The year began with the launch of The Lives of Artists, a season of exhibitions, commissions and performances that asked audiences what might be uncovered about ourselves when we listen to the testimony, histories, and stories of artists reflecting on their lives.
Artists Tess Gilmartin and Ottman Said both created vast landscapes on billboards outside our building. Meanwhile Babak Ganjei’s exhibition charted his career as an artist, and shared the anxieties, doubts and vulnerabilities that often follow the creative process. Joshua Clague spent a year in residence at the Bluecoat, creating a tender body of new work that touched on his early life on the Wirral and his passion for pop divas.
In spring, The Lives of Artists continued with a focus on the life of the historic artist Anna May Wong, an inspiring actor from the Golden Age of Hollywood. Artists Michelle Williams Gamaker, Dahong Hongxuan Wang and poet Jennifer Lee Tsai, who also started her residency with us this year, all reached back through time to Anna May Wong; their three distinct bodies of work overlapped and entangled, forming solidarity with both Anna and each other.
Further collaboration took place between visual artist Alfred Beesley and performer Gav Cross for Under the Apple Tree, performed at the Bluecoat in spring and at Norton Priory in autumn. Beesley’s sculptures of apples were activated by a vivid performance, steeped in folklore, with Cross cast as The Green Man.
In May, the Bluecoat garden was home to a stunning commission as part of the city wide Taylor Town Trail, welcoming Taylor Swift fans from around the world to Liverpool. This beautiful moss covered piano, inspired by the Eras Tour, suited our garden perfectly, and was hugely popular with visitors. We also hosted several Taylor Swift-themed workshops and events, bringing fans of all ages together. The trail was organised and coordinated by Culture Liverpool, in partnership with Make Liverpool who commissioned Quirky Design Co to produce the Folklore inspired piano.
Our season Weird Futures launched in summer with two exhibitions focused on looking forward. Both Stine Marie Jacobsen and the collaborative duo Roxy Topia and Paddy Gould approached the future through conversations and workshops with children, those who will one day shape our world. Let Your Ideas Come Back As Children was an immersive exhibition by Roxy Topia and Paddy Gould, working in collaboration with children from our afterschool art club Out of the Blue and Cormac Gould. The exhibition imagined a future creative industry called Connexus, in which visitors could enlist to join the workforce and carry out a series of tasks.
Our Out of the Blue children also enjoyed another year of arts activities during half-term and the summer holidays.
The Bluecoat Print Studio was a hub of creativity this year, welcoming printmakers of all skill levels, hosting a variety of activities from screen printing to book binding. .
We partnered with Movema to bring two more themed ‘Makers +Shakers’ sessions, a series of events for families that combine movement and dance sessions with creative art activities.
Blue Room artists collaborated with cosmetic retailer Lush again this year, creating a new knot wrap design. Tess Gilmartin’s work was featured on a Lush Advent Calendar and in a stunning window display, to coincide with another Blue Room takeover of the Lush Liverpool store, as part of Neurodiversity Arts Festival.
Throughout the year, we introduced new food and drink offers including a popular Vegan BBQ in our Garden, and our upstairs restaurant welcomed back visitors for Festive Lunches, fish & chips, afternoon teas and more, giving visitors the chance to try something new.
From Taylor Swift in the Garden to live events in the Performance Space, music was a constant theme in our programme. New York artist Ka Baird performed alongside Dialect and Ancient Plastix, accompanied by a dance performance from Rosie Terry Too Good. We hosted a special event celebrating the life and work of the remarkable composer Philip Jeck, and a new archive display Tomorrow’s Music Yesterday, opened in our upstairs gallery highlighting iconic music events and performances from the Bluecoat over the last 30+ years.
The Bluecoat Baby Book Club celebrated ten years in October. Artist and educator Roger Hill continues to lead this popular course for babies aged 3-12 months, with 2 courses taking place this year and more to come in 2025.
We launched Bluecoat After Hours, a series of free, or subsidised creative sessions that invited visitors to try their hand at collage, still life drawing knitting or crochet.
Behind the scenes we have worked to bring our cultural legacies to life with a new project ‘A Cultural Heritage for Liverpool’, funded by National Lottery Heritage Fund. This research and development project explores how our rich heritage can be used to tell the story of Liverpool, its artists and its people, while aiming to make the Bluecoat more resilient.
Since the project started earlier this year, we have been working with young people across the city through a new young people’s print club, ongoing work with our schools programmes and started Young Blue Room, a new inclusive arts programme for learning disabled and neurodivergent people aged 16-25. Young Blue Room held their first exhibition this year, featuring artwork made by the group that explored the Bluecoat’s archive.
We were pleased to be able to host a wide range of live events curated and delivered by creative partners in the city, including Liverpool Arab Arts Festival, La Feria, Liverpool Irish Arts Festival, WOWfest, Fever Events, Dot-Art and Dead Ink Books.
We rounded off 2024 with The Year That Was, a reflective exhibition that celebrated exhibitions and public artworks shown at the Bluecoat over the last 12 months. The exhibition included posters from our archive, limited edition prints, posters and original artworks from the artists featured in our gallery in 2024, with all works available for purchase. This end of year display was an opportunity to reflect back on a year that has explored who artists are, how the future will be shaped, and how we might connect with our histories.
During the festive season, we also transformed our gallery into a bustling marketplace, giving local artists, members of the Bluecoat’s Creative Community and beyond, the opportunity and the space to showcase and sell their work before Christmas.
Beyond our jam-packed programme, we were thrilled to receive significant funding from Arts Council England, thanks to its Government-funded Capital Investment Programme. This funding will enable us to reconfigure the upstairs space in our Grade I listed building into a flexible events area. The development will allow us to continue to provide high quality creative and cultural experiences for people in Liverpool. This project is also part-funded by the UK Government through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund, supported by the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority, and Culture Liverpool at Liverpool City Council.
We also celebrated 30 years of the National Lottery Heritage Fund, and were able to reflect back at the impact the Heritage Fund has made to the Bluecoat over the last 30 years in honour of this incredible milestone.
In recognition of our incredible year, we’ve had several award nominations and wins, including Venue Enquiry of the Year and Best Restaurant/Cafe at the Liverpool BID Mystery Shopper Awards 2024, finalist in the Taste of Liverpool City Region for Café/Bistro of the Year, and a finalist for the People’s Choice Award (Outstanding Contribution to Culture) at the LCR Culture & Creativity Awards 2025 (voting opens in January!).
We hope you have enjoyed visiting us in 2024 or following our work from afar. We look forward to seeing you soon in 2025, when we'll be back with a host of new exhibitions and events.