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300 Facts

Bluecoat's fascinating history revealed

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In 1981, Bluecoat exhibition, Cover Versions, featured Malcolm Garrett, Peter Saville and others at the forefront of punk/new wave record sleeve design, probably the first exhibition to chart this period of graphic invention.

1981

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On 18th April 1997, Matt Wand and Laurence Lane played The Beach Boys' Good Vibrations vinyl single at 1rpm in the Concert Hall for Bluecoat's live art commission series, Mixing It.

1997

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Bluecoat's history of hosting LGBTQ performances includes an 'alternative Miss World' event in the 1990s compèred by Lily Savage, part of Merseyside Festival of Comedy, whose office was in the building.

1990s

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Elin Strand's performance installation, Speaking Bernina, involving a huge fabric being stitched together in the concert hall upstairs, was part of the Veil exhibition in 2003, organised by Iniva.

2003

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Bob and Joan Porter have been Bluecoat tenants for 25 years. Bob is a master silversmith who engraves the Grand National trophy each year.

1990s

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Nina Edge's 1994 residency at Liverpool John Moores University's art school culminated in an exhibition Virtual Duality at Bluecoat, part of the venue's long relationship with this interdisciplinary artist.

1994

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Liverpool-based artist Phil Hughes presented a series of performance interventions around Bluecoat during 1987 gallery exhibition, Home Base.

1987

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Bluecoat's origins as a charity school funded partly from the profits of the Transatlantic slave trade was referenced in Andrew Robarts' 1988 courtyard installation, which included cast-concrete feet shackled to the railings.

1988

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Palestinian artist Bashir Makhoul first exhibited at Bluecoat in the 1990 group show, Interim Report, followed by a solo show, Al Hejara, three years later.

1990

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On 27 June 1796, Nicholas Ashton succeeded Blue Coat School founder Bryan Blundell's son, Jonathan Blundell, as school treasurer - the Blundell family had had an almost century-long association with the school.

1796

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Bluecoat hosted Egyptian/German artist Susan Hefuna's first solo UK exhibition XCultural Codes in 2004.

2004

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Bluecoat's garden was transformed in Summer 1984 by Manchester's SIGMA studios, part of outdoor exhibition series, Sculpture in a Garden.

1984

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In 2009, national live art project, Rules & Regs, invited artists to respond to Bluecoat's performance history, and included Grace Surman's evocation of Yoko Ono's 1967 event.

2009

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In 1990, Bluecoat took part in the International Gay Pride Film Festival as one of several participating venues across the city.

1990

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For Bluecoat's 2011 Democratic Promenade exhibition, Oliver Walker installed thousands of dolls programmed to recite a UK constitution he'd commissioned from law students in China, where the dolls were manufactured.

2011

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As the charity school grew in the 19th century, Bluecoat extended into new buildings up School Lane in 1816, with dormitories to accommodate the growing number of pupils.

1816

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In 1992, a three-part exhibition curated by Bluecoat - titled A Pool of Signs - reflected an engagement with postmodernism, rooted in a distinctly Liverpool context.

1992

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Bluecoat commissioned Those Environmental Artists (TEA) to respond to Liverpool’s city centre in transition in 1991, their sculptural interventions including one in Chavasse Park.

1991

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1983 Bluecoat touring exhibition, Past Imperfect, reflected Marc Camille Chaimowicz's diverse practice embracing installation, applied arts, performance and sculpture.

1983

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Future Turner Prize winner Martin Creed's 2000 Bluecoat exhibition, Martincreedworks, filled the gallery with hundreds of red balloons.

2000

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Alongside work by Val Murray, Jo Stockham and Louise Scullion, Sophie Horton's concrete structures in Bluecoat's 1990 exhibition, New Sculpture, offered a feminist critique of brutalist architecture, with its phallic towers.

1990

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Vincent Woropay's large-scale welcoming hand sculpture was shown in Bluecoat's courtyard as part of the 1988 exhibition Distant Thunder, alongside work by Andy Goldsworthy.

1988

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In 1833, the Lord Mayor of Liverpool, Charles Horsfall, donated £50 to the Blue Coat School, to purchase two globes, the surplus money to be spent on books for the library.

1833

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In June 1988, London-based Nigerian artist Sokari Douglas Camp's solo exhibition Alali opened at Bluecoat, the same week that Tate launched its Northern gallery at Albert Dock.

1998

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