Galleries for Photographers in Liverpool

The city of Liverpool hosts several art and photography galleries that showcase the work of artists locally and from a far. Whilst simultaneously providing a network for artists to get their work shown to a wider audience and receive support and direction with their careers. One of these is the Foundation for Art and Creative Technology (FACT) that opened in 2003, with an interior consisting of two large art galleries and three cinemas that allow them to curate work of artists that have a smaller platform in the UK. FACT aims to nurture and develop innovative whilst also inspiring creatively by offering a wide range of different mediums showcased at the venue. The gallery also offers residencies that are open to anybody across a wide range of themes allowing artists to improve on their careers by showing new work, receiving grants and access to a variety of equipment.

Another gallery based in Liverpool’s oldest central building, originally founded as the Blue Coat Hospital in the 1700s is the Blue Coat Gallery that acts as a centre for contemporary arts. Its programme includes art exhibitions, music, literature, and live art. This gallery acts as a base for artists, small art organisations and collective to come together and demonstrate their work. By doing so, Bluecoat helps to support a diverse range of artists to develop their careers as practitioners no matter what stage they’re at. As galleries begin to reopen their doors and showcase work in person, Bluecoat has a line-up of new and established artists ready to exhibit their work into next year. Such as the London based artist Suki Chan, who will be presenting her project Conscious in 2022 through the mediums of films, moving image installations and virtual reality to explore what is means to be conscious within the age of technology.

A further example of galleries that support the careers of artists, is one of the UK’s first dedicated photography galleries when it opened its doors in 1977, Open Eye Gallery. Aiming to spark crucial and critical conversations through creative expression. Open Eye produces exhibitions, long term collaborative projects and publications, done by establishing projects which a range of different voices, photographers, and communities as a way of showing that the collaborative process is just as important as the final production. Through Open Eye, there is a lot of support and opportunities for photographers such as their ‘Open Source’. A digital platform to allow practitioners to submit work online that can be shown on the gallery’s exterior screen to help lesser-known artists become more visible.