Liverpool's Bluecoat has turned one of its ground-floor galleries into something closer to a listening room than a conventional exhibition space. Jalsaghar, a new solo show by artist Debjani Banerjee, opened its doors on Saturday 11 July and runs until Sunday 6 September, with free entry throughout the run.

The title means "music room" in Bengali, borrowed from Satyajit Ray's 1958 film of the same name, and it sets the tone for everything inside. Across film, sculpture and installation, Banerjee has built a sensory environment where visitors are invited to slow down and sit with music, stories and objects that trace the space between two very different childhoods — one shaped by Bengali heritage, the other by growing up in England in the 1980s.

It's the kind of show that rewards wandering rather than rushing, and for anyone working in or around Merseyside's art scene, it's worth carving out a proper hour rather than a quick lunchtime pass-through.

Banerjee's practice sits at the meeting point of two inheritances, and Jalsaghar makes that collision feel playful rather than solemn or academic. Traditional craft, religious imagery and the ordinary texture of English popular culture are layered together until the line between them starts to blur.

Visitors will find Rabindranath Tagore, the Bengali writer, composer and philosopher, alongside deities including Ganesh and Shiva, and imagery drawn from the Mahabharata, one of the great epics of Indian literature. None of it sits behind glass as museum artefact. Instead, these references are folded into dreamlike scenes shaped by personal memory, family history and the stories that get inherited rather than chosen, the artist's own shifting sense of what India means to her, built from lived experience rather than a single fixed idea.

For this run at the Bluecoat, the accompanying film is being shown as part of the wider installation for the first time, bringing sound, sculpture and moving image into the same conversation rather than treating them as separate works stacked side by side.

The exhibition launched with a Celebration Day on 11 July, featuring refreshments, family activities and a bookable walkthrough with Banerjee herself, alongside Dan Brown, Head of Exhibitions at Dundee Contemporary Arts. Collaboration runs right through Banerjee's practice, Jalsaghar has developed through work with a range of other artists and contributors, and that sense of shared making carries into how the gallery itself is set up.

The Bluecoat has also set aside a dedicated space for free creative activities, so children and families can respond to the exhibition by making their own work rather than simply looking at someone else's. It's a small addition, but one that fits the show's own logic: Jalsaghar treats a gallery less as a place to display finished statements and more as a room to be lived in for a while.

This isn't a one-off booking for Liverpool, either. The show has already toured through CCA Glasgow in 2024, KARST in Plymouth, and Mimosa House in London during 2025, picking up new layers of collaboration and context at each stop before arriving on Merseyside this summer.

Free, family-friendly, and running for nearly two months, Jalsaghar is the kind of exhibition that rewards more than one visit, the sensory detail is easy to miss on a single pass through. For Merseyside's own artists, there's plenty worth sitting with in how Banerjee handles inherited material: less about resolving two identities into a single tidy answer, more about letting them sit side by side and seeing what conversation starts between them.

It's also a useful reminder of how much international, boundary-crossing work quietly passes through the city's galleries every year, often without much fanfare beyond a listings page. Shows like this are part of what keeps Liverpool's art scene feeling connected to something bigger than the M62 corridor, and they're worth supporting with an actual visit rather than a passing mention.

If you're looking for a way to spend a quiet, thoughtful hour with genuinely sensory work this summer, the Bluecoat's music room is playing all season, free of charge.

Jalsaghar runs at the Bluecoat, Liverpool's oldest surviving building for the arts, right in the city centre on School Lane. Entry is free for the full run, Saturday 11 July through Sunday 6 September, with the gallery's usual visiting hours applying across the week. The family activity space and creative materials are available on-site for younger visitors throughout the exhibition, not just on the opening weekend.

Full details, including any bookable events tied to the run, are best checked directly on the Bluecoat's own website before you go, since gallery hours and drop-in sessions can shift week to week.