The Lowry – the city’s iconic arts and theatre venue – is celebrating its 25th birthday.
It first opened its doors on April 28, 2000 and has drawn more than 20m visitors since then, putting on nearly 1,000 performances each year.
Named after one of Britain’s most celebrated painters, it holds the world’s biggest public collection of LS Lowry’s work.
And the building, dubbed ‘Salford’s Guggenheim’, has been at the heart of the city’s massive transformation in the Quays and MediaCity, which has made the area an international destination.
“The venue of course celebrates one of Salford’s most famous sons, but it also celebrates the city’s and our resident’s, families’ and communities’ shared love for culture and the arts,” Salford city mayor Paul Dennett said.
“It’s a place that wouldn’t have existed without Mr. Laurence Stephen Lowry, but equally, as an artist he couldn’t have created his art without the city, industrial and working-class life as his subject.
“The artist and the city are and forever will be, so intrinsically linked, and the venue in return couldn’t exist without either the city or the artist.”
That view was shared by residents and visitors, who said how much the venue means to Salford.
“It’s so important to have places like the Lowry,” said 30-year-old Chad Blakelock, a New Zealander living in Salford Quays who said Greater Manchester has a growing reputation as the “London of the north.”
“I’ve been to see some of the art work there, it’s a really cool place. MediaCity is very interesting and there’s a lot to do around the area.”
Val Farrar, a retiree visiting the theatre who grew up nearby, added: “I didn’t even recognise it after how the area has changed, the scale of it has been unbelievable.”
She thinks one of the reasons the Lowry has become such a popular venue is how easy it is to get to Salford Quays, an area which is “accessible to a lot of people.”
Salford’s mayor said the seeds of what would become Salford Quays and the Lowry were planted long ago.
In some ways it is hard to imagine that the area was once a place of grafting dock workers, but its heritage has been captured and preserved through information points around the area documenting its past.
“It was a vision that was started under the leadership of councillor Les Hough, encouraged by councillor Ben Wallsworth who had the foresight to see the derelict docks as a regeneration and tourist destination, which led to securing public ownership of the docklands,” the Salford city mayor added.
“The vision for Salford Quays continued under councillor Bill Hinds realising the cultural potential of Salford Quays in 1992, establishing the Lowry project team in 1994, and opening The Lowry Theatre & Art Gallery with the Labour government’s support in 2000 as a millennium project.
“Salford Quays regeneration credentials were further boosted under councillor John Merry who oversaw the arrival of the BBC and MediaCityUK.
“What came next was a hugely important economic renaissance of Salford’s derelict docklands, arguably one of the most successful economic development and regeneration initiatives of its time in Europe.”
One person who is well aware of the changes that have taken place around Salford Quays and the Lowry is the venue’s chief executive, Julia Fawcett OBE.
She grew up on the edge of the Quays in the 1970s, and said she could have never imagined the area would turn into what it is today.
A fence separates what was the street where she once lived, and the boundary with the Quays.
Julia studied at Salford Tech alongside actor Christopher Eccleston, but later left the city to go to Bristol University before a career where she worked at Granada and then became chief executive of one of Scotland’s largest visitor attractions.
She took on the job of leading the Lowry in 2002, and has witnessed the incredible changes happening all around Salford Quays in that time. As she puts it: “We’re a proper part of the city, thoroughly embedded.”
For Julia, a large part of the Lowry’s existence and future is to make sure that kids in Salford have a world-class arts and performance venue right on the doorstep – and all the benefits that brings to the city.
“I’d like to think that it means a young kid growing up in Salford can come and take part in things here and see that the arts is a place for them, whether that’s because they have an interest or talent for it, or just for the joy of it” she said.
“Young people don’t have to go away from Salford for a career in the arts. The Lowry and Media City is a really great pathway for those young people that means we can hold on to creative talent in the city, in a way that we couldn’t previously.”
Salford’s problems are well-documented – the council says the city is still one of the most deprived local authority areas in England, and it uses large chunks of its budget trying to support some of the most vulnerable families.
It is in that context that Julia speaks with pride about how the Lowry is a Salford venue on the national touring circuit, bringing the best of the country’s live theatre to the city.
In May and June, the Lowry will host performances of ‘Dear England’, the National Theatre’s Olivier Award-winning show, as part of its 25th anniversary programme.
“Some in Greater Manchester would find it difficult to fund a weekend down to London to see Dear England, so isn’t it amazing that it’s transferring off their stages up here for a four week run. From that point of view we play a really crucial role.”
‘We’re still standing at 25 years, that feels like something of a miracle’
But much like the city of Salford itself, the Lowry’s story has not always been straightforward, Julia says, claiming the last five years have been particularly hard.
