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300 Facts

Bluecoat's fascinating history revealed

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The after effects of a fire that broke out shortly after Bluecoat reopened in 2008 were captured by photographer John Davies, including the blackened bistro upstairs, a photograph of which was last exhibited in the gallery in the 2017 exhibition, In the

2008

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During Jonathan Blundell's treasurership of Blue Coat School, £500 was placed at interest on the Weaver Navigation canal in Cheshire in 1761, a sum repaid ten years later.

1761

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In 1967, Bluecoat opened its refurbished gallery. One press verdict was that it was 'probably the best gallery outside London.'

1967

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Bluecoat exhibition Underwater, curated by Angela Kingston, explored artists' responses to the deep, while her 2013 show 3 am: wonder, paranoia and the restless night, entered the nocturnal zone.

2013

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Bluecoat's name derives from the uniforms of the pupils attending the school, the colour blue denoting charity.

2018

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Bluecoat has worked with many guest curators. 1990's Approaches to Realism exhibition, curated by John Roberts, included Sonia Boyce, David Batchelor, Terry Atkinson, David Mabb, Sue Atkinson, Rasheed Araeen and Art & Language.

1990

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Bluecoat is featured in John Brophy's wartime novel, City of Departures (1946), where it is described as Liverpool's 'most graceful building,' reduced to a 'burnt-out skeleton.'

1946

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Experimental live art group, Forced Entertainment, has visited Bluecoat several times, including in 1991, with their performance Marina and Lee.

1991

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In 2016, Auto Agents opened at Bluecoat, the first exhibition to be curated by people with learning disabilities. It included artists from our Blue Room programme.

2016

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Independent curator Eddie Chambers collaborated with Bluecoat many times from 1984 onwards. Let The Canvas Come To Life With Dark Faces in 1990 comprised portraits by contemporary Black artists.

1984

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Bluecoat has a thriving community of artists, designers and cultural organisations, but tenants have also included sanitary engineers, the Christian Science Monitor, and car dealers The Voss Motor Car Company.

early 1900s

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Liverpool-born actor Derek Nimmo, known for upper class and clerical roles on TV shows like All Gas & Gaiters, wandered inadvertently into Bluecoat while 1992 postcolonial exhibition Trophies of Empire was being installed.

1992

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Actors from Liverpool Playhouse spotted relaxing at Bluecoat over the years include Brian Rix with Fenella Fielding, Kim Cattrall, and Richard Ellis from the original 1975 TV series, Poldark. Others have visited incognito.

1975

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Leading moving image promoter FACT (formerly Merseyside Moviola) was based at Bluecoat for nearly 15 years, staging the Video Positive festivals and other exhibitions, including Abstract, Still Life, Moving Image in 1992.

1992

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Liverpool original, Arthur Black, had a studio at Bluecoat and staged extravagant fancy dress parties at the venue in the late 1970s/80s. One, on a Russian Revolution theme, featured an overthrown Czar, soup kitchen, heroic workers' banners, Lenin's tomb,

1970s

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Architectural historian Quentin Hughes compared Bluecoat's artistic endeavours to pioneering German art school, Bauhaus. 1960s press descriptions like 'Merseyside's Little Chelsea' and 'Liverpool's Latin Quarter' are perhaps closer to the truth.

1960s

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A postcard from a Bluecoat visitor, dated 1934, recently came to light, describing a “rather small and uninteresting” exhibition at the venue, except for the work of Roderick Bisson, who was a self-taught, Modernist-inclined young artist, with a studio in

1934

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On 16 November 1926, Bluecoat received an anonymous donation of £17,000 towards the appeal to keep the building open as a centre for the arts. Later, the donor was revealed as William Ernest Corlett, whose generous gift is acknowledged on a plaque in the

1926

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After the war, the English Folk Dance and Song Society had a regional office at Bluecoat. Bert Jansch, Martin Carthy & Dave Swarbrick, June Tabor, Martin Simpson and many others from the folk world have performed at the venue.

1940s

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In November 1998, Andrea Buckley and Sharon Smith presented dance piece Physically Feminine 2 at Bluecoat. Buckley recently performed in Siobhan Davies Dance's national touring project material/rearranged/to/be in the gallery in 2017.

1998

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The curved wall in Bluecoat's reception area, The Hub, dates from around 1820. It was the work of corporation engineer John Foster Snr, who also completed Prince's Dock and built the warehouse at King's Dock.

1820

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Bluecoat has a relationship with Captain Beefheart stretching back 45 years, when he held his first ever art exhibition at the gallery in 1972.

1972

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The next-of-kin plaque, awarded to families of those who died in the First World War, was designed by Sandon Studios Society artist Edward Carter Preston, who was selected from an international competition. The plaque was included in Bluecoat's

2017

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Genesis, Jacob Epstein's controversial sculpture of a naked, pregnant woman, was exhibited at Bluecoat in 1931, generating £1,000 from almost 50,000 visitors, who paid sixpence each to see it. The sculpture returned in 2017 for the exhibition, In the

1931

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