Forget football, the Beatles and why the country is going to the dogs: modern art is about to be the new talking point in Liverpool taxis.

Cabbies in the city will soon be treating passengers to their opinions on pop art, abstract expressionism and the finer points of neo-conceptualism as they ferry them around next year’s European Capital of Culture.

Tate Liverpool is offering taxi drivers a crash course in art appreciation to develop their potential as “cultural ambassadors”.

The gallery is building on links already established between the organisers of the 2008 cultural festivities and cabbies, who are the first Liverpudlians that many international visitors encounter.

The first group of taxi drivers will attend a workshop at Tate Liverpool next month, to explore how the gallery can help them to get more out of the art on show there. Free tickets, private group tours and an introduction to the history of contemporary art are on offer.

Jemima Pyne, the communications and publishing manager for Tate Liverpool, said: “It’s a long-term project to work with taxi drivers so that they can talk to their passengers about what we are doing here. We are starting with an event on June 11 between 10 and 12 o’clock, because that’s when it’s quietest in the world of taxis.

“At the moment we’ve got an exhibition called Centre of the Creative Universe: Liverpool and the Avant-Garde, all about art made in Liverpool over the last 60 years. We thought that would be a great introduction for the taxi drivers and we hope to be able to bring them back for our big Peter Blake retrospective at the end of June.”

She added: “We will be talking to them about how we can best work with them in the future. We would be delighted to lay on a whole course for them if they can find the time.”

Tate Liverpool opened in 1988 and is housed in a converted warehouse in the Albert Dock. It attracts more than half a million visitors a year and was a cornerstone of the city’s successful bid to become European Capital of Culture.

Liverpool Culture Company, which was set up by the city council to lead the bid, has since created Liverpool Welcome to help to improve the image that the city presents to visitors.

Neil Peterson, head of the programme, said that taxi drivers, bar staff, shop assistants,nightclub bouncers and hotel receptionists were all crucial to the success of the festivities. “Liverpudlians are welcoming anyway, but we are trying to make that welcome more professional and consistent.

“All new taxi drivers are now required to do our 08 Welcome workshops, which covers customer service, the background to the Capital of Culture bid and details about the programme and the city’s regeneration.

“We want you to be able to get into a taxi when the Blake exhibition or the Turner Prize is on at Tate Liverpool and have your cabbie chat knowledgeably about the shows. It’s a big challenge but we think it’s going to pay real dividends.”

As a curtain-raiser for 2008, the Turner Prize, Britain’s leading contemporary art award, will be handed out at Tate Liverpool in October, the first time it has moved outside London.

Events announced for 2008 include the return of Sir Simon Rattle to his native city to conduct the Berlin Philharmonic, a Gustav Klimt exhibition and a footballers’ wives fashion show.

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