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{{Short description|Arts centre in Salford, England}}{{Other uses|Lowry (disambiguation)}}{{Use British English|date=September 2013}}{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2015}}

factoids

| built = 1999 | opened = 2000| architect = Michael Wilford| website = The LowryArt museum>Art gallery and Lyric and Quays theatres and Studio| genre = Arts centre| construction_cost = £106 million*{{rintImperial War Museum}}

• {{rint|Manchester}} {{tram|MediaCityUK}}

}}| seating_capacity = Lyric: 1,730Quays: 466Studio: 150}}The Lowry is a theatre and gallery complex at Salford Quays, Salford, Greater Manchester, England. It is named after the early 20th-century painter L. S. Lowry, known for his paintings of industrial scenes in North West England. The complex opened on 28 April 2000WEB,weblink The Lowry Centre, Salford {{!, National Theatre|website=www.nationaltheatre.org.uk|access-date=2019-11-25}} and was officially opened on 12 October 2000 by Queen Elizabeth II.{{citation|title=Her Majesty the Queen officially opens The Lowry in Salford|url=http://www.millennium.gov.uk/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=1536&d=11&h=24&f=46&dateformat=%25o-%25B-%25Y|publisher=Millennium Commission|access-date=21 October 2011|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110927102909weblink|archive-date=27 September 2011|df=dmy-all}}

History

Background

To redevelop the derelict Salford docks, Salford City Council developed a regeneration plan in 1988 for the brownfield site highlighting the leisure, cultural and tourism potential of the area, and included a flagship development that would involve the creation of a performing arts centre. The initial proposals were for two theatres and an art gallery on a prominent site on Pier 8.{{citation|title=Milestones|url=http://www.salford.gov.uk/d/milestones_v2.pdf|publisher=Salford Council|pages=6–9|access-date=21 October 2011}}Between 1990 and 1991 a competition was launched and architects James Stirling Michael Wilford Associates was selected.After the death of James Stirling in June 1992 Michael Wilford continued the project. The city council bid for Millennium and other British and European funds and private sector finance to progress the project. Funding was secured in 1996 and The Lowry Trust became responsible for the project which comprised The Lowry Centre, the plaza, a footbridge, a retail outlet shopping mall and Digital World Centre. The National Lottery provided over £21 million of funding towards its construction.{{citation|title=The Lowry|url=http://www.millennium.gov.uk/cgi-site/awards.cgi?action=detail&id=179|publisher=Millennium Commission|access-date=21 October 2011|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://archive.today/20070224002032weblink|archive-date=24 February 2007|df=dmy-all}} The project was completed in 2000 at a cost of £106 million.{{citation |title= The Building|url=http://www.thelowry.com/about-the-lowry/the-lowry-building/|publisher=The Lowry|access-date=21 October 2011}} The Lowry name was adopted in honour of the local artist, L. S. Lowry. In 2002, a nearby shopping centre that was also named after Lowry was opened.The complex is close to the Imperial War Museum North and the Old Trafford football stadium. It is served by the MediaCityUK stop on the Metrolink tram network. In 2010 and 2011 it was Greater Manchester's most visited tourist attraction.WEB,weblink Manchester Evening News, menmedia.co.uk, Lowry gallery and theatre is most popular tourist attraction in Greater Manchester, Tom, Brooks-Pollock, 30 November 2011, 1 December 2011, A sting operation by the Salford Star in 2006 attempted to demonstrate intolerance towards unaccompanied teenagers in hoodies entering the complex.{{citation |title= Sunday afternoon at the Lowry|url=https://www.theguardian.com/slideshow/page/0,,1946775,00.html|work=The Guardian|access-date=27 February 2012|location=London}}

