Factory International

Factory International runs Manchester International Festival and operates Aviva Studios, a cultural space in Manchester, England.[1]

This article is about Factory International in Manchester, England. For other uses, see Factory (disambiguation).

Factory International
Factory International building under construction
LocationFactory International
Water Street
Manchester
M3 4JQ England
Coordinates53°28′40.1844″N 02°15′27.2988″W
Public transitDeansgate station / Salford Central station / Deansgate-Castlefield Metrolink
OwnerManchester Quays Ltd (MQL)
OperatorManchester International Festival
via the project's board
CapacityUp to 7,000

1,500 – 2,000 auditorium

5,000 flexible 'warehouse' space
Acreage13,300 m2 (143,000 sq ft)
Construction
Broke groundJanuary 2019
OpenedJune 2023
Construction cost£185.79 million
ArchitectOffice for Metropolitan Architecture, lead architect Ellen van Loon
Project managerManchester City Council
Structural engineerBuroHappold Engineering also civil engineer services and BREEAM
Services engineerBDP (building services) Charcoalblue (theatre)
Level Acoustics (acoustic)
Tenants
Manchester International Festival
Website
factoryinternational.org

History

Factory International builds on the legacy of Manchester International Festival (MIF),[2] which focusses on performing arts, visual arts and popular culture. The festival is staged across Greater Manchester – from theatres, galleries and concert halls to railway depots, churches and car parks.

Plans to build a new cultural building in Manchester were announced in December 2014[3] by then Chancellor, George Osborne, who pledged a £78 million[4] investment as part of the Northern Powerhouse programme.[5] The project was backed by Manchester City Council, which stated that the venue would "play an integral part in helping Manchester and the north of England provide a genuine cultural counterbalance to London".[4]

In January 2017, MIF were named as the operators of the new cultural venue,[6] tasked with developing its ideas and programme.

The Government announced that, from 1 April 2018, they would provide Arts Council England with an additional £9 million per annum to offer revenue support to the project.[7]

In recognition of the new balance of its activity, in September 2022, the whole organisation re-branded as Factory International,[8] though it will continue to present MIF every two years.

In 2022, the organisation was awarded a National Portfolio Award from Arts Council England of approximately £9.9 million per year.[9] Key support also comes from Manchester City Council and a range of sponsors and partners.

In 2023, it was announced that the building would be called Aviva Studios after insurance company Aviva secured the naming rights for £35 million, making it one of the UK's biggest cultural corporate sponsorship deals.[10]

Aviva Studios

Aviva Studios, programmed and operated by Factory International, is designed by the international practice Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA), founded by Rem Koolhaas and is OMA's first major, permanent cultural building in the United Kingdom.[11]

The internal spaces of Aviva Studios cover approximately 13,300 m2 (143,000 sq ft), with adaptability designed to enable the commissioning of large scale and intimate work across different art forms, including dance, theatre, music, opera, visual arts, popular culture and digital work, plus major exhibitions and concerts.

Aviva Studios was constructed on the former site of Granada Studios, where Coronation Street and other TV programmes were filmed and is located within St John's,[12] being developed by Allied London, which purchased the site with Manchester City Council.[13] The building's development coincides with that of the adjacent Science and Industry Museum.[7] The museum is building a new £6 million Special Exhibition Gallery alongside Factory International; the new gallery was set to be complete by 2020.[14][15][16] Aviva Studios is next to the River Irwell, close to other city centre cultural sites, including the People's History Museum, John Rylands Library, the Opera House, HOME and the Royal Exchange Theatre.

Design

The building covers 13,300 m2 (143,000 sq ft), and comprises three main internal spaces: the ground floor, warehouse and auditorium, with further spaces inside and outside of the building. The warehouse has a capacity of up to 5,000 and the auditorium up to 1,600 seated. The warehouse and auditorium can present events simultaneously, and the warehouse also has the ability to be divided into two spaces by an acoustic wall. Both spaces can also be combined to create and present different types and scales of events.[17] Two public squares on the north and west sides of the building also make up the Factory International site[18][19] and the scheme includes the restoration and reuse of the northern brick arched portion of the Grade II-listed Colonnaded Railway Viaduct.[20]

