John Belchem

Bryan Biggs

Bluecoat is a unique and much-loved Liverpool institution, its oldest city centre building. This book tells the fascinating story of its transformation from charity school to contemporary arts centre, the UK’s first. Its early 18th century origins shed light on the religious and maritime mercantile environment of the growing port, whose merchants supported the school. Echoes from then are revealed in themes explored by artists in the 20th century, including slavery and colonial legacies. The predominant focus is on an inclusive building for the arts, starting with colourful bohemian society, the Sandon, who established an artistic colony in 1907, hosting significant exhibitions by the Post-Impressionists and many leading modern British artists. Bluecoat Society of Arts emerged as the building’s custodians, paving the way for the arts centre which, despite financial struggles and wartime bomb damage, survived and continues to play a prominent role in Liverpool’s and the UK’s culture. Bluecoat is described as where ‘village hall meets the avant-garde’. In its rich story, Picasso, Stravinsky, Yoko Ono, Captain Beefheart, Simon Rattle and the inspirational Fanny Calder are just some of the names encountered, as key strands, including music, visual art, performance and the building’s tenants, are traced.

The UK's first arts centre

Bluecoat, Liverpool

Helen Tookey

An Open Access edition of this book is available on the Liverpool University Press website and the OAPEN library. ‘Who ever thought they would one day be able to read Malcolm Lowry’s fabled novel of the 1930s and 40s, In Ballast to the White Sea? Lord knows, I didn’t’ – Michael Hofmann, TLS This book breaks new ground in studies of the British novelist Malcolm Lowry (1909–57), as the first collection of new essays produced in response to the publication in 2014 of a scholarly edition of Lowry’s ‘lost’ novel, In Ballast to the White Sea. In their introduction, editors Helen Tookey and Bryan Biggs show how the publication of In Ballast sheds new light on Lowry as both a highly political writer and one deeply influenced by his native Merseyside, as his protagonist Sigbjørn Hansen-Tarnmoor walks the streets of Liverpool, wrestling with his own conscience and with pressing questions of class, identity and social reform. In the chapters that follow, renowned Lowry scholars and newer voices explore key aspects of the novel and its relation to the wider contexts of Lowry’s work. These include his complex relation to socialism and communism, the symbolic value of Norway, and the significance of tropes of loss, hauntings and doublings. The book draws on the unexpected opportunity offered by the rediscovery of In Ballast to look afresh at Lowry’s oeuvre, to ‘remake the voyage’.

New Essays on Malcolm Lowry and 'In Ballast to the White Sea'

Remaking the Voyage

Chantal Faust

Jo Stockham

Sara-Jayne Parsons

This publication accompanies the exhibition The Negligent Eye, curated by Jo Stockham, Head of Printmaking at the Royal College of Art, and developed in collaboration with the Bluecoat, Liverpool, 8 March - 15 June 2014. The exhibition reflected the ways artists use scanning technology in their work, particularly in the area of printmaking.This publication develops these ideas through essays by Stockham and Chantal Faust that explore the idea that the scan is both a 'close reading and a glance', an apparent contradiction that the artists explore through the rapidly developing scanning and other digital reprographic processes at their disposal.Images of the works in the exhibition are accompanied by texts from the artists - including Cory Arcangel, Christiane Baumgartner, Jyll Bradley, Maurice Carlin, Susan Collins, Conroy/Sanderson, Nicky Coutts, Elizabeth Gossling, Juneau Projects, Bob Matthews, London Fieldworks, Marilène Oliver, South Atlantic Souvenirs, Imogen Stidworthy - in response to questions about their relationship to scanning.

The Negligent Eye

'Who ever thought they would one day be able to read Malcolm Lowry's fabled novel of the 1930s and 40s, In Ballast to the White Sea? Lord knows, I didn't' - Michael Hofmann This book breaks new ground in studies of the British novelist Malcolm Lowry (1909-57), as the first collection of new essays produced in response to the publication in 2014 of a scholarly edition of Lowry's 'lost' novel, In Ballast to the White Sea. In a detailed introduction, editors Helen Tookey and Bryan Biggs show how the publication of In Ballast sheds new light on Lowry as both a highly political writer and a writer deeply influenced by his native Merseyside, as his protagonist Sigbjørn Hansen-Tarnmoor walks the streets of Liverpool, wrestling with his own conscience and with the pressing questions of class, identity and social reform. The introduction is followed by chapters in which renowned Lowry scholars and newer voices explore key aspects of the novel and its relation to the wider contexts of Lowry's work, including his complex relation to socialism and communism, the symbolic value of Norway and things Nordic, and the significance of tropes of loss, hauntings and doublings. The book draws on the unexpected opportunity offered by the rediscovery of In Ballast to look afresh at Lowry's oeuvre, to 'remake the voyage'.

Bryan Biggs

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