Marie-Anne McQuay to Curate 2025 Liverpool Biennial

The organizers of the Liverpool Biennial, the UK’s largest contemporary art festival, have announced Marie-Anne McQuay as the curator of the event’s thirteenth iteration, to take place June 7–September 14, 2025. McQuay is director of projects at the Hexham, England–based Arts&Heritage, a national charitable organization that fosters collaborations between artists, communities, museums, and heritage sites. “We are thrilled to be welcoming Marie-Anne to the team for Liverpool Biennial 2025,” said Liverpool Biennial director Samantha Lackey in a statement.

“Her longstanding relationship with the city of Liverpool will bring insight and intention to every part of the next festival, re-thinking the city’s changing relationships to the rest of the world. I look forward to working with Marie-Anne, our partners and artists across the city over the coming months as we begin to bring the festival to life.”RelatedCREATIVE CAPITAL NAMES RECIPIENTS OF 2024 “WILD FUTURES” AWARDSELKE SOLOMON (1943–2024) Before arriving to Arts&Heritage in 2022, McQuay from 2015 served as head of program at the Bluecoat, Liverpool, organizing exhibitions and commissions by artists including Suki Chan, Adham Faramawy, Jade Montserrat, Grace Ndiritu, and Larissa Sansour. From 2007 to 2013, she was curator at Spike Island, Bristol, overseeing projects by Can Altay, Sonia Boyce, Cevdet Erek, Haroon Mirza, Elizabeth Price, and Laure Prouvost, among others. In 2019, she was a guest curator of the Welsh Pavilion at the Fifty-Eighth Venice Biennale.

“I feel honored to be curating the 13th edition of Liverpool Biennial with and for the city where I live,” said McQuay in a statement. “I am so looking forward to reflecting on civic life, researching international exchanges, and collaborating with the wider team on Liverpool Biennial 2025.” McQuay succeeds Khanyisile Mbongwa, who curated the twelfth edition of the Biennial, titled “uMoya: The Sacred Return of Lost Things” and examining Liverpool’s colonial history through the lens of indigenousness. No theme has yet been announced for the event’s 2025 iteration..