Art in a City

Originally published in 1967, John Willett’s classic Art in a City is an exceptionally comprehensive summation of the visual arts in Liverpool. Willett’s survey stands as a milestone in our understanding of urban arts movements—a unique project that had never been previously attempted and has had few imitators since.
            Art in a City documents the history of the visual arts in Liverpool and examines the cultural and institutional environments that nurtured them. Willett also conducted a survey of the people of Liverpool, asking them how they viewed art in both the public sphere and more enclosed spaces. His portrait of the city shows us a place with strong artistic traditions, but also bursting with exciting developments brought on by the city’s emergence in the 1960s as a center for music and poetry. This revised edition, published to coincide with Liverpool’s eight-hundredth anniversary, presents us with an even fuller picture of the vitality of the city’s artistic life.