Factory International

Last updated

Factory International
FactoryInt.jpg
Aviva Studios, Home of Factory International
LocationFactory International
Water Street
Manchester
M3 4JQ England
Coordinates 53°28′40.1844″N02°15′27.2988″W / 53.477829000°N 2.257583000°W / 53.477829000; -2.257583000
Public transit Deansgate station / Salford Central station / Deansgate-Castlefield Metrolink
Owner Manchester Quays Ltd (MQL)
Operator Manchester International Festival
via the project's board
Capacity Up to 7,000

1,500 – 2,000 auditorium

5,000 flexible 'warehouse' space
Acreage 13,300 m2 (143,000 sq ft)
Construction
Broke ground January 2019
OpenedJune 2023
Construction cost £185.79 million
Architect Office for Metropolitan Architecture, lead architect Ellen van Loon
Project manager Manchester City Council
Structural engineer BuroHappold Engineering also civil engineer services and BREEAM
Services engineerBDP (building services) Charcoalblue (theatre)
Level Acoustics (acoustic)
Tenants
Manchester International Festival
Website
factoryinternational.org

Factory International is a leading arts organisation based in Manchester, England. It produces the biennial Manchester International Festival (MIF) and operates Aviva Studios, a landmark cultural venue designed by the Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA). [1] With a focus on commissioning original interdisciplinary works across theatre, dance, music, visual arts and digital media, Factory International collaborates with global artists and institutions, positioning Manchester — and the North — as a significant cultural hub. [2]

Contents

History

Factory International builds on the legacy of Manchester International Festival (MIF), [3] 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 [4] by then Chancellor, George Osborne, who pledged a £78 million [5] investment as part of the Northern Powerhouse programme. [6] 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". [5]

In January 2017, MIF were named as the operators of the new cultural venue, [7] 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. [8]

In recognition of the new balance of its activity, in September 2022, the whole organisation re-branded as Factory International, [9] 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. [10]  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. [11]

Aviva Studios

Aviva Studios, programmed and operated by Factory International, was 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. [12]

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, [13] being developed by Allied London, which purchased the site with Manchester City Council. [14] The building's development coincides with that of the adjacent Science and Industry Museum. [8] 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. [15] Two public squares on the north and west sides of the building also make up the Factory International site [16] [17] and the scheme includes the restoration and reuse of the northern brick arched portion of the Grade II-listed Colonnaded Railway Viaduct. [18]

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; [19] Thomas Ostermeier's Returning to Reims; [20] Available Light by composer John Adams, choreographer Lucinda Childs and architect Frank Gehry; [21] Everything that happened and would happen [22] by German composer and artist Heiner Goebbels; Special Edition, a series of musical offerings presented with The Warehouse Project; [23] Invisible Cities, [24] a co-commission between MIF, 59 Productions and Rambert; Ivo Van Hove's The Fountainhead; [25] Rafael Lozano-Hemmer's Atmospheric Memory; [26] and to the Moon by Laurie Anderson. [27]

Virtual Factory

In July 2020, MIF launched Virtual Factory, [28] 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, [29] 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 was by artist and filmmaker Jenn Nkiru.[ needs update ]

2023 - Opening Programme

Factory International's opening programme 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. [30] The programme also included You Me and the Balloons, the largest ever show by artist Yayoi Kusama, [31] and The Welcome, a series of events and performances curated by the people of Greater Manchester.

2024

Factory International's 2024 programme highlights included Robin/Red/Breast, an immersive folk-horror play starring Maxine Peake, [32] a three-week residency by the artist David Hoyle [33] and The Fête of Britain, a festival curated by Brian Eno and Es Devlin featuring Jeremy Deller and Cornelia Parker. [34] Summer 2024 saw the launch of Summer Factory, a series of cultural and food events at the venue, including the audiovisual installation Sweet Dreams in the Warehouse. In Autumn 2024, Factory International opened a new live show, ARK: United States V, by multi-media artist Laurie Anderson. [35]

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. [36] Under the Radar Festival supported artists involved in theatre and performance.

Factory Academy

Based at Aviva Studios in Manchester, Factory Academy was launched to address local skills shortages in technical, production, and creative roles and offers free courses in areas such as stage lighting, sound mixing, set design, rigging, creative business management, and arts project development. [37]

By 2024, more than 1,000 people from Greater Manchester had completed courses through Factory Academy. [38] Around 60% of graduates have progressed into paid roles within the arts, including employment at major Manchester venues such as Co-op Live and the Science and Industry Museum. [39]

Training takes place inside Aviva Studios and is designed to give students hands-on experience. Alumni have contributed to high-profile productions, including Sweet Dreams, presented at Factory International in 2024.

