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The Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts (LIPA) is a school in Liverpool offering training in Acting, Dance, Music, Sound Technology, Arts Management, Technical Theatre, and Theatre Design.
It offers courses at three levels: diplomas (pre-degree), degrees, and post-graduate diplomas.
It also runs a thriving school for children and teenagers from ages 4 to 19 at weekends.
History
How LIPA came to be
LIPA was started by Sir Paul McCartney and Mark Featherstone-Witty.
It was a meeting of two ideas - Paul McCartney had discovered that his old school building was derilict, and wanted to be able to save it.
Mark Featherstone-Witty had set up the Brit School in London, and wanted to try his ideas on a bigger scale.
Mark had been fired up by Alan Parkers 1980 film Fame, about the New York High School for the Performing Arts. The film inspired him to think about what training would have best prepared him and others for a lasting career in the arts and entertainment economy. The film gave him the idea that performing artists needed to train in all three performing arts (acting, dance and music) at the same time.
Then he read a book about musicians who had failed to understand they were entering a business, despite the phrase show business. He also took on board the idea that performers formed the tip of an arts and entertainment employment iceberg. Performers were a fraction of the employment. From these basic concepts, he created a blueprint for a new type of training and then spent three years quizzing the industry and refining his philosophy. By 1985 he had nearly 50 artists, directors, choreographers and entrepreneurs backing him.
Record producer Sir George Martin knew Mark was looking for somewhere to develop a school, and Paul was looking for something that could save the building, and so introduced them.
The struggle to create the facility and the school took seven years and is described in more detail on LIPA's website, and in a book by Mark Featherstone-Witty. It wasnt easy, but then, as Paul reminds Mark from time to time, if it was easy, everyone would be doing it. It took £20m for the facility, the curriculum and the support to maintain and develop all three.
1996 - today
LIPA was opened by The Queen in January 1996, and since then it's range of courses has expanded with each new academic year.
From the start, the desire and so the challenge was to achieve excellence with access. The final solution was to offer higher education courses to achieve excellence and a range of open and flexible learning courses to achieve access. To this day, both embody the heart of the Institute.
Current Courses
Diploma
Diplomas are validated by LIPA, and are offered mainly as a course which will
allow entry into higher education, either in LIPA or elsewhere.
- LIPA Diploma in Performing Arts (Acting)
- LIPA Diploma in Performing Arts (Dance)
- LIPA Diploma in Performing Arts (Song)
- LIPA Diploma in Popular Music and Sound Technology
Degree programmes are all validated by Liverpool John Moores University
- BA (Hons) Performing Arts (Acting)
- BA (Hons) Arts, Music and Entertainment Management
- BA (Hons) Performing Arts (Dance)
- BA (Hons) Music
- BA (Hons) Performing Arts (Music)
- BA (Hons) Sound Technology
- BA (Hons) Theatre and Performance Design
- BA (Hons) Theatre and Performance Technology
Post Graduate
See also
Liverpool Institute for Boys
External Links
'History section' adapted from the LIPA 'History Page' (http://www.lipa.ac.uk/standard/aboutlipa/pottedhistory.asp)
LIPA website (http://www.lipa.ac.uk)
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