Programming

Pre-Factory events

In the run up to Factory International, MIF commissioned and presented a series of artists and events. Pre-Factory commissions have included Akram Khan's Giselle;[21] Thomas Ostermeier's Returning to Reims;[22] Available Light by composer John Adams, choreographer Lucinda Childs and architect Frank Gehry;[23] Everything that happened and would happen[24] by German composer and artist Heiner Goebbels; Special Edition, a series of musical offerings presented with The Warehouse Project;[25] Invisible Cities,[26] a co-commission between MIF, 59 Productions and Rambert; Ivo Van Hove's The Fountainhead;[27] Rafael Lozano-Hemmer's Atmospheric Memory;[28] and to the Moon by Laurie Anderson.[29]

Virtual Factory

In July 2020, MIF launched Virtual Factory,[30] a series of online commissions by artists, inspired by Factory International's new building, its architecture and the history of the site. The first commission was Your Progress Will Be Saved,[31] by the artist avatar LaTurbo Avedon, in which Factory International was built in the global gaming platform Fortnite Creative. Other artists commissioned for Virtual Factory included Tai Shani and Robert Yang. The final commission for the Virtual Factory platform will be by artist and filmmaker Jenn Nkiru, set to launch in 2023.

Opening programme (2023)

In September 2022, Factory International announced its opening programme for the building. It included Free Your Mind, an immersive Matrix films-themed dance, music and visual effects experience with a creative team including composer Michael 'Mikey J' Asante MBE and choreographer Kenrick 'H2O' Sandy MBE (founders of hip-hop dance company Boy Blue), artist and stage designer Es Devlin, playwright and poet Sabrina Mahfouz and director Danny Boyle.[32] The programme announcement also included You Me and the Balloons by Yayoi Kusama,[33] and The Welcome, a series of events and performances curated by the people of Greater Manchester.

International work

Factory International collaborates with venues, festivals and companies across the world to commission artists together, working with local, national and international partners and co-producers.

As MIF, Factory International was part of an Arts Council England initiative with The Public Theater in New York – to promote artists and companies based in England to a global audience.[34] Under the Radar Festival supported artists involved in theatre and performance.

Training and employment

Factory International delivers a skills, engagement and training programme under the banner the Factory Academy. Since launching in 2018, the Factory Academy has delivered several projects. In January 2019, seven local people who were not in education or employment completed a seven-month traineeship with MIF in roles such as IT, digital, production, ticketing and development. In January 2020, five young people were employed as Creative Venue Technician apprentices with Consortium members.[35]

Timescale

The timeframe of the project contains the following key milestones:

  • July 2015 – issue of the contract for design services[36]
  • Mid-November 2015 – design team appointments[37]
  • January 2017 – planning application submission[7]
  • February 2017 to June 2023 – construction[7]
  • June 2023 – The venue presents its first events for MIF23, enabling visitors to preview the building
  • October 2023 – official opening of the building
Funding for the building of Factory International[7]: 13–14 [17]
Source of funding Amount £m (% of all funding)
Exchequer via ACE grant
78.5(42.25%)
Manchester City Council
50.6(27.24%)
Cultural Capital Kickstart Fund
21(11.3%)
ACE Lottery grant
7(3.7%)
Fundraising
25(13.4%)

Total amount = £185.79m

See also

Further reading
  • 151-page overview of the background and design of the factory: OMA (October 2016). Design and access statement: Factory (pdf). Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA).

