10,000 turnout as Bluecoat reopens
Mar 17 2008
AN ESTIMATED 10,000 people attended a weekend-long celebration to mark the reopening of Liverpool’s Bluecoat centre for contemporary art after a £12.5m refit.
Culture Secretary Andy Burnham joined artists and civic leaders for the event, which began with 300 people assembling in the courtyard to cut a giant ribbon.
This was followed by taster activities and free events over the two-day celebration, including live music and appearances by leading literary figures Jeanette Winterson and Tom Paulin.
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Also present were Liverpool Culture Company’s creative director Phil Redmond, Liverpool council leader Warren Bradley, and the Lord Mayor of Liverpool, Cllr Paul Clark.
It is the first time the centre has been open to the public since 2005.
Mr Burnham said: “The reopening of the Bluecoat is a defining moment in Liverpool’s year as Capital of Culture.
“There is no place I know that has this breadth of creative activity. I’m very pleased that one of the material legacies of 2008 will be an organisation that recognises the importance of creativity in everyone’s lives.”
Bluecoat’s chief executive Alastair Upton said some visitors had travelled from as far as the US to be present for the weekend’s opening events.
He said: “We had an amazing response to the call-out for a people’s opening. There were no celebrities, the idea was that everyone should have a part in the opening ceremony.
“The queue started forming outside the gates from 9am on Saturday, and the first 300 that we could safely fit into the courtyard cut the ribbon, with many keeping a piece of it as a memento.”
He added: “The public response has been phenomenal. People were saying how much they liked the building, that they had missed it and how glad they were that it is open again.
“The overwhelming response has been an emotional one. There is a very strong sense of ownership of the building, and people went there to take it back.”
Among the attractions of the opening weekend were the centre’s first exhibition Now Then, featuring artists such as Yoko Ono. There is also a new 85-seat restaurant-bar, Upstairs at the Bluecoat, as well as coffee, tea, cake and sandwiches from Espresso at the Bluecoat.
Formerly a school, the Grade I listed building dates back to 1717. It received a £3.6m grant from Arts Council England’s capital programme, almost £3m from the European Objective One programme, just over £2m from the Heritage Lottery Fund, and an investment of £2.5m from the North West Development Agency.
At the heart of the refurbishment was the development of a wing that was previously unused and once destroyed by fire in World War II.
The new wing comprises four new galleries and a 200-seat performance space, 13 new artist studios and 13 creative industry studios, six retail shops, the espresso and restaurant-bar.
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