The Bluecoat welcomes thousands back through its doors
Bryan Biggs and Alastair Upton at the opening.At 10.00am on Saturday 15 March, the Bluecoat officially reopened following its £12.5m development. Members of the public were gathering at the gates from 9.00am, and the first 200 visitors were handed pairs of scissors to cut the ribbon which stretched right round the front courtyard. Artistic Director Bryan Biggs (left) and Chief Executive Alastair Upton (with megaphone) welcomed in the crowds. Thousands of visitors enjoyed an opening weekend filled with Visual Art, Live Art, Dance, Music, Literature, Family and Heritage events. And this is just the beginning...
The garden drew a huge crowd for the free music events on Saturday and Sunday, which included Justin Adams and Juldeh Camera, and up-and-coming Liverpool band Elle s'appelle. One of the literature highlights was a 'communal' poem written by visitors on Saturday morning as part of the Windows Project. You can download the finished poem here:
Beyond the opening weekend we still have lots of exciting things on and coming up including the first exhibition to be held in the stunning new galleries Now Then, a live performance by Yoko Ono in April, literary events from John Mullan and Howard Marks, a festival of the best new Live Art Happenstance, including Franko B and Rajni Shah. There will be music highlights from Arcade Fire's support band of choice Clinic and Grime Godfather Wiley.
Our March -May 2008 brochure is now also dowloadable here:
