Our theme for August was the Great British Summer Time and we were very impressed that none of the entries included any rain, given the somewhat soggy summer we've had! Our chosen winner this month is Niall Cullen with this dreamy summer shot - congratulations Niall! You can check out some of the other entries below. All winners will feature in our 2020 calendar and be in with the chance of winning our overall prize of a camera at the end of the year.

The theme for September is 'Liverpool's Heritage' which conveniently coincides with the 2019 Heritage Open Days Festival and The Old Library tours on 14th & 15th September (click here to book your free tickets). Why not make the most of this opportunity to get up close to some of the fabulous historic sites offering free entry across the city? Send your snaps to [email protected] by 25th September for the chance to be our next winner.

Throughout August, our Summer Holiday Playscheme children joined forces with our friends at Lister Drive Artists to create some inter-generational pieces of art. Lister Drive Artists are a talented bunch who meet every Monday at Stoneycroft Church, just next door to The Old Library, to paint and sketch in a range of different styles and mediums. You may have seen some of their work or even bought one of their prints at our Summer Fair!

Pat and Dot from Lister Drive Artists kindly offered to come and help run some group art sessions with the children at Lister Steps. During the first week, we thought about what community means and how it makes us feel, then everyone  painted their own tile to express their feelings. We also ran this activity at our Summer Fair so that we can put all these tiles together into a lovely mosaic on the hoardings around the library.

In the second week, we all worked together to create one big piece of art based on nature and the environment. For inspiration, Pat showed us a 5ft canvas that she spent 6 months working on and told us all about the different plants and animals that she had rec-created. We then used paints, stamps, pens and pencils to recreate our own piece of nature art - we only had one afternoon but it turned out to be fantastic! Take a look at the photos below to see the group in action.

Thank you to Lister Drive Artists for getting involved, we're looking forward to more arty adventures together in the future!

Despite the rain, our Summer Fair on Saturday 10th August was a great success! We had over 225 visitors to Lister Steps who got involved with face-painting, flower arranging, cupcake decorating, heritage & local history activities, raffle, tombola, our community art project, BBQ and the world's wettest dog show (everyone was a winner!) We also had stands from a range of local businesses and interest groups, including Liverpool Model Boat Club and Lister Drive Artists, so it was a great day community spirit & networking.

We raised almost £900 to support our work with local children & families so we want to say a huge thank you to everyone who helped out, including all our Lister Steps staff & volunteers, Liz the Community Champion from ASDA Breck Road who match-funded everything we raised on our tombola and the staff from Liverpool Adult Learning Services who ran some fabulous activities for us.

As we come to the end of the summer season, we're busy planning our autumn/winter events so watch this space for more ways you can get involved with Lister Steps & The Old Library project very soon!

Congratulations to Billy-Jo Todd who is only 13 but took this fantastic photography in Doric Park which we chose as the winning shot for this month's theme of 'A Place to Escape' - well done! We loved finding out more about people's secret spots to relax around our amazing city and had loads of brilliant entries - check some of them out below.

Our theme for August is the 'Great British Summertime' and with our summer fair coming up this Saturday, it's the perfect opportunity to get snapping! Send your entries to [email protected] by Tuesday 27th August (we'll be nice and give you the bank holiday weekend too) for the chance to be our next winner.