I want to donate

300 Facts

Bluecoat's fascinating history revealed

Text Artefact

In 2008, Richard DeDomenici handed out balloons at Bluecoat saying “Bored of Art,” and in the nearby shopping streets of Liverpool One, others bearing the words “Bored of Shopping.”

2008

Text Artefact

During their 2009 exhibition Variable Capital, artists Common Culture - who were the curators of the exhibition - hired bouncers to police the gallery, as an intervention into the show.

2009

Text Artefact

Filippos Tsitsopoulos' organically-masked 2014 performance, Cabinet of Curiosities, made a startling intervention at Bluecoat in May 2017.

2017

Text Artefact

US musician Rhys Chatham's 2011 multiple guitar performance at Bluecoat, promoted by Andrew Ellis, was followed the next year by his opening event at Liverpool Cathedral for the Liverpool Biennial.

2011

Text Artefact

At Bluecoat, American eco-artists Helen Mayer Harrison and Newton Harrison's 1998 Artranspennine project mapped the North of England in the shape of a green dragon.

1998

Text Artefact

Amanda Coogan's Beethoven the Headbangers opened the 2002 Liverpool Biennial with furious headbanging to Beethoven in Bluecoat's courtyard.

2002

Text Artefact

Artist John Carson visited US towns immortalised in song, bringing his singing performance about them, American Medley, to Bluecoat in 1984.

1984

Text Artefact

Bluecoat presented Pierre Henry's Liverpool Mass at the Metropolitan Cathedral on 13th May 2017, 50 years after it was commissioned for the cathedral's opening. Bluecoat also promoted the French musique concrète composer in 1968, part of the North West's

2017

Text Artefact

In March 1972, British sculptor William Turnbull created an installation of geometric tubular metal in Bluecoat's front courtyard as part of the Peter Stuyvesant Foundation's City Sculpture Project, taking place in cities across the UK.

1972

Text Artefact

In March 1998, in Merseyside Dance Initiative's performance at Bluecoat, Growing Older (Dis)gracefully, dancers over 40 challenged perceptions of middle age.

1998

Text Artefact

Hammertown, a Fruitmarket Gallery touring exhibition of new art from Vancouver, included Geoffrey Farmer's Trailer, a life-sized truck that occupied the whole of the main gallery at Bluecoat in February/March 2003.

2003

Text Artefact

The Blue Coat School was dependent on subscriptions, donations and legacies from Liverpool's merchant class in the 18th century. Ann Cleveland left eight buildings to the school in March 1730.

1730

Text Artefact

In 1991, Bluecoat staged a major two-part exhibition of contemporary Irish art, Parable Island, curated by Brian McAvera.

1991

Text Artefact

In 1999, Bluecoat's Lottery-funded participation outreach programme, Bluecoatconnect, started. From this, the long-running learning disabled project, Blue Room, grew.

1999

Text Artefact

On 15th March 2008, Bluecoat reopened at the start of Liverpool's year as European Capital of Culture, after a three-year closure for a major capital development, which included an award winning arts wing, designed by Rotterdam architects, Biq.

2008

Text Artefact

The ICA, London touring exhibition, Women’s Images of Men, featuring key feminist artworks, came to Bluecoat in March 1981.

1981

Text Artefact

An exhibition of Post-Impressionism at Bluecoat, including works by Picasso, Matisse, Cézanne, Van Gogh and Gauguin, opened on 12 March, 1911. Liverpool artists from the Sandon Studios Society showed alongside their Continetnal counterparts, whose work

1911

Text Artefact

Liverpool's African music festival Africa Oyé originally took place not just in the park, but in Liverpool city centre, including at Bluecoat. Here, in 1996, Tanzanian music/dance group Wagogo performed in the garden and courtyard.

1996

Text Artefact

From 1913, the Women's Citizens Association, the oldest women's organisation in Liverpool, or any other UK city, held its meetings at Bluecoat. Its president was social reformer Eleanor Rathbone.

1913

Text Artefact

In March 1912, the Sandon Studios Society invited Cecil Sharp, founding father of the folk-song revival, to give a lecture at Bluecoat on folk song and dance.

1912

Text Artefact

On 15 April 1989, artist Geoff Molyneux created a maze of cardboard boxes in Bluecoat's front courtyard as part of large survey exhibition, New Art Merseyside.

1989

Text Artefact

Future Turner Prize winner Jeremy Deller's Bluecoat live art commission, Acid Brass, comprised acid house anthems being played by leading brass band, The Williams Fairey. On 1 March 1997 it was performed at the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts,

1997

Text Artefact

In February 1968, Liverpool artist Arthur Dooley displayed his art on the Bluecoat railings at the front of the building, protesting that local artists were being 'priced out' of exhibiting at the gallery. The 'protest' became a regular feature for many

1968

Text Artefact

The will of Blue Coat School headmaster William Trenow, dated 27 February 1723, left his best suit to 'Robert, son of Ellen Bibby', the school mistress.

1723

Load more