You’re invited to Connect: Arts, Business & Culture Social. As easy as ABC.
- Where business meets culture. Come for the drinks, stay for the connections.
- When: Tues 22 Sept 2026, 5:15pm-6:30pm
- RSVP: Deadline Wednesday 16th Sept
- Where: The Bluecoat, School Lane, Liverpool city centre
- Cost: Free, by invitation
- What’s on: Drinks, live music and good company
This is an informal event hosted by The Culture Network LCR, the membership network for cultural organisations across the Liverpool City Region. The Arts, Business & Culture Social, or ABC Social for short, brings the region’s business leaders and cultural figures together for a couple of hours of real conversation in one room.
This is not a conference. There is no agenda, no PowerPoint, and no panel of experts talking at you from a stage.
What it is, is a chance to make introductions that do not usually happen. The cultural sector and the business community in this region rarely end up in the same room without something to sell or sign. We’re making one, and seeing what comes of it.
It’s a room full of interesting people, leaders from the arts, creative industries, and the business community, with a drink in hand and nowhere else to be. The connections that come out of events like this tend to be the ones that last. Come ready to be surprised by who you meet and what you discover.
What you can expect
- Drinks and live music. No warm white wine in plastic cups. Live music to set the tone, the kind of atmosphere that makes conversation feel easy.
- The right room. Many of the region’s leading cultural figures, in one place at one time.
- New ways of working. Collaborations that make good business sense, on both sides.
Use this RSVP link to let us know you’re coming by Friday 18th Sept.
About the venue
The Bluecoat sits at the heart of Liverpool city centre on School Lane, the oldest building in the city centre (built 1716, Grade 1 listed) and the UK’s first arts centre. Today it’s home to more than 30 artists, designers, and small arts organisations, with a year round programme of exhibitions, music, dance, literature, and live art. A fitting room for the arts, creative industries, and business community to share an evening of real conversation.
Why it matters
Beyond a great evening, the relationships here have the potential to do real work. Arts and culture partnerships sit inside the same framework your business is already reporting against, from ESG and Social Value to Responsible Business Conduct, and the relationships that start in rooms like this one have a way of feeding back into both sides over time.
Beyond the frameworks, cultural organisations and the businesses around them are working on overlapping problems: climate, talent, community, place, audience, and story. Putting people in the same room is how the most useful answers start!
Use this RSVP link to let us know you’re coming by Friday 18th Sept. This is a social you don’t want to miss!
If you have any questions, please get in touch with dan@culturenetwork.co.u