Design and construction

(File:The Lowry and Ship Canal.JPG|thumb|The Lowry's waterfront setting)(File:LowryCentre.jpg|thumb|Side view of the main entrance)The complex was designed by Michael Wilford{{citation |title= Lowry Centre Salford Quays|url=http://www.e-architect.co.uk/manchester/lowry_centre_salford.htm|publisher=e-architect|access-date=21 October 2011}} with structural engineer Buro Happold and constructed by Bovis Construction. Groundbreaking took place on 19 June 1997. The Lowry is built on a triangular site at the end of Pier 8 and has a triangular plan. A promenade encircling the building provides views of the Manchester Ship Canal, MediaCityUK and the Salford Quays developments.The foyer faces the public plaza, where there is a large aerofoil canopy at the entrance clad with perforated steel and illuminated from inside at night. Much of the building is clad in stainless steel and glass.The Lowry footbridge spanning the ship canal was designed and project managed by Parkman, with design support from Carlos Fernandez Casado. It is a lift bridge with a clear span of {{convert|100|m}}, which lifts vertically to provide a {{convert|26|m|adj=on}} clearance for shipping using the canal. The bridge span is a tied arch and the towers are constructed in tubular steelwork to provide an open aspect to view the lifting counterweight and sheaves.In November 2015, the Lowry opened a new bar and restaurant, called Pier 8, after a 12-week closure on the original bar and restaurant. The new space cost £3m to develop and is part of an ongoing £5m investment programme to improve facilities and reduce the environmental footprint of the complex.WEB, First look: The Lowry's new £3m Pier 8 bar and restaurant,weblink men, 19 November 2015, 7 December 2015, The new features include a zinc topped curving bar with room to seat 150 people for casual dining. The bar also has a feature tree with leaves made from cotton, to commemorate Salford Quays' history at the centre of the cotton shipping industry. The new restaurant contains seven private booths, a newly designed open kitchen, and a second large room at the rear which can be opened up to accommodate more diners or private functions. Major structural changes have taken place in the building for the design, including the removal of a large staircase and the addition of an external entrance to the bar and restaurant, as well as added areas made to look like shipping containers.WEB, First look: The Lowry's new £3m Pier 8 bar and restaurant,weblink men, 19 November 2015, 8 December 2015,

Reception

The regeneration of Salford Quays with Michael Wilford's Lowry as its centrepiece has led to references in the media to the "Bilbao effect", the phenomenon where the creation of a new, architecturally striking cultural amenity (such as Frank Gehry's Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao) brings economic improvement to areas of urban decay. When the Lowry opened in 2000, MP Gerald Kaufman described the building as "Salford's Guggenheim".WEB, Sutcliffe, Thomas, New Lowry rises in a drab industrial landscape,weblink The Independent, 20 January 2024,weblink 20 January 2024, 28 April 2000, live, The Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell stated in 2005 that Salford had become "the new Bilbao" as a result of the opening of The Lowry.WEB, Salford: "The new Bilbao",weblink Manchester Evening News, 20 January 2024,weblink 20 January 2024, en, 21 June 2005, live, However, Hugh Aldersey-Williams, writing in The New Statesman, was less convinced, describing The Lowry as "not quite 'Salford's Guggenheim' ... It is ultimately too small and too well behaved ... although there are obvious shared aims."NEWS, Aldersly-Williams, Hugh, 'Salford's Guggenheim', New Statesman, 24 April 2000,weblink 27 November 2011,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20110111001202weblink">weblink 11 January 2011, dead,

Facilities

Gallery

(File:Lowry-gallery-interior-3.jpg|thumb|The permanent collection on display in The Lowry)The complex contains {{convert|2000|sqm||abbr=on}} of gallery space devoted to the permanent collection of works by L. S. Lowry, as well as other temporary exhibitions.Most of the L. S. Lowry works were originally collected from the 1930s onwards by Salford Museum and Art Gallery, and the collection was transferred to the new purpose-built museum when it opened in 2000. The collection includes about 400 pieces in oil, pastel and watercolours from all periods of Lowry's career. Noted works on display include:{{citation | url=https://artuk.org/visit/venues/the-lowry-6550 | title= The Lowry | publisher= Art UK | access-date=25 January 2013}}{{citation|title=The Lowry Collection|url=http://www.thelowry.com/ls-lowry/the-ls-lowry-collection/|publisher=The Lowry|access-date=4 March 2012|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100330200042weblink|archive-date=30 March 2010|df=dmy-all}}WEB, L.S Lowry Exhibition,weblink The Lowry, 15 January 2023,weblink 14 January 2023, live,

