Since my first trip there, I kind of fell in love with FACT in Liverpool. The “arts space” concept is often a really bad grab bag of unsuitable rooms to do theatre, art and a few cafes desperately trying to make up the shortfall. FACT seems to buck this kind of trend by having a well run cinema and genuinely nice bar at the heart of the concept. Indeed one of the nice aspects was that a room which last time I had been there was used for displaying art, had been converted into a cinema. Of course I would like that, but I particularly liked how it had been done. Basically forty squarish sofas had been plonked in a room, a curtain pulled up and that was your cinema. Not only was it extremely comfy, and different to the standard film experience, it would also be a matter of minutes to convert the space back into a gallery or all purpose art space.
Cinema is a paying business and an otherwise empty room could be converted into a regular money earner with the outlay of a projector, and £4000 worth of seating – which from an arts council point of view is next to nothing. More importantly as with the cinemas in the ICA, you can also pop in to see the art while you are in there. I find a lot of art not really worth the trip – twenty minutes of trying to decide whether or not I like something. The cinema gallery (as long as it separates both) is ideal for me. And FACT does it perfectly.