“We’ve shown contemporary art here for 100 years,” says Bryan Biggs, the artistic director of the Bluecoat in Liverpool.
Biggs started at the arts centre as an administrative assistant back in 1976. “I was here about a year and a half before I became the gallery director,” he says. “I had no training in curating, in fact the word ‘curator’ wasn’t even used, you just organised exhibitions of artists’ work you liked.”
Previously a school, the Bluecoat is the oldest building in Liverpool’s city centre, and it celebrates its tercentenary this year with a number of exhibitions and events.
“It was also the first arts centre in Britain, having opened in 1927 when a group of artists raised enough money to buy the building,” Biggs says. “They wrote a constitution to support the arts in the building, so its purpose was enshrined at that point.”
The Bluecoat runs a lively programme of contemporary arts, including visual art, music, dance, live art and literature. As artistic director, Biggs oversees all these. He doesn’t usually curate exhibitions nowadays, but enjoyed his recent work on the temporary exhibition Public View (which finished on 23 April).
“It was a massive undertaking, because it was for our 300th birthday – there were 106 artists involved,” he says. He will curate another show this year, In the Peaceful Dome, which begins in October. The show takes its title from a poem by William Roscoe, who was a banker, poet, reformer, art historian and abolitionist in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
“Roscoe fought against the slave trade, which, in Liverpool, went against the grain, because the city was a slaving port. That poem is actually about the Bluecoat, namely the cupola on top of the building.”
The contents of the exhibition will largely reflect on 300 years of the building, and will feature the key loan of Jacob Epstein’s sculpture Genesis, which was shown at the Bluecoat in 1931 the year after it was made.
“It was the most controversial sculpture in Britain. A naked pregnant woman with a face like an African mask – it was considered very vulgar. It was vilified, people hated it.”
Diverse demographic
The Bluecoat has had a history of breaking down perceived boundaries, whether through showing controversial art, or working to lead the sector in diversification.
Biggs says that one of his favourite projects was working with Keith Piper in 1992 on the Trophies of Empire, which looked at the 500th anniversary of Christopher Columbus’s discovery of the Americas.
“A lot of black artists were being exhibited in these ‘black art’ group shows, and it was sort of ghettoising their work. The show that we put on with Keith broke the mould by saying this is everyone’s history. Nobody knew whether the artists on show were white or black. It shouldn’t matter – it’s a shared history. It was actually quite a controversial exhibition, because it challenged some of those norms.”
He says that the Bluecoat has done a lot of work with black British artists from the 1980s onwards, hosting debates around multiculturalism, as well as putting on exhibitions.
“We have the most diverse demographic of all the art institutions here, and can prove it via an audience analysis engine called Audience Finder that we have access to from the group we’re in called the Liverpool Arts Regeneration Consortium, which is a consortium of the eight largest arts organisations in the city.”
The good deeds don’t end there though. “We run an after-school club, funded by the Paul Hamlyn Foundation, called Out of the Blue,” says Biggs. The programme works with five neighbourhoods and five schools across the city.
“We’d been hearing stories about very young kids bullying and shouting at disabled people, and we thought, that’s not on, so we were asked to set up a programme that helps change people’s perceptions – both the younger people towards the disabled, and the perceptions of the disabled people towards the kids.”
The Bluecoat has a social agenda as well as an artistic one, says Biggs. Apart from the gallery and performance spaces on site, the venue also contains artists studios, three printmaking studios and an education room.
Biggs has even instigated a residency programme, which currently includes an on-site philosopher and a sociologist who both run their own events.
This summer’s main exhibition is one made for children – Abacus, from 21 July until 1 October, will include artists that make work for, about and with children.
Biggs says that much of the venue’s socially important work happens in these rooms, in a behind-the-scenes kind of way. “It’s really crucial work that’s presently invisible, and we want to try and make it more visible, so the public can see what’s going on and can join in with more stuff.”
Future plans
In the coming years, the organisation wants to fundraise to tune its existing spaces to full capacity and impact.
“We’re heading towards a new capital project to spruce the place up,” says Biggs. “Upstairs will become a flexible space for events, conferences and weddings. At the moment we only have capacity for 110 seated, or 200 standing, and that’s not enough for when you want to put on really exciting stuff. We want to increase our performing arts activities, and they have the bonus of being good income generators.”
He says the architectural changes that need to be made are subtle, but would open the building up a lot more. “Our target is 2020. We want visitors to get an immediate sense of heritage and this building’s incredible history as soon as they walk in.”
Funding is always a challenge, Biggs says. As Museums Journal was going to press, Arts Council England was about to announce which organisations have secured National Portfolio Organisation funding, for which the Bluecoat has applied.
“Cuts, and shrinking of the public purse, are a big worry for us,” says Biggs. “We have to generate more and more income and it all adds pressure because we have a very small team, and we work flat out.”
The Bluecoat reopened after a major redevelopment in 2008 – the year Liverpool was the European Capital of Culture – with a new cafe and wing added, the garden opened up, and the staff restructured. Biggs survived staff cuts, and was promoted to artistic director (from his role as arts centre director) in 2006, but says it was hard to lose other staff members.