References
  1. Wainwright, Oliver (18 October 2023). "24 hour party precinct: inside Manchester's Aviva Studios – where even the loos are a stage". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 19 October 2023.
  2. Morrison, Richard (7 June 2023). "There's vim up north – why Manchester is a cultural powerhouse". ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 7 June 2023.
  3. Citations:
  4. "Manchester to get new £78m theatre named The Factory". BBC News. 3 December 2014. Retrieved 21 January 2015.
  5. "Manchester to get new £78m theatre". BBC News. 3 December 2014. Retrieved 15 September 2020.
  6. "Factory Manchester Gets the GO Ahead!". Manchester's Finest. 13 January 2017. Retrieved 15 September 2020.
  7. Manchester City Council (July 2016). Executive meeting: 16. Updated Draft St Johns Strategic regeneration framework and Factory Manchester (Report). Manchester City Council. Retrieved 22 July 2016. Pdf. Archived 1 August 2016 at the Wayback Machine
  8. Brown, Mark; correspondent, Mark Brown North of England (29 September 2022). "Danny Boyle Matrix 'spectacular' to open Manchester's Factory". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 7 June 2023.
  9. "The data: 2022/23 extension". Arts Council England. Retrieved 7 June 2023.
  10. Brown, Mark; correspondent, Mark Brown North of England (20 June 2023). "Manchester arts venue Factory International renamed after Aviva". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 21 June 2023.
  11. Brown, Mark (25 November 2015). "Rem Koolhaas wins Factory design project as Manchester goes Dutch". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 7 June 2023.
  12. "Vision". St. John's, Manchester. Retrieved 21 September 2020.
  13. "Granada's Quay Street complex bought by Allied London and Manchester City Council". Prolific North. 27 September 2013. Retrieved 21 September 2020.
  14. Barlow, Nigel (28 November 2019). "Work starts on new Special Exhibitions Gallery at Manchester's Science and Industry Museum". About Manchester. Retrieved 21 September 2020.
  15. "Building our new gallery". msimanchester.org.uk. Museum of Science and Industry. Retrieved 18 January 2017. Pdf of Carmody Groarke's design.
  16. "Museum of Science and Industry". carmodygroarke.com. Carmody Groarke. Retrieved 25 July 2016.
  17. Manchester City Council (26 July 2017). Executive meeting: 9. Factory Manchester (Report). Manchester City Council. Retrieved 29 July 2017. Pdf.
  18. OMA (October 2016), "Introduction", in OMA (ed.), Design and access statement: Factory (151 pages) (pdf), OMA, p. 7
  19. "The Factory". stjohnsmanchester.com. Manchester Quays Ltd (MQL). Retrieved 22 July 2016.
  20. Historic England 1200805
  21. Anglesey, Natalie (28 September 2016). "Review: Akram Khan's Giselle, at Palace Theatre, Manchester". Manchester Evening News. Retrieved 18 January 2021.
  22. Crompton, Sarah (10 July 2017). "Review: Returning to Reims (HOME, MIF)". What's on Stage. Retrieved 18 January 2021.
  23. Mackrell, Judith (7 July 2017). "Available Light review – Lucinda Childs' minimalist movers weave through John Adams' music". The Guardian. Retrieved 18 January 2021.
  24. Morrison, Richard (12 October 2018). "Theatre review: Everything that happened and would happen at the Mayfield, Manchester". The Sunday Times. Retrieved 18 January 2021.
  25. Oliver, Jake (15 November 2018). "Live Review: Bicep (WHP x MIF)". The Mancunion. Retrieved 18 January 2021.
  26. Monahan, Mark (5 July 2019). "Invisible Cities, Manchester International Festival review: Brunel meets Dante in this spellbinding spectacle". The Telegraph. Retrieved 18 January 2021.
  27. Williams, Holly (9 July 2019). "Ivo van Hove: 'I want to make the most extreme production possible'". inews. Retrieved 18 January 2021.
  28. Bonime, Western (19 August 2019). "Future Everything explores the impact of our voice on the world in Atmospheric Memory". Forbes. Retrieved 18 January 2021.
  29. Eastham, Ben (9 August 2019). "Satellite of Love". ArtReview. Retrieved 18 January 2021.
  30. Heward, Emily (2 July 2020). "Take a virtual tour of Manchester's massive new Factory arts centre". Manchester Evening News. Retrieved 18 January 2021.
  31. Webster, Andrew (1 July 2020). "The latest modern art installation is inside Fortnite". The Verge. Retrieved 18 January 2021.
  32. "Danny Boyle Matrix 'spectacular' to open Manchester's Factory". The Guardian. 29 September 2022. Retrieved 1 October 2022.
  33. Bakar, Faima. "The world's biggest ever Yayoi Kusama show will open in the UK next year". Time Out United Kingdom. Retrieved 1 October 2022.
  34. "Under the Radar Global Partners". publictheater.org. Retrieved 8 June 2023.
  35. MEN (3 February 2020). "Apprenticeship Week sees launch of new creative opportunities in Manchester". Manchester Evening News. Retrieved 29 January 2021.
  36. "Provision of design services lots 1–7 for the Factory Development, Manchester". UnitedKingdom-Tenders.co.uk. 24 July 2015. Retrieved 5 August 2015.
  37. Manchester City Council (29 July 2015). Executive meeting: 16. The Factory Manchester: Project Delivery (Report). Manchester City Council. pp. 222–224. Retrieved 5 August 2015. point 5.0. Pdf.

Notes
Note 1 The original timeline was as follows:
  • May 2016 – planning application submission
  • January 2017 to December 2018 – construction
  • January 2019 to June 2019 – commissioning of facilities and test events
  • July 2019 – opening ceremony
Note 2 The revised timeline was as follows:
  • End of 2019 – opening ceremony
Reference to Note 1
Reference to Note 2
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