THE BLUECOAT

Registered charity 700862 · accounts filings on the Charity Commission register · Wikidata: Q2409878 · Wikipedia · also known as BLUECOAT ARTS CENTRE LIMITED

The Bluecoat is Liverpool's Centre for the Contemporary Arts.Our purpose is to open up creative possibilities for individuals and communities. We do this through a programme of exhibitions, live art and participation projects; through support to artists; by opening our 18th Century building to makers, traders and visitors; and by creating connections between Liverpool and the rest of the world.

Objects

TO FOSTER AND PROMOTE THE IMPROVEMENT, DEVELOPMENT AND MAINTENANCE OF ARTISTIC KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING AND APPRECIATION OF THE ARTS IN THE UNITED KINGDOM AND IN PARTICULAR IN THE COUNTY OF MERSEYSIDE.

Area of benefit: NOT DEFINED - IN PRACTICE MERSEYSIDE

The charity’s charitable objects and area of benefit, quoted from its governing document as held on the Charity Commission register.

Causes: Arts/culture/heritage/science · website · Get email alerts

Registered contact address: Liverpool, North West, England (from the postcode on the register)

Financial health, per its FY2025 accounts

The accounts state that the group incurred a net expenditure of £166,851 for the year, resulting in unrestricted general reserves of £235,387. This reserve level is below the charity's stated policy target of approximately £500,000, which represents three months of operating expenditure. The trustees confirm the accounts are prepared on a going concern basis, citing funding commitments from core funders and careful cash flow management.

Automated summary of the FY2025 accounts; the evidenced findings below carry the verbatim passages.

What the accounts disclose

Accounts audited by Mitchell Charlesworth (Audit) Limited. Discloses 4 of 6 completeness components.

Policies the charity declares

In its annual return the charity told the Commission that it has the policies listed below. This is self-declared: it is not verified by the Commission or by this site, and it is not evidence of how a policy works in practice.

• Bullying and harassment policy and procedures
• Complaints handling
• Complaints policy and procedures
• Conflicting interests
• Financial reserves policy and procedures
• Internal charity financial controls policy and procedures
• Internal risk management policy and procedures
• Paying staff
• Risk management
• Safeguarding policy and procedures
• Safeguarding vulnerable beneficiaries
• Serious incident reporting policy and procedures
• Social media policy and procedures
• Trustee conflicts of interest policy and procedures
• Trustee expenses policy and procedures
• Volunteer management

From the charity’s annual return (Part A, self-declared)

Answers and figures the charity gave in Part A of its annual return to the Charity Commission. They are self-declared: not verified by the Commission or by this site. Only positive answers and figures are listed; items not listed are simply not shown.

Source: this charity’s annual returns on the Charity Commission register.

Leadership, per the charity’s website

• Mary Cloake — Chief Executive (source)
• Bryan Biggs — Director of Cultural Legacies (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.

Public profiles (found on the charity’s own website): instagram · linkedin

Structured financials (annual return, FY ending 31/03/2025)

Reported reserves equal ~1.1 months of spending — in the bottom quarter for charities its size (median 4.7 months; benchmarks).

Per its annual return, largest income source: Charitable activities (60% 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: 57.4% of total income — above the 90th percentile for charities its size (median 5.3%) (benchmarks).

Trustees · trustee networks

• Peter Malcolm Mearnschair · trustee of 1 other charity
• Dr MICHAEL BIRCHALL
• Gabriella Chauke
• JAMIE EASTMAN
• Philomena Harrison · trustee of 2 other charities
• RALPH BULLIVANT
• Rachel Duncan
• SRI SARKER
• Sally-Anne Watkiss · trustee of 2 other charities

Trustee list from the Charity Commission register (current, not historical).

Operates in: Knowsley · Liverpool City · Sefton · St Helens · Wirral

Income and spending

Common questions

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 BLUECOAT DISPLAY CENTRE.

• BLUECOAT DISPLAY CENTRE income £140k
• THE CHESTER BLUECOAT CHARITY income £472k
• LIVERPOOL BIENNIAL OF CONTEMPORARY ART LIMITED income £1.5m
• THE LIVERPOOL BLUE COAT SCHOOL FOUNDATION income £46k
• BLUEBOXT CREATIVE AND PERFORMING ARTS income £83k
• BLUE CABIN CIO income £485k

Side by side with its peers

Each row is that charity’s latest analysed filing; every value is quote-backed on its own page.