“We lost our literature and music programmers, so we were left with a very reduced team to deliver a multi- art form programme, which was really, really difficult.”
Biggs has seen the Bluecoat through thick and thin. He says it was a very different place when he first started.
“It was all derelict land and car parks and falling down buildings. The city was right at
the height of its decline, so it felt very impoverished, but the arts have always been very strong.”
But having to face tough times over the years has led to the Bluecoat developing many healthy partnerships across the city to bolster its programme. From setting up the Liverpool Arab Arts Festival, the Deaf and Disability Arts Festival, and the Liverpool Biennial, to working with the four universities across the city, the organisation has many a string to its bow.
One of its current partners is the record office at Liverpool Central Library. With the Heritage Lottery Fund money the Bluecoat was awarded for its 300th birthday programme, My Bluecoat, Biggs hired two members of staff to run the celebrations.
“As part of that, we’ve done a lot of detective work, and we’ve actually found out who the architects of the building are.”
Biggs is brimming with knowledge about Liverpool and the Bluecoat, but he was born in London. So what’s kept him in the city?
“Liverpool is a small city and it has a great cultural life. It’s easy to get involved – you feel part of something rather than anonymous in a bigger city like London. The Bluecoat is also very dynamic – it’s a cultural crossroads. It doesn’t feel at all that it’s ever got stuck in its ways,” says Biggs. “It’s a difficult place to leave if you’re having a good time.”
The Grade I listed Bluecoat building is the oldest building in Liverpool city centre. It celebrates its 300th birthday this year.
The building previously housed a school, before opening as an arts centre in 1927. It now runs a multi-arts programme of events and exhibitions.
The venue underwent a £14m capital development that was completed in 2008.
It is funded by Arts Council England and Liverpool City Council. Self-generated revenue is about £300,000 a year, with annual visitor figures about 650,000.
About 30 staff run the centre, with the help of 70 volunteers. Another 20 run the catering arm of the Bluecoat.
Bryan Biggs studied fine art at Liverpool Polytechnic, and did an MA in social enterprise at Liverpool John Moores University in 2006.
After university, he started as an administrative assistant at the Bluecoat in Liverpool in 1976, and was promoted to gallery director the next year.
In 1994 he became the Bluecoat’s arts centre director, overseeing the venue’s programme
of contemporary visual, performing and live art, participation projects and a £14m capital development, which opened in 2008.
Biggs became the artistic director of the Bluecoat in 2006, and reports to the chief executive. He is leading the building’s 300th birthday celebrations this year.
He was awarded an MBE in 1996 in recognition of his contribution to the arts in Merseyside
Biggs started at the arts centre as an administrative assistant back in 1976. “I was here about a year and a half before I became the gallery director,” he says. “I had no training in curating, in fact the word ‘curator’ wasn’t even used, you just organised exhibitions of artists’ work you liked.”
Previously a school, the Bluecoat is the oldest building in Liverpool’s city centre, and it celebrates its tercentenary this year with a number of exhibitions and events.
“It was also the first arts centre in Britain, having opened in 1927 when a group of artists raised enough money to buy the building,” Biggs says. “They wrote a constitution to support the arts in the building, so its purpose was enshrined at that point.”
The Bluecoat runs a lively programme of contemporary arts, including visual art, music, dance, live art and literature. As artistic director, Biggs oversees all these. He doesn’t usually curate exhibitions nowadays, but enjoyed his recent work on the temporary exhibition Public View (which finished on 23 April).
“It was a massive undertaking, because it was for our 300th birthday – there were 106 artists involved,” he says. He will curate another show this year, In the Peaceful Dome, which begins in October. The show takes its title from a poem by William Roscoe, who was a banker, poet, reformer, art historian and abolitionist in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
“Roscoe fought against the slave trade, which, in Liverpool, went against the grain, because the city was a slaving port. That poem is actually about the Bluecoat, namely the cupola on top of the building.”
The contents of the exhibition will largely reflect on 300 years of the building, and will feature the key loan of Jacob Epstein’s sculpture Genesis, which was shown at the Bluecoat in 1931 the year after it was made.
“It was the most controversial sculpture in Britain. A naked pregnant woman with a face like an African mask – it was considered very vulgar. It was vilified, people hated it.”
Diverse demographic
The Bluecoat has had a history of breaking down perceived boundaries, whether through showing controversial art, or working to lead the sector in diversification.
Biggs says that one of his favourite projects was working with Keith Piper in 1992 on the Trophies of Empire, which looked at the 500th anniversary of Christopher Columbus’s discovery of the Americas.
“A lot of black artists were being exhibited in these ‘black art’ group shows, and it was sort of ghettoising their work. The show that we put on with Keith broke the mould by saying this is everyone’s history. Nobody knew whether the artists on show were white or black. It shouldn’t matter – it’s a shared history. It was actually quite a controversial exhibition, because it challenged some of those norms.”
He says that the Bluecoat has done a lot of work with black British artists from the 1980s onwards, hosting debates around multiculturalism, as well as putting on exhibitions.
