History

In 2009, huge changes came into play at Mercy. It began with director Doug Kerr leaving Liverpool in order to set up a satellite office in London's Hoxton Sqaure, and by May we had been awarded a development grant from the Arts Council. This led to director Nathan Jones becoming more fully involved with the day-to-day business and taking on the mantle of Creative Director and Programmer.

Thanks to the Arts Council funding, we put into place an 18-month program of arts & literature projects - some live, some digital and some in print. Our first project was our first book: a self-published collection of exclusive poetry and illustration collaborations from our favourite collaborators. 'This Is A Little Book' was launched when we performed from it live, with Wave Machines, at Latitude Festival. Jarvis Cocker took a copy.

Around the same time, we took on workshop commissions for the first time: a series of lessons in zine-making with the young members of FACT's fantastic Freehand programme. Ensuing workshops with Tate and Liverpool Museums followed.

The Agency very quickly made friends in the Capital, and by summer we were regularly producing stuff for the arts and performance venue Kings Place, the famous Young Vic theatre and the publishing house Penned In The Margins (all of whom we retain very close working relationships with). Most eye-catchingly, the PR firm Borkowski selected us to art direct the relaunch of the Virgin1 television channel.

In the Autumn, Liverpool's Bluecoat gallery commissioned us to design two huge exhibitions - Andre Guedes' 'The Losts', and Janek Schaefer's first retrospective 'Sound Art'. For the former, we also co-authored the exhibition catalogue.

The year finished in style, with our London debut of the Wave If You're Really There event in Shoreditch Church. Exceeding all expectations and past form, it was our biggest- and fastest-selling live show to date, with over 400 people crammed into the spectacularly-designed space to witness what wa sby now a highly polished with exceedingly high production standards (and a team of over 60 staff).