“We’re still standing at 25 years, that feels like something of a miracle given everything that the last five years has thrown in our direction,” she said.
When Covid hit, arts venues across the country were forced to close their doors, a situation which left many fighting for their very survival, including the Lowry.
The venue found itself in “limbo”, not knowing if it would ever recover. It managed to survive by turning the building into a ‘Nightingale Court’ for a year to help clear the backlog of cases, a move which meant it was able to keep all of its staff, Julia explained.
Another challenge came two years ago when one of LS Lowry’s most famous paintings, ‘Going to the Match’, was removed from its wall and put up for auction.
It was owned by the Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA) and on display at the Lowry on loan for decades before the PFA decided to sell it.
The Lowry as a venue was still struggling from the aftermath of the pandemic, and as Julia says, its finances at the time had “never been ropier.”
But there was a huge desire to keep the painting in Salford at the Lowry.
“People come from all over the country to see it. Football fans come from all over, the buses pull up here, people look for that painting, and then go to enjoy a match at Old Trafford,” Julia said.
“We’d had it on a long loan from our opening, it was on our walls for 20 years. It was never ours but it was the heart of the collection.
“The PFA for their own reasons decided to sell it, it all happened so quickly. It was off the walls almost immediately, the auction house took it away to promote ahead of a sale. We were utterly devastated.”
But in the face of a huge test, the city of Salford and the Lowry came together, and bought the iconic 1953 work for more than £6m.
“We were so keen to save that painting for the people of the north because we knew what it meant, and we weren’t in a position to buy it post-pandemic.
“We ran a campaign and that’s an example of where we worked with city mayor Paul Dennett to drum up support for us to be able to buy the painting.
“The MEN and press of all political persuasions got involved, and then we found a funder.
“We went to auction in October and secured that painting forever. So, you think what the Lowry does for the city as well as our community work, we bought that painting for the city of Salford, it’s on public display forever.
“That’s a city and an arts organisation understanding how important the history of a place is, as well as the future of a place, and coming together in really difficult circumstances.
“It’s probably the thing that gave us a confidence boost as we were coming out of the pandemic, because actually art does matter, the public really cared about what was going to happen to that painting, and the press were all saying this needs to happen, the city was behind it, and Paul Dennett particularly.
“It happened because people recognised that art does matter, and the art from places like this matters.”
What lies ahead for the future of the Lowry?
First, there’s a whole programme of events planned to celebrate the venue’s milestone 25th birthday.
Opening on May 3, visitors can enjoy Lowry 360, which the venue says is the UK’s first free permanent immersive experience based on the sights and sounds of LS Lowry’s iconic work, ‘Going to the Match’, alongside a number of other events taking place as part of the celebrations.
The Lowry is also looking towards commissioning more work, to find the up and coming artists of the future.
Julia says the venue is really still in recovery mode from the pandemic, but the focus on the future is, as ever, getting more people interacting with art and creativity in Salford.
She said: “We’re enjoying doing more commissioning work, and I’d like to see us working with more artists to create more work and invest in more work early.
“We worked with a young company for about ten years who were straight out of university and became part of our ‘Developed With’ artists programme, having worked here for ten or 15 years on a number of different productions, they’ve gone on to have this huge West-End success with ‘Operation Mincemeat’, and next month they’re opening ‘Operation Mincemeat’ in New York on Broadway.
“We’d like to do more of that kind of work, identify the up and coming artists of today and work with them for ten or 15 years.”
There are also big plans for the wider area of Salford Quays and MediaCity.
In January, Salford council announced plans for 3,000 new homes, more business opportunities across around 75,000sqms, as well as access to employment, retail, leisure and recreation.
It is clear that the work that has taken place in this part of Salford is far from over.
Paul Dennett added: “Today, our waterfront destination here at Salford Quays, is testament to our city’s artistic and ambitious spirit.
“With Lowry at the heart, it’s buzzing with cultural opportunities, creative and artisan markets, restaurants and an array of immersive events including the city’s fantastic celebration of our proud social and labour history and our gift of free time to the world through our weekend festival: We Invented the Weekend.
“It is a huge honour to have this amazing venue here in our city. It’s a place of joy, excitement, entertainment and inspiration, a place to discover, explore and play, with something new round every corner and something different to enjoy each month.
“As the City of Salford, Greater Manchester, the North of England and indeed the nation celebrates Lowry’s 25th anniversary, I’d encourage everyone to come and experience the fantastic and unique range of events and activities that are planned over the coming weeks and months.
“Lowry epitomises the Spirit of Salford and continues to demonstrate in all that it does the motto of our city, that the welfare of the city is the highest law, happy 25th birthday, Lowry!”
