The Beat Goes On at World Museum Liverpool this summer. © NML

National Museums Liverpool (NML) is predicting a record breaking Liverpool 08 year with a major programme of exhibitions and events.

With the new year heralding the beginning of the city's reign as Capital of Culture, NML is offering a wide variety of things to see and do with a programme of exhibitions and events that covers music, art, industry and architecture.

“We will deliver a great cultural year that will change the perception of Liverpool forever,” promised National Museums Liverpool director David Fleming. “National Museums Liverpool will put on a fantastic series of exhibitions and events and break all our visitor records,”

To achieve this ambition the Walker Art Gallery has lined up a blockbuster exhibition, Art in the Age of Steam (18 April - 10 August 2008), which features artists such as Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro and Edward Hopper capturing the fear and excitement of early steam train travel.

The Railway (The Gare Saint-Lazare) by Edouard Manet (1873 – French). Board of Trustees, National Gallery of Art, Washington, gift of Horace Havemeyer in memory of his mother, Louisine W Havemeyer.

The Gallery will then unveil the work of internationally-renowned artist Ben Johnson who has been commissioned to produce a huge architectural portrait of Liverpool to commemorate the city becoming European Capital of Culture. The painting will be finished at the gallery before joining an exhibition of Ben’s cityscapes in The Liverpool Cityscape 2008 and the World Panorama Series (24 May – 2 Nov 2008).

Later in the year the Walker Art Gallery will also present the 25th John Moores Contemporary Painting Prize (20 September 2008 - 4 Jan 2009) as part of the Liverpool Biennial. This year’s jury includes artists Jake and Dinos Chapman.

At the Lady Lever Art Gallery a rare opportunity to view works too delicate for permanent display opens in the summer with Masterpiece Watercolours and Drawings (28 June to 9 Nov 2008). The exhibition features around 35 drawings and watercolours by artists such as Turner, Rossetti, Cox, de Wint and Burne-Jones.

World Museum Liverpool’s major exhibition for 2008 is The Beat Goes On (July 12 2008 – Nov 1 2009), inspired by Liverpool’s significant contribution to popular music over the last 60 years. The first exhibition of its kind, it draws together material from record companies, institutions and private collectors.

Work gets underway on the new Museum of Liverpool during Liverpool 08 - due to be completed in 2010. © NML

2008 also sees two new permanent galleries opening in the city with SEIZED: Revenue and Customs Uncovered at Merseyside Maritime Museum in the spring and a new Egypt Gallery at World Museum Liverpool in autumn 2008.

Mr Fleming added that work will continue on the new Museum of Liverpool, which he described as: “the biggest new national museum in this country for 100 years, and the great physical legacy of the year for the people of Liverpool.”

Due to open in 2010, the museum will be one of the world’s leading city history museums reflecting Liverpool’s global significance through its unique geography, history and culture. It will draw on NML's vast collections and give access to over 10,000 objects, many of which have never been on public display.