Bluecoat became an arts centre in 1907, but the building itself dates back to 1717, making it an unusually strong presence in the psychic geography of Liverpool. Initially constructed as a school, its myriad rooms house classes and studios/offices for some 30 artists and creative enterprises; public spaces include four galleries and an open-access garden. Its 30 members of staff have been led since 2012 by chief executive Mary Cloake. The turnover is approximately £2m, of which £750,000 comes from public sources, £750,000 from trading and rent, and the remaining funds raised from foundations and donations.

Mission: a commitment to art’s difference

As Liverpool’s Centre for the Contemporary Arts, Bluecoat’s mission, as described by Mary Cloake, is simple: “to bring the best and most challenging art to the most people”. In practice, this requires two things: firstly, encouraging people to pay “additional and particular attention” to art by developing public understanding that “the arts are symbol systems: they’re ways in which people can make meaning or communicate above and beyond language”. Secondly, taking responsibility for giving people ways of reading this symbolic language and showing them how to “make these symbol systems their own”.

This mission is considered all the more important considering the building’s physical position in Liverpool’s city centre: surrounded by highly commercial regeneration, there is a need to “open up possibilities for people through art”. Bluecoat can do that partly by making its public spaces accessible: despite its own commercial needs, whereby cafe sales add to the organisation’s general purse, “we allow people to buy their sandwiches in Tesco and sit in our garden, because we’re acting as a counter weight to huge swathes of the city where it’s no longer possible to just be yourself, because they’re owned or controlled by commercial interests”. The building sends out a message “that there is an alternative to going shopping, there are other ways in which you might consider spending your time”.

Informal education

Since attention to art, and a sense of its possibility, are sharpened by understanding, education is central to Bluecoat’s conception of its civic role. It is offered in two distinctive ways:

1: An active partnership with University of Liverpool

Beginning in January 2014 with a two-year philosopher-in-residence programme, and continuing in 2017 with a sociologist-in-residence, Bluecoat has collaborated with University of Liverpool to provide accredited further education that is accessible to all. The philosophy residency focused on the nature of art, its role in society, and questions related to aesthetics; more than 100 people attended the course on a weekly basis, of whom roughly 30% did not already have a degree. The sociology course discusses “what the city is, who it belongs to, and what the ownership of property in the city centre might mean to the people”, and takes the form of a lecture series and a reading group on taste.

2: Blue Room

Blue Room is only one of a host of education opportunities at Bluecoat; it is particular because it is designed for adults with learning disabilities. Running since 2008, it has expanded to three weekly sessions, in which participants “get to know the gallery, get to know about the art, and do some practical artwork”. This is not self-contained activity but is beginning to unfold into other programmes: “some members of Blue Room have become so skilled technically at making art that they now can volunteer as artist’s assistants in our after-school clubs”, of which there are five across the city, “in areas facing seemingly intractable social challenges”.

These education strands have become increasingly important to Bluecoat at a time of changes to the national curriculum: “With the increasingly difficult access to arts education of all kinds, the access for people on low incomes to make art becomes narrower. Our ambition is to make sure that people have an opportunity to become full-time professional artists through routes alternative to mainstream college education or art school.”

Asked about barriers to fulfilling a civic role, Cloake refers again to education: “The main barrier for me has been a confusion about what access to the arts means. For me it’s about helping people experience the arts as a symbolic language: if we could build a consensus about that, there wouldn’t have to be a competition for resources. Another barrier is around public expectation: if the public expect you to deliver magnificent things, you will do it. I think we need to be a bit more challenged.” And the ability to challenge again grows from “understanding what the arts have to offer as education and inspiration”.

Scope for development

Although Bluecoat enjoys high footfall – some 650,000 visits per year, in a city with an estimated population of less than 500,000 – repeat gallery visitors account for only 10% of that number. The building’s new arts wing, opened in 2008, requires visitors to make a deliberate decision to engage with the art: Cloake intends to change that, by “commissioning work specifically to happen with and around people in the public spaces within the building, so that they can see the art as a natural part of coming in and having a coffee, or as part of being in the courtyard”.

Noting that “the level of connection and the resonance that people have with art, even if it is really challenging, can be intensified if it is created by artists from the same communities that visitors are from”, Cloake also intends to build up a programme of commissions from a range of local artists. “We aim to reflect the diversity of our community, and to complete the circle on our civic role by showing art that is of and relates to the people.”

Attendees at Bluecoat’s extensive talks and debates programme are already vocal and actively engaged, reflected each year for instance in the Merseyside Civic Day. This is a weekend in which “the local Civic Society takes over the building and provide opportunities for people to talk about and discuss their area or particular communities that they’re involved in, and the challenges they face”. What Cloake wants to see is “more dialogue between the art establishment and people who are committed to the civic and democracy”. At a time when “local authorities are under siege, there are ways in which arts organisations could help”, but this relies on them having an embedded and influential role. Her hope is that following the sociologist-in-residence programme there will be a series of new partnerships with the public sphere, pushing forward the dynamic between internal arts activity and external civic possibility.