• Coming from the Mill (watercolour c.1917-18)
• Coming from the Mill (oil on canvas, 1930)
• Going to the Match (oil on canvas, 1953)
• The Cripples (oil on canvas, 1949)
• Industrial Landscape (oil on canvas, 1953)
• Portrait of Ann (oil on board, 1957)
• A Head of a Man with Red Eyes (oil on board, 1938)

The Artworks Creativity Gallery, designed and implemented by architects Reich-Petch (responsible for developing the National Museum of Natural History in Washington D.C.), uses multimedia to encourage visitor participation and interaction with exhibits to transform gallery space.{{citation |title= ArtWorks at the Lowry|url=http://www.reich-petch.com/ |publisher=Reich-Petch|access-date=21 October 2011}}Between October 2011 and January 2012 the gallery hosted an exhibition of about 100 works by Lowry's teacher, Pierre Adolphe Valette, including paintings of Manchester from Manchester Art Gallery and loans from private owners.{{citation |title= Exhibition for 'Monet of Manchester' who inspired Lowry|url=https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2011/oct/14/exhibition-for-artist-who-inspired-lowry|work=The Guardian|access-date=4 March 2012|location=London|first=Mark|last=Brown|date=14 October 2011}}An Archive Room houses material related to the artist including books, catalogues of his exhibitions and auctions, press cuttings, tapes of interviews with Lowry and others, photographs and ephemera. The archive is open by appointment.{{citation|title=The LS Lowry Archive|url=http://www.thelowry.com/ls-lowry/the-ls-lowry-archive/|publisher=The Lowry|access-date=3 June 2012|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120601232918weblink|archive-date=1 June 2012|df=dmy-all}}

Theatre

(File:The Lowry, Salford, October 2016 (01).JPG|thumb|The Lyric Theatre)(File:The Lowry, September 2016 (01).JPG|thumb|The Lowry entrance foyer)At the core of the complex are two theatres and a drama studio. The Lyric Theatre has 1,730 seats while the Quays has 466. The theatres host touring plays, comedy and musical events and Opera North.{{citation|title=Venues|url=http://www.operanorth.co.uk/whats-on/venues/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090303153626weblink|url-status=dead|archive-date=3 March 2009|publisher=Opera North|access-date=21 October 2011}} The Lyric Theatre has the largest stage in the United Kingdom outside London's West End. It played host to the 2011 Royal Variety Performance.{{citation |title= Salford's Lowry hosts Royal Variety Performance |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-16037436 |publisher=The BBC|access-date=15 December 2011 |date=5 December 2011}}The Daughter-in-Law by D. H. Lawrence, a play in Nottingham dialect, neither published nor performed in Lawrence's lifetime was revived at the Lyric Theatre in 2012.{{citation |title= The Daughter-in-Law, The Lowry, Salford|date=27 February 2012 |url=http://www.theartsdesk.com/theatre/daughter-law-lowry-salford |publisher=The arts Desk|access-date=4 March 2012}} The Lowry was the venue for the grand final of the BBC quiz show Mastermind in 2003.The Lyric Theatre has also housed the first and only televised recording of the radio show I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue, which Humphrey Lyttelton chaired just 19 days before his death in April 2008. An edited version aired on BBC Four, and the full edition is available on DVD.It also hosts auditions for Britain's Got Talent

Week 53 Festival

{{Commons category}}The Lowry hosts the bi-annual Week 53 Festival,WEB,weblink Week 53 - Festivals, The Lowry, its flagship Arts festival with a multi-disciplinary programme across music, dance, theatre and performance.WEB,weblink Nigel Slater and Swan Lake star in the Lowry's Week 53 festival, Simon, Binns, 9 May 2018, men,

References

Notes{{Reflist|colwidth=33em}}

External links

Online exhibition of the Lowry art collection:

• WEB, Work by LS Lowry: People,weblink thelowry.com, The Lowry, 8 February 2023,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20121015074830weblink">weblink 15 October 2012, Salford, dead,
• WEB, Work by LS Lowry: Places,weblink thelowry.com, The Lowry, 8 February 2023,weblink" title="web.archive.org/web/20130112222802weblink">weblink 12 January 2013, Salford, dead,
• {{Art UK venue|the-lowry-6550|The Lowry}}

{{L. S. Lowry}}{{Salford B&S|state=collapsed}}{{Museums and galleries in Greater Manchester|state=collapsed}}{{Authority control}}