Timescale

The timeframe of the project contains the following key milestones:

Funding for the building of Factory International [8] : 13–14  [15]
Source of fundingAmount £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

References

  1. ↑ "OMA, Aviva Studios – Factory International".
  2. ↑ Robb, Adam (25 July 2024). "Aviva Studios, home of Factory International: World's Greatest Places 2024". TIME. Retrieved 4 August 2025.
  3. ↑ Morrison, Richard (7 June 2023). "There's vim up north – why Manchester is a cultural powerhouse". The Times . ISSN   0140-0460 . Retrieved 7 June 2023.
  4. ↑ Citations:
  5. 1 2 "Manchester to get new £78m theatre named The Factory". BBC News. 3 December 2014. Retrieved 21 January 2015.
  6. ↑ "Manchester to get new £78m theatre". BBC News. 3 December 2014. Retrieved 15 September 2020.
  7. ↑ "Factory Manchester Gets the GO Ahead!". Manchester's Finest. 13 January 2017. Retrieved 15 September 2020.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 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
  9. ↑ 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.{{cite news}}: |last2= has generic name (help)
  10. ↑ "The data: 2022/23 extension". Arts Council England. Retrieved 7 June 2023.
  11. ↑ 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.{{cite news}}: |last2= has generic name (help)
  12. ↑ Brown, Mark (25 November 2015). "Rem Koolhaas wins Factory design project as Manchester goes Dutch". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved 7 June 2023.
  13. ↑ "Vision". St. John's, Manchester. Retrieved 21 September 2020.
  14. ↑ "Granada's Quay Street complex bought by Allied London and Manchester City Council". Prolific North. 27 September 2013. Archived from the original on 20 October 2020. Retrieved 21 September 2020.
  15. 1 2 Manchester City Council (26 July 2017). Executive meeting: 9. Factory Manchester (Report). Manchester City Council . Retrieved 29 July 2017. Pdf. Archived 29 July 2017 at the Wayback Machine
  16. ↑ OMA (October 2016), "Introduction", in OMA (ed.), Design and access statement: Factory (151 pages) (PDF), OMA, p. 7[ permanent dead link ]
  17. ↑ "The Factory". stjohnsmanchester.com. Manchester Quays Ltd (MQL). Archived from the original on 26 July 2016. Retrieved 22 July 2016.
  18. ↑ Historic England 1200805
  19. ↑ Anglesey, Natalie (28 September 2016). "Review: Akram Khan's Giselle, at Palace Theatre, Manchester". Manchester Evening News. Retrieved 18 January 2021.
  20. ↑ Crompton, Sarah (10 July 2017). "Review: Returning to Reims (HOME, MIF)". What's on Stage. Retrieved 18 January 2021.
  21. ↑ Mackrell, Judith (7 July 2017). "Available Light review – Lucinda Childs' minimalist movers weave through John Adams' music". The Guardian. Retrieved 18 January 2021.
  22. ↑ Morrison, Richard (12 October 2018). "Theatre review: Everything that happened and would happen at the Mayfield, Manchester". The Sunday Times. Retrieved 18 January 2021.
  23. ↑ Oliver, Jake (15 November 2018). "Live Review: Bicep (WHP x MIF)". The Mancunion. Retrieved 18 January 2021.
  24. ↑ Monahan, Mark (5 July 2019). "Invisible Cities, Manchester International Festival review: Brunel meets Dante in this spellbinding spectacle". The Telegraph. Retrieved 18 January 2021.
  25. ↑ Williams, Holly (9 July 2019). "Ivo van Hove: 'I want to make the most extreme production possible'". inews. Retrieved 18 January 2021.
  26. ↑ Bonime, Western (19 August 2019). "Future Everything explores the impact of our voice on the world in Atmospheric Memory". Forbes. Retrieved 18 January 2021.
  27. ↑ Eastham, Ben (9 August 2019). "Satellite of Love". ArtReview. Retrieved 18 January 2021.
  28. ↑ Heward, Emily (2 July 2020). "Take a virtual tour of Manchester's massive new Factory arts centre". Manchester Evening News. Retrieved 18 January 2021.
  29. ↑ Webster, Andrew (1 July 2020). "The latest modern art installation is inside Fortnite". The Verge. Retrieved 18 January 2021.
  30. ↑ "Danny Boyle Matrix 'spectacular' to open Manchester's Factory". The Guardian. 29 September 2022. Retrieved 1 October 2022.
  31. ↑ Bakar, Faima (29 September 2022). "The world's biggest ever Yayoi Kusama show will open in the UK next year". Time Out United Kingdom. Retrieved 1 October 2022.
  32. ↑ "Robin/Red/Breast". MIF t/a Factory International. Retrieved 4 August 2025.
  33. ↑ "David Hoyle: Please Feel Free to Ignore My Work". MIF t/a Factory International. Retrieved 4 August 2025.
  34. ↑ "The Fête of Britain". MIF t/a Factory International. Retrieved 4 August 2025.
  35. ↑ "ARK : United States Part 5 | Aviva Studios | Manchester". MIF t/a Factory International. Retrieved 4 August 2025.
  36. ↑ "Under the Radar Global Partners". publictheater.org. Retrieved 8 June 2023.
  37. ↑ "Factory Academy | Factory International | Manchester". MIF t/a Factory International. Retrieved 4 August 2025.
  38. ↑ "Manchester creative industries scheme sees 1,000 people graduate". BBC News. 29 September 2024. Retrieved 4 August 2025.
  39. ↑ "Manchester creative industries scheme sees 1,000 people graduate". BBC News. 29 September 2024. Retrieved 4 August 2025.
  40. ↑ "Provision of design services lots 1–7 for the Factory Development, Manchester". UnitedKingdom-Tenders.co.uk. 24 July 2015. Retrieved 5 August 2015.
  41. ↑ 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. Archived 4 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine

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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