The Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts

The Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts opened in 1996 to forge a new approach to performing arts training. It was co-founded by our Lead Patron Sir Paul McCartney and Mark Featherstone-Witty RNOM OBE (LIPA's Principal), and is housed in his old school, which underwent a multi-million-pound renovation to transform it into a state-of-the-art performing arts higher education institution.<br><br>Today LIPA is an acknowledged part of the UK's higher education provision for the performing arts, recognised and ranked alongside institutions a lot older. LIPA provides learning for the main skills needed for putting on a show (performers and those who make performance possible), uniquely blending specialist and generic skills.<br><br>LIPA offers degree courses in Acting, Applied Theatre and Community Drama, Dance, Management of Music, Entertainment, Theatre & Events, Music, Sound Technology, Theatre and Performance Design and Theatre and Performance Technology. We also run full-time one-year Foundation Certificates in Commercial Dance and Popular Music and Music Technology.<br><br>We train students for a future of sustained work. Most recent figures have shown that over the most recent four year period, 92% of LIPA's graduates are in work three years after leaving, while 84% work in the performing arts. To achieve this, our curriculum is constantly being revised.