BOARC: Community Spotlight

What is BOARC?

In short, we are a DIY not-for-profit residential art space where individuals or groups can come and stay to work on their own project in a non pressurised, non institutional environment.

BOARC stands for Bidston Observatory Artistic Research Centre, so basically it's a residential art centre in an old Victorian observatory. We're a not for profit, artist-run, DIY space where people can come together and work on projects in a non pressurised, non institutional environment. At its core BOARC is a work site open to a wide variety of users and is, amongst other things, an experiment in how historic sites can be used for creative purposes in opposition to the gentrification model we all know and dread so well, where artists and creatives are used as compost (a term I heard a developer used openly to an artspace in Liverpool) to lure in other developers and then evict the culture makers once capital has been locked in and rent extraction can begin.

How (and why) did it end up based in an observatory?

Oophff thats a long story. Short version is we (Ed and Fi) bought it off a live-bidding auction website based in Nottingham for repossessed property. That all went through in 2016. Kym joined us from the beginning, then Ange, also a director, joined soon after the renovations and Covid shutdown in 2021, I think? And then Becky and Zara also got on board and work as stewards of the building alongside us.

The scientists left the Observatory in 2004 and then the building entered a kind of limbo period. A local developer bought it off NERC and got listed building consent and planning permission to convert it into 4x luxury flats. We purchased the building off them at the above mentioned auction.

The purchase and renovation was privately funded, Ed inherited some land in Somerset that he sold to a developer which generated enough cash to buy and renovate the building.

BOARC is modelled on Performing Arts Forum in St Erme, France which has been operating for 20 years now but we have a lot of differences, architecturally of course, but also geographically. Our proximity to Liverpool is huge bonus and means we get a lot of national and international visitors as well as local users. PAF has recently transitioned from singular ownership to being collectively owned by 50 (!) shareholders which is an extraordinary feat and quite inspiring given the shared context of unaffordable housing and ever expanding corporate property ownership.

That is a lot of shareholders! Does BOARC have any big success stories?

All our users are success stories! Tbh just surviving atm feels like a success story! I think our highlights have been reconnecting with the scientists that used to work here, developing a tours program and public events program, bands recording music videos on the roof, our radio show Domes FM, and cooking for 200 people on our Easter Art Market. Those jump to mind.

BOARC seems wide open to people from a lot of disciplines. Do you get a lot of people from the arts and the sciences (and do you think its history as an observatory has much affect on people who use it)?

I definitely think so! It has such a crazy history and was a functioning research site from 1866-2004 and covered so many different areas of research, theres so much to learn and explore there. I think we pride ourselves on tying to have as diverse groups of users as possible, whether thats housing co-op meet ups, The Association of Lighthouse Keepers working weekends, artists making site specific artworks, community groups, LARPers, deep healing workshops, clown retreats to name a few from the last 12 months. We do say no to ghost hunting and paranormal groups though. We leave our ghosts alone!

Your website has one of the most extraordinary fonts I've ever seen! Could you tell us a bit about that?

Yes! We worked with Spreeeng designers who came and stayed at The Observatory and took inspiration from the building and its surroundings to make our own custom BOARC Courier font. So you can see influences the of Victorian gothic fonts, carved graffitti from Bidston Hill, and old institutional signage.

A couple of your facilities caught my eye: the wet room and the domes. What are they used for (and do the domes have telescopes?)

Sadly no telescopes. The Transit Telescope used to track the transitory paths of the planets in our solar system to improve the accuracy of time keeping is on display in The World Museum in Liverpool. They have a really great display about the Observatory but I doubt we'll ever get the telescope back! The Wet Studio is for people wanting make a bit of a mess with plaster and paints. We also have a recording studio in the old 1970s Computer Room that housed a huge IBM 1130, one of the punch card machines, very cool. We keep the domes empty so people can work in there, do rehearsals/performances etc. It's also very popular with vocalists and musicians as they have crazy acoustic properties, we've had a few choirs rehearse and record in there!

How are you funded?

The building and renovations were funded by Fi and Ed. BOARC occasionally wins small pockets of funding for events or workshops but on average about 95% of our costs are covered by our users, paying the nightly rate.

What's next on your roadmap?

Getting more users and visitors to come and enjoy the building is always top of the list. Greening the building and reducing heat costs and energy consumption is another priority on the building side. And developing programming and in-house organised events which are becoming more ambitious! Slow, careful growth and avoiding burn out!

How can people get involved?

Just email [email protected] if you have any questions, come stay, come on a tour, come do a workshop, come hide and practise dj-ing for a weekend. Or donate! Thats always appreciate ;)

We're at @bid_obs on Insta, bidobsartisticresearch on FB, email if you wanna chat with us. Shout out wise, big up the Domes Crü, HECS and our lovely Stewards and Mandy and Stephen, our wonderful neighbours next door in the Lighthouse.

Many thanks to Angelina, Ed and the rest of the BOARC team! You can find more about BOARC on their site.