, housing and regeneration, the Engagement Team use creativity and innovate projects to foster sustainable communities and to improve quality of living.
FACT’s Engagement programme endeavours to:
- Ensure the widest possible participation and engagement in FACT's core offer and building
- Continue to build world renowned and locally respected models of engagement
- Produce and present new works of artistic significance and social benefit
- Engage FACT's audience and stakeholders as producers empowering individuals and communities to engage
- Commission leading thinkers, artists and provocateurs to work with communities of interest
- Develop ethical commercial opportunities to sustain programmes and levels of engagement
FACT's work in the fields of artistic, social and scientific research
Over the years, FACT has launched partnerships with the University of Liverpool and Liverpool John Moores University to set up a series of collaborative PhD student-ships researching around higher education institutions, arts organisations and funders.
Films shown in the building are programmed by two organisations FACT and Picturehouse. Much of the FACT film programme relates to the exhibitions that are shown within the galleries and are chosen to enhance and extend the exhibition experience. FACT also programmes special screenings and one-off events so keep checking the website for updates.
Picturehouse at FACT is part of City Screen, the leading independent cinema operator and the fourth largest in the UK. The Picturehouse film programme includes mainstream blockbusters but independent, art-house and foreign-language films are also central to their profile. The cinema is programmed in response to the local Liverpool audience.
Increasingly, FACT's exhibitions incorporate research elements aimed at furthering the organisation's programme to extend beyond the arts.
FACT is a registered charity and the UK's national centre for the support and exhibition of new media arts in the UK. Thanks to your generosity and support, we have showcased the most prominent artists, extended our education and community programmes, and attracted millions of visitors since 1988.
FUNDERS
FACT is proud to receive the generous funding and support of: Liverpool City Council, Arts Council England, Arena Housing Group, Biffaward, British Council, Cultural Leadership Programme, Department of Culture Media and Sport, FACT Fifty, First Light Movies, Liverpool Primary Care Trust, Northwest Vision and Media, Paul Hamlyn, Pro Helvetia, The Foyle Foundation, The Mersey Partnership, Youth Opportunity Fund, UK Film Council, Wellcome Trust.
SPONSORSHIP
FACT benefits from sponsorship by national and international forward-thinking companies. We can offer you high profile branding through our cutting-edge exhibitions, festivals, and our FACT TV platform.
CORPORATE MEMBERSHIP
FACT is about to launch a Corporate Membership Scheme. Members will benefit from our first class hire venues, private view invitations for staff and guests, special events and occasions.
TRUSTS & FOUNDATIONS
FACT has managed an extensive education and community programme across Liverpool and the North West. We have received financial support from: The Foyle Foundation, The Wellcome Trust, Biffaward
FACT Programme is the artistic core of the organisation, commissioning and exhibiting projects by artists in film, video and new and emerging media forms and working with a wide variety of partner organisations.
FACT Programme delivers four seasonal exhibitions a year in the FACT gallery spaces, which are linked by a common theme. In 2009 this has been UNsustainable, in response to Liverpool City Council's Year of the Environment. In 2010 Innovation and Wellbeing will be examined under the theme of Progress.
The exhibitions we have commissioned or curated have a life after they have been shown in the building, touring nationally and internationally.
Liverpool Biennial is the largest contemporary arts festival in the UK. Every two years, the city becomes a giant canvas with international artworks displayed across galleries (like FACT) and (often unexpected) public spaces. Liverpool Biennial celebrates its 10th birthday this year with more artists than ever before. The theme for the festival is Touched which is all about art that moves us - in mind, body and soul.
At FACT, the Biennial 2010 exhibition has theme into the idea of "a mother's touch". The artists in the exhibition are interested in ideas of separation and loss. They explore the relationship between mother and child, when more and more of people live dispersed in other cities and overseas, do they learn new ways to be touched and touch?
I have chosen piece of art "Hanging On to Each Other", by Kaarina Kaikkonen from Finland.
Finnish artist Kaarina Kaikkonen creates site-specific installations in both interior and exterior spaces using items of used clothing or shoes collected from local donors. The garments carry personal memories of the owner, and with them, she makes large-scale architectural forms or sculptures. While the materials she uses represent a common experience of domestic life, they also often allude to the artists’ own parents - her deceased father’s jackets as well as her mother’s shoes.
In a new project, she collects second hand clothing from individuals of all ages around the Liverpool area, and installs them in FACT’s public Atrium. The work reflects on the maternal act of doing the laundry, which can be understood as a basic symbol of healing, care, and unconditional love.Kaarina said about her work: “It is shape of a ship; it is made of clothing donated by the Liverpool people. Ship form is a kind of a connected to the history of the city, my idea is: people could feel them self’s to be a part of my work, to see them self somehow find something new from them self, how it is to be a human beings, what is this life all about, something like that.
I have always a feeling that I am not a good person; I am not good human being, so I try to be better by making art. I had students working as my assistants, and all the people in the FACT and everywhere has been helping me and Liverpool people are so much creative and energetic! It is wonderful, wonderful city!”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_gUz9YdCBY&feature=channel
information about FACT are from oficial FACT website:
http://www.fact.co.uk
