We all know about Blackpool being back in the football top flight, but is this faded North West resort also in the midst of an art revolution? Chris Sharratt talks to the BADept’s Adrian Pritchard to find out more.

Blackpool, you sense, is feeling good about itself. Its football team is back in the top flight for the first time since 1971, its council is making loud noises about the town being deserving of Unesco World Heritage site status, and even the famous Illuminations have been given a bit of a makeover in recent years by that frilly shirted flouncer Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen. And the icing on the regeneration cake? Blackpool is quietly, stealthily, becoming a place where contemporary art happens.

When artist Adrian Pritchard returned from London to his native Blackpool, he was, he says, planning to “have a bit of a breather.” The gallery that represented him had just gone bust and his Japanese wife was having visa problems. The faded glory of the Fylde Coast resort seemed the perfect place to take stock of things for a short while. That was in 2004.

“I was looking for somewhere to rent as a studio but I came across this empty derelict building. To buy it cost the same as a year’s rent in London.”

“I thought I’d stand back and reassess myself. But then I thought, ‘What’s the point of being in London, there’s so much to do here. Blackpool’s quite an interesting place; I thought it would be a worthwhile project to set up something.”

That ‘something’ eventually led, in 2008, to the opening of the Blackpool Arts Department (BADept), an artist-led gallery. “I was looking for somewhere to rent as a studio,” remembers Pritchard, “but I came across this empty derelict building. To buy it cost the same as a year’s rent in London.”

Since opening with a group show, the gallery has forged links with artists locally and nationally as well as other galleries in Blackpool (such as artist-run Supercollider and the council’s Grundy Art Gallery).

“It’s about mixing with artists from other places, while providing a platform for Blackpool artists at the same time,” explains Pritchard. “To keep things fluid and make sure that we don’t feel in a vacuum up here. We’ve been doing a lot of solo shows this year because I realized that there are a lot of artists who are really good who have never had one.”

September is a busy month for BADept. A new show by Lancaster-based artist Kit Abramson has just opened and later in the month Pritchard presents his own off-site project, Unsteady States, an installation in a vacant shop. At the end of the month, artist-in-residence Helena Ben-Zenou’s The Architecture Of Pleasure opens at Blackpool And Fylde College’s new exhibition space.

Pritchard readily admits that Blackpool has a long way to go before it can claim a place in British art history alongside the likes of St Ives. Yet while it may not have the kind of celebrity association that Margate enjoys with Tracey Emin, its unique cultural status and, crucially, cheap rents make it an increasingly attractive proposition. Its proximity to Manchester and Liverpool also helps.

“It’s a bit a rollercoaster in Blackpool at the moment,” says Pritchard, as he describes the town’s ambitions, whether it be in football, art or regeneration. It may be a bit early to call it a revolution, but Blackpool seems to be in for an entertaining ride.

More information on the BADept at www.badept.info

Images: Promotional image for Adrian Pritchard’s Unsteady States; Love30 by Kit Abramson.