Roll Over, Beethoven

When Paul McCartney founded the Liverpool Institute for the Performing Arts, he created a place where aspiring stars can learn 21st-century survival skills

  • By Sue Arnold
  • Smithsonian magazine, January 1998, Subscribe
 

"Which comes first," someone asked Ira Gershwin, "the words or the music?" "The contract," said Gershwin. Students at the Liverpool Institute for the Performing Arts (LIPA) have heard that many times. Perhaps, writes Sue Arnold, the recollection of his own youthful naivete influenced Paul McCartney's decision to open LIPA. "John [Lennon] and I didn't know you could own songs," the former Beatle has said. "The publishers saw us coming." What is certain is that McCartney's interest in the plight of his crumbling alma mater (LIPA is housed in his former grammar school) coincided with the ambition of cofounder Mark Featherstone-Witty to establish a school dedicated to the performing arts.

Featherstone-Witty, inspired by the 1980 film Fame, visited New York's School of Performing Arts and came away determined to open his own version, this time a university offering degrees in several aspects of the industry. Students choose one of six majors: acting, dance, music, community arts, enterprise management or performance design. They also take a core curriculum wherein actors learn the rudiments of set design, musicians learn the mysteries of marketing and everyone learns to read the fine print in a contract.

McCartney, who played a key role from the beginning, putting up more than a million pounds himself, sometimes drops in on the students. "I don't kid myself that I'm a teacher, but I can pass on a few tricks of the trade," he says. Other visiting patrons include Mark Knopfler of the rock group Dire Straits.

But what if the students don't get that all-important break to catapult them to the heights of McCartney or Knopfler? That's where LIPA's all-around training comes in. They learn there are many career options open to them in the fast-changing, highly competitive industry of showbiz.


"Which comes first," someone asked Ira Gershwin, "the words or the music?" "The contract," said Gershwin. Students at the Liverpool Institute for the Performing Arts (LIPA) have heard that many times. Perhaps, writes Sue Arnold, the recollection of his own youthful naivete influenced Paul McCartney's decision to open LIPA. "John [Lennon] and I didn't know you could own songs," the former Beatle has said. "The publishers saw us coming." What is certain is that McCartney's interest in the plight of his crumbling alma mater (LIPA is housed in his former grammar school) coincided with the ambition of cofounder Mark Featherstone-Witty to establish a school dedicated to the performing arts.

Featherstone-Witty, inspired by the 1980 film Fame, visited New York's School of Performing Arts and came away determined to open his own version, this time a university offering degrees in several aspects of the industry. Students choose one of six majors: acting, dance, music, community arts, enterprise management or performance design. They also take a core curriculum wherein actors learn the rudiments of set design, musicians learn the mysteries of marketing and everyone learns to read the fine print in a contract.

McCartney, who played a key role from the beginning, putting up more than a million pounds himself, sometimes drops in on the students. "I don't kid myself that I'm a teacher, but I can pass on a few tricks of the trade," he says. Other visiting patrons include Mark Knopfler of the rock group Dire Straits.

But what if the students don't get that all-important break to catapult them to the heights of McCartney or Knopfler? That's where LIPA's all-around training comes in. They learn there are many career options open to them in the fast-changing, highly competitive industry of showbiz.

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Comments (1)

I've been aware of this project ever since McCartney did the fund raiser for the royal family,which included his fellow Liverpudlian Elvis Costello. I think it is a great endeavor and I hope it continues and thrives.

Posted by Dana Bailey on March 11,2010 | 04:11 PM



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