“We have the most diverse demographic of all the art institutions here, and can prove it via an audience analysis engine called Audience Finder that we have access to from the group we’re in called the Liverpool Arts Regeneration Consortium, which is a consortium of the eight largest arts organisations in the city.”
The good deeds don’t end there though. “We run an after-school club, funded by the Paul Hamlyn Foundation, called Out of the Blue,” says Biggs. The programme works with five neighbourhoods and five schools across the city.
“We’d been hearing stories about very young kids bullying and shouting at disabled people, and we thought, that’s not on, so we were asked to set up a programme that helps change people’s perceptions – both the younger people towards the disabled, and the perceptions of the disabled people towards the kids.”
The Bluecoat has a social agenda as well as an artistic one, says Biggs. Apart from the gallery and performance spaces on site, the venue also contains artists studios, three printmaking studios and an education room.
Biggs has even instigated a residency programme, which currently includes an on-site philosopher and a sociologist who both run their own events.
This summer’s main exhibition is one made for children – Abacus, from 21 July until 1 October, will include artists that make work for, about and with children.
Biggs says that much of the venue’s socially important work happens in these rooms, in a behind-the-scenes kind of way. “It’s really crucial work that’s presently invisible, and we want to try and make it more visible, so the public can see what’s going on and can join in with more stuff.”
Future plans
In the coming years, the organisation wants to fundraise to tune its existing spaces to full capacity and impact.
“We’re heading towards a new capital project to spruce the place up,” says Biggs. “Upstairs will become a flexible space for events, conferences and weddings. At the moment we only have capacity for 110 seated, or 200 standing, and that’s not enough for when you want to put on really exciting stuff. We want to increase our performing arts activities, and they have the bonus of being good income generators.”
He says the architectural changes that need to be made are subtle, but would open the building up a lot more. “Our target is 2020. We want visitors to get an immediate sense of heritage and this building’s incredible history as soon as they walk in.”
Funding is always a challenge, Biggs says. As Museums Journal was going to press, Arts Council England was about to announce which organisations have secured National Portfolio Organisation funding, for which the Bluecoat has applied.
“Cuts, and shrinking of the public purse, are a big worry for us,” says Biggs. “We have to generate more and more income and it all adds pressure because we have a very small team, and we work flat out.”
The Bluecoat reopened after a major redevelopment in 2008 – the year Liverpool was the European Capital of Culture – with a new cafe and wing added, the garden opened up, and the staff restructured. Biggs survived staff cuts, and was promoted to artistic director (from his role as arts centre director) in 2006, but says it was hard to lose other staff members.
“We lost our literature and music programmers, so we were left with a very reduced team to deliver a multi- art form programme, which was really, really difficult.”
Biggs has seen the Bluecoat through thick and thin. He says it was a very different place when he first started.
“It was all derelict land and car parks and falling down buildings. The city was right at
the height of its decline, so it felt very impoverished, but the arts have always been very strong.”
But having to face tough times over the years has led to the Bluecoat developing many healthy partnerships across the city to bolster its programme. From setting up the Liverpool Arab Arts Festival, the Deaf and Disability Arts Festival, and the Liverpool Biennial, to working with the four universities across the city, the organisation has many a string to its bow.
One of its current partners is the record office at Liverpool Central Library. With the Heritage Lottery Fund money the Bluecoat was awarded for its 300th birthday programme, My Bluecoat, Biggs hired two members of staff to run the celebrations.
“As part of that, we’ve done a lot of detective work, and we’ve actually found out who the architects of the building are.”
Biggs is brimming with knowledge about Liverpool and the Bluecoat, but he was born in London. So what’s kept him in the city?
“Liverpool is a small city and it has a great cultural life. It’s easy to get involved – you feel part of something rather than anonymous in a bigger city like London. The Bluecoat is also very dynamic – it’s a cultural crossroads. It doesn’t feel at all that it’s ever got stuck in its ways,” says Biggs. “It’s a difficult place to leave if you’re having a good time.”
The Bluecoat at a glance
The Grade I listed Bluecoat building is the oldest building in Liverpool city centre. It celebrates its 300th birthday this year.
The building previously housed a school, before opening as an arts centre in 1927. It now runs a multi-arts programme of events and exhibitions.
The venue underwent a £14m capital development that was completed in 2008.
It is funded by Arts Council England and Liverpool City Council. Self-generated revenue is about £300,000 a year, with annual visitor figures about 650,000.
About 30 staff run the centre, with the help of 70 volunteers. Another 20 run the catering arm of the Bluecoat.
Bryan Biggs at a glance
Bryan Biggs studied fine art at Liverpool Polytechnic, and did an MA in social enterprise at Liverpool John Moores University in 2006.
After university, he started as an administrative assistant at the Bluecoat in Liverpool in 1976, and was promoted to gallery director the next year.
In 1994 he became the Bluecoat’s arts centre director, overseeing the venue’s programme
of contemporary visual, performing and live art, participation projects and a £14m capital development, which opened in 2008.
Biggs became the artistic director of the Bluecoat in 2006, and reports to the chief executive. He is leading the building’s 300th birthday celebrations this year.
He was awarded an MBE in 1996 in recognition of his contribution to the arts in Merseyside