LIVERPOOL BIENNIAL OF CONTEMPORARY ART LIMITED
Registered charity 1073956 · accounts filings on the Charity Commission register · also known as LIVERPOOL BIENNIAL
Liverpool Biennial is an ongoing platform for research, commissioning and presenting international art, education and debate. Liverpool Biennial Festival brings an international focus to our work. It is the moment when the world comes to Liverpool to engage with our thinking, and when we present art to the world.
Causes: General Charitable Purposes · Education/training · Arts/culture/heritage/science · website · Get email alerts
Financial health, per its FY2025 accounts
The accounts state that the charity ended the year with a surplus of £378,925 and held unrestricted funds of £1,251,022. The trustees report that the charity comfortably met its reserves policy target of six months of operational expenditure, which was calculated at £511,348 for the year. The auditor confirmed that the use of the going concern basis of accounting was appropriate with no material uncertainties identified.
Automated summary of the FY2025 accounts; the evidenced findings below carry the verbatim passages.
What the accounts disclose
Accounts audited by DSG Audit. Discloses 3 of 6 completeness components.
Corporate structure
The charity’s company — latest Companies House iXBRL filing (balance sheet 31 March 2026)
Public fundraising profile: JustGiving — Liverpool Biennial (matched by registered charity number).
Leadership, per the charity’s website
- Samantha Lackey — Director (source)
Listed on the charity’s own website when we last crawled it; roles may have changed. Pay-band disclosures above are anonymous statutory disclosures and are not attributed to any named individual.
Funders the charity credits
Named as funders/supporters on the charity’s own website (the charity’s claim, distinct from accounts-verified grants).
- James Moores — “Founding Supporter James Moores” (source page)
Company officers (Companies House)
Current officers of the charity’s own company per the Companies House register, cross-checked against the Charity Commission trustee list by name. A director not on the trustee list is usually a timing or naming difference between the two registers — check both records before drawing conclusions.
- BASS, Karen Ruth — director, appointed 29/01/2026on trustee list
- WRIGHT, Cathryn — director, appointed 04/09/2025on trustee list
- WATKISS, Charmaine — director, appointed 07/03/2024on trustee list
- MCGOWAN, Shauna — director, appointed 25/01/2024on trustee list
- GROOM, Simon, Dr — director, appointed 22/06/2023on trustee list
- PETITGAS, Catherine — director, appointed 09/03/2023on trustee list
- HERON, David — director, appointed 09/03/2023on trustee list
- PRITCHARD, Laurence Patrick — director, appointed 09/06/2022on trustee list
- SIMONITI, Scott — director, appointed 26/05/2021on trustee list
- TAN, Ying — director, appointed 26/05/2021on trustee list
- BEHARI, Richard James — director, appointed 26/05/2021on trustee list
- FALKINGHAM, Jonathan Mark — director, appointed 17/10/2016on trustee list
- SANDERS, Marta Ann Giannina — secretary, appointed 04/09/2025
Official officers record.
Public profiles (found on the charity’s own website): facebook · instagram
Structured financials (annual return, FY ending 31/03/2025)
Cost of raising funds
£119k
Reported reserves equal ~12.9 months of spending — in the top quarter for charities its size (median 4.8 months; benchmarks).
Per its annual return, largest income source: Donations and legacies (67% of income) — components as reported reconcile to the return’s total income; not from the accounts narrative.
Per its annual return, cost of raising funds: 7.7% of total income — above the median for charities its size (5.2%) (benchmarks).
- Cathryn Wrightchair · trustee of 1 other charity
- Catherine Petitgas
- Charmaine Watkiss
- David Heron
- Dr Simon Groom
- Jonathan Mark Falkingham · trustee of 1 other charity
- Karen Bass
- Laurence Pritchard
- Richard Behari
- Scott Simoniti
- Shauna McGowan
- Ying Tan
Trustee list from the Charity Commission register (current, not historical).
Operates in: Knowsley · Liverpool City · Sefton · St Helens · Wirral
Income and spending
Common questions
Is LIVERPOOL BIENNIAL OF CONTEMPORARY ART LIMITED financially healthy?
Per its FY2025 accounts: The accounts state that the charity ended the year with a surplus of £378,925 and held unrestricted funds of £1,251,022. The trustees report that the charity comfortably met its reserves policy target of six months of operational expenditure, which was calculated at £511,348 for the year. The auditor confirmed that the use of the going concern basis of accounting was appropriate with no material uncertainties identified. Its FY2025 accounts were audited by DSG Audit.
Who funds LIVERPOOL BIENNIAL OF CONTEMPORARY ART LIMITED?
Funders whose own accounts filings name LIVERPOOL BIENNIAL OF CONTEMPORARY ART LIMITED as a grant recipient include PAUL HAMLYN FOUNDATION, THE HENRY MOORE FOUNDATION, THE AUSTIN AND HOPE PILKINGTON TRUST, THE AMPERSAND FOUNDATION, DUCHY OF LANCASTER BENEVOLENT FUND.
Known funders
Grants to this charity found in funders’ own accounts filings.
Government & lottery funding
Grants to this charity published as open data by government and lottery funders (360Giving).
Funders of similar charities
Funders whose accounts show grants to charities similar to this one (and no recorded grant to this charity) — a starting list for fundraisers.
Charities like this
Semantically similar by activities and financial character, from our analysed corpus. Compare with BRITISH TEXTILE BIENNIAL.
Side by side with its peers
Each row is that charity’s latest analysed filing; every value is quote-backed on its own page.