Liverpool Biennial is the largest as well as one of the most exciting contemporary visual arts events in the UK, and with 960,000 visits in 2008, it is one of the best attended in the world.


Liverpool Biennial 2010: 18 September - 28 November 2010
For ten weeks every two years the city of Liverpool is transformed into the most amazing living gallery of new art, showcasing the best contemporary artists from around the world.

After attracting the most visitors yet in 2008, Liverpool Biennial 2010 will see a continued emphasis on commissioning the most ambitious and challenging new work offering the largest concentration of contemporary art anywhere in the UK.


Liverpool Biennial 2010 is bigger than ever before and includes the following six programmes:

The sixth edition of Liverpool Biennial’s International Exhibition is Touched - Consisting of around 40 new projects by leading and emerging international artists. Principally new commissions as well as several key works previously unseen in the UK, Touched will be presented across multiple venues: Tate Liverpool, the Bluecoat, FACT (Foundation for Art & Creative Technology), A Foundation and Open Eye Gallery, with half the exhibition sited in public spaces across the city.

Bloomberg New Contemporaries – the very best from up-and-coming artists’ studios throughout the UK presented at A Foundation, Greenland Street. City States – International exhibitions on the cultural dynamics between cities and states, presented at Contemporary Urban Centre. John Moores Painting Prize 2010– the UK’s leading contemporary painting competition, presented at the Walker Art Gallery.
S.Q.U.A.T. Liverpool 2010 - a collaboration between No Longer Empty and The Art Organisation re-animating abandoned premises around the city centre.
The Cooperative - an initiative jointly run by leading artist-led studios and collectives, Arena, Red Wire, The Royal Standard, Sound Network, LSSSS, Jump Ship Rat and Mercy.
There will also be a host of fringe activity under the banner of the Independents, providing an inspiring and diverse mix of exhibitions and events by internationally established as well as national and local young and mid-career artists.
The festival also includes a series of complementary programmes including Liverpool Biennial’s year round work - such as Richard Wilson’s Turning the Place Over - which will are highlighted in the Festival Guide.