Liscard Hall to be replaced by garden and sculpture

Oct 31 2012 By Liam Murphy

A GARDEN and sculpture designed by an international artist will take the place of an historic Wirral building destroyed following a blaze.

Liscard Hall was demolished after the fire in 2008 and insurance money plus a grant from the Arts Council is being used to fund the scheme in Central Park, Wallasey.

The Hall was famous as Wallasey School of Art and according to the German- born artist Brigitte Jurack her sculpture captures its "playful spirit", showing two young people piggy-backing".

The work is to be joined by a third seated figure in early 2013.

The area around the sculpture is being redeveloped by Wirral Council with plans for a performance space with new seating, staging and flooring areas for young people.

Brigitte said she had enjoyed working with the young people of Wallasey to develop the work. She said: "I have put some of their ideas for new seating and ramps on the website and perhaps we could stage an annual piggy back race to raise some money for some of these wonderful proposals."

She said her sculpture is called ‘Just wait for me’ "as the young people are waiting for friends or the next stage of their life". Laurie Peake, public realm curator for the Liverpool Biennial: "No other park would have something as special as this and the self- esteem of the young people must have increased enormously by being involved in a project like this."

The official unveiling is on Saturday, November 17 from noon-1.30pm.