Alice In Wonderland at Tate, LIverpool

 Alice in Wonderland is one of my all time favourite books, and the main reason for this, I believe, is the beautiful illustrations, and imagery that are connected with the story.

 http://www.tate.org.uk/liverpool/


Tickets are £8, or £7 for concessions, and be warned, some parts of the exhibition are not family friendly.  These are marked as such, and many children visiting on the day seemed to be enjoying the activites and challenges set out for them in their free sketch books that they had collected from reception.  The money helps to raise funds for the NHS mental health programme, so it's a splurge which is relativley guilt free.

I thoroughly enjoyed exploring the inspirational displays, especially the original artwork, and different versions of the book that were released over the years.  The main exhibition space has a small room which had possibly the most beautiful articles in the whole exhibition.  Sadly, this room seemed poorly lit, with no natural light to illuminate the artwork.  The bright lights on the celing were positioned in a manner that actually cast shadows onto the pieces, making them difficult to see, which was slightly dissappointing.

It was amazing to learn the inspirations of the stories and the artwork involved in Alice in Wonderland, and the other artwork being produced at the same time, and the exhibition proved to deliver a lovely day out.  The experience was soured somewhat by the "actresses" playing Alice and the Red Queen in front of the art gallery.  Swarms of children (mostly in adorable fancy dress costumes too) were excited to speak to the real life characters from their favourite fairy tale - and were left disheartned by the rude and unproffessional manner of these girls.  I overheard two of the actresses tring to avoid some children who wanted to speak to them, saying to each other; "Just don't look at them, keep walking."  When the children eventually caught up, they were told; "There's another Alice over there, go and see her." As a childcare proffessional myself, this upset me a little, as I can imagine the dissappointment that these children probably felt.  I feel that Tate should have considered who they chose for this job a little mare carefully.  I understand that they are probably volounteers, and I'm sure that most of the girls are very pleasant and enthusiastic, but upon witnessing this, I can't help but think what a negative influence that it could have had on a young child's day out.