To officially launch the website, I present to you a magnificent collection, and encourage you to create…

The Walker Art Gallery holds one of the finest collections in the UK, spanning paintings, sculpture and decorative art from the 1300s to the present day.

The collection includes artworks from the European Renaissance, and masterpieces by Rubens, Rembrandt, Turner and Stubbs. During your visit you’ll explore Impressionist paintings from Monet and Degas, and my personal favourite the Pre-Raphaelite artworks by Rossetti and Millais. There are also new exhibitions regularly, and contemporary works by Hockney, Wylie and the winners of the John Moores Painting Prize.

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This gallery wasn’t far from my home during my high school years. From my leafy suburb, I’d take frequent trips across the Mersey river and into Liverpool. As the bus emerged from the tunnel, I was met by the neo-classical columns of the Walker Art Gallery just opposite, with a stoic presence like grand gatekeepers to the city.

As you stand in front of an artwork, your eyes dart across the vibrant intricacy of a landscape. A few steps forward, and you’re held in a pensive silence, captured by the passionate expression of a face staring back at you from its golden frame. In these moments, the artworks on the walls of this gallery- and the human stories they immortalise- are the answer to why we create, and why we travel so far to see the creation of others.

As an introduction I’ve picked out one of my favourite pieces in the entire collection, Dante’s Dream. Rossetti held a lifelong fascination of his namesake: the Italian poet Dante Alighieri.

Dante is considered to be the ‘father of the Italian language’, as he was born and raised in Florence, and wrote his works in a dialect of the Italian language (Florentine vernacular), as opposed to writing in Latin, which was the standardized norm for well-educated citizens, both in literature and Mass. He pioneered an accessibility of the Arts to a wider audience, not only the elite. I believe there is a poetic significance in displaying an artwork inspired by such a man, within a gallery open to the public. One of the beauties of the UK is free entry to the majority of museums and galleries- it emphasizes how culture is valued by our government, the value of the Arts to the general population, and of course to international visitors.

Sometimes, creativity suffers when you are faced with adversity. I don’t say this just to artists, but to everyone: With our very human flaw of attempting to please everyone, we forget what it is we are true to.

In those moments of doubt, I think back to that simple reason why anyone creates.

With a rising tide deep in my chest- a feeling of determination- I realise that we all contribute something in our time on this earth, and this is what I want to contribute, for you.

Laura Rozamunda

If ever you doubt your purpose and your value, remind yourself that you are here to contribute- and most importantly to enjoy!

These early experiences formed a passion for the arts, the passion that inspires me to write this for you.

I hope this is the start to a very real writer-reader connection, and I look forward to every new adventure with you all.