SHE helped lead the programme for Hull UK City of Culture 2017.

Now Martina Murphy reckons Warrington is on a ‘tipping point’ to becoming a major destination for the arts – despite it failing to make the shortlist for City of Culture 2021.

The 39-year-old is Culture Warrington’s new cultural manager and thinks the bid is just the start of the town’s journey.

Martina said: “I think when you go for a UK City of Culture bid you galvanise people.

“It’s a great time to come to Warrington when everyone’s up for putting culture in all the agendas. It feels like a tipping point. Things are starting to come together.”

Martina’s impressive career saw her previously working for the British Council, which as well as doing the arts programme for Hull 2017, saw her do 22 projects in 11 countries over two and a half years.

But Martina, who grew up in Moorside in Oldham, said she’s glad to be back in the north.

She added: “Culture Warrington is like a really big family. Everyone’s been really welcoming

“With the British Council it was 10,000 people in 122 countries so you didn’t really know who anyone was whereas this feels a lot closer. You can get things done a lot quicker and it’s good to work with northerners again. Everyone’s a bit more honest and up for it.”

In comparison to Martina being in a team of 10,000 people at the British Council, Culture Warrington has around 80 staff.

“I think I’ve met everyone now,” Martina added.

“I’ve worked on a couple of events last week so now I’ve got a sense of what it is like at night time because in places like this you always have a team of people who do from 10am to 6pm and then a team who come at night.”

Martina has also been made creative director of Warrington Contemporary Arts Festival (CAF) which she says is her favourite part of the job.

Her aim is to make the event more accessible.

Martina said: “Next year we’ll be talking to a few big commissioned artists to put on big public events.

“We want to make the festival less about small exhibitions or small performances and take it out to the people.

“We’re also looking at doing a ‘next generation’ Contemporary Arts Festival so it would basically be programmed by the kids of Warrington for the kids of Warrington.

“I want to open it up. I’ve never liked the idea of art just being for like three per cent of the population

“You just put something on a wall and then nobody ever comes to it. I had so many opportunities when I was a kid to perform and learn things that I’d never ordinarily be able to do so that’s I want next generation CAF to look like.”

Martina’s philosophy on the arts started to develop when she was just eight.

Her dad Martin was a rugby player, her mum Anne was a hairdresser and the family rarely went to the theatre.

But Martina had a natural talent singing which was spotted in primary school.

She added: “When I was in the second to last year of primary school I had a teacher called Mr Troy who was completely obsessed with music.

“He started to do a school play and we all had to audition for it. I used to sing in the playground but I’d never really sang on a stage and didn’t think I could sing. So I auditioned for that and he picked me out and that was the moment when I thought: ‘I can be a part of this world’.

“I ended up joining an all-girl choir and we performed at the Royal Albert Hall and the Royal Festival Hall.

“So before the age of 15 I’d already performed on these big stages.

“That’s probably why I’m so passionate about getting young people into arts because I know without that sort of opportunity as a kid I wouldn’t be where I am now.”

Martina started out professionally as an actress and has a physical theatre company called Two Toned.

She still commissions and produces other people’s work but more recently she has been involved behind the scenes.

Martina helped bring about Liverpool Football Club’s sponsorship of The Reds Gallery which was the first time the club had been involved with the arts.

And she lead the partnerships team during the reopening of the award-winning Everyman Theatre in Liverpool.

Martina said: “My dad was a rugby player, my mum was a hairdresser so they’d maybe go to the pantomime but weren’t theatre going people.

“So how I got it into my head that I wanted to get into the arts I’m not quite sure.

“Now I drag them to shows all the time. I took my nan to Home in Manchester to see Hot Brown Honey which is a cabaret from a company in Australia. She’s 75 and she loved it. The arts are for everyone.”

So in the spirit of that, Martina is currently looking at ways to take some of Warrington’s exhibitions out of formal galleries – which some people see as a barrier.

For example, Gillian Hobson’s digital art project for CAF called Your History of the Future was installed at Golden Square.

The shape of CAF is also evolving.

Martina is looking at ways to use the festival to support artists throughout the year but with event itself possibly going back to having a start and end date so it has a focal point. Currently CAF is a year-round event.

Martina added: “You have to test out different formulas but sometimes if people think something is on all the time there is less of an impetus to go.

“I want to use the Cultural Quarter more. I love Palmyra Square so I want to play with this space a bit more. Taking it out to the shopping centre or to the park definitely makes it more accessible for everyone.”

Martina also thinks Warringtonians should not be disheartened after missing out on City of Culture 2021.

She said: “I don’t think it’s disappointing for Warrington. It’s the first step on a journey.

“I don’t think it’s a matter of doing better. It’s building on what’s already here. There’s always a thing about reinventing the wheel. But actually there’s quite a lot of cultural assets and people doing some really interesting stuff in Warrington.

“It’s about making it more visible and more joined up. That’s the shift that happens when you look at a town as a ‘festival town’ rather than just different venues in a space.

“That’s what the UK Cities of Culture do. It’s having that mentality. We have cultural boards now in Warrington that didn’t exist a year ago.

“If you look at Hull, it didn’t succeed the first time, and if you look at Liverpool post-European Capital of Culture, in the 10 years since it did that you wouldn’t recognise the place.”