Report to Salford City Council on 20th September 2016 Report from:
Jim Taylor, City Director Councillor John Merry, Deputy City Mayor Councillor Bill Hinds, Lead Member for Finance and Support Services
Overview of Key Activities & Achievements September 2015 – August 2016
General
This period has been very successful in terms of visitor and participant numbers, attendance is broken down as follows:
Attendance Total Attenders 762,986 Theatre Attenders 449,737 Theatre Attenders (Salford) 86,008 Gallery Visitors 93,188 Learning & Engagement Participants 36,326 School theatre attendance: 39,120 Our First Lowry: 173 Total: 75,619 Learning & Engagement Participants (Salford) 8,091 School theatre attendance: 5932 Our First Lowry: 173 Total 14,196
Public revenue funding during the period was 6.5% of total income (2.1% Salford City Council, 4.4% Arts Council England). In addition the sum of £250k was received as a capital contribution from Salford City Council. The extant 3-year funding agreement from Arts Council England runs until March 2018 and provides £800k of revenue support per annum.
In 2014 we commissioned New Economy to undertake a major new report on the economic impact of The Lowry. This reveals that The Lowry has an unmatched economic and cultural impact on Greater Manchester and the UK, delivering outstanding value for public money. Key highlights from the report are:
o the original capital investment of £116million in The Lowry has leveraged an additional £1.4bn of public and private investment in Salford Quays; o for every £1 of public revenue funding The Lowry’s return on investment is £14.38 which is higher than national benchmarks for other public sector organisations; o The Lowry contributes £29m per annum in gross value added to the national economy, corresponding to a total expected contribution of £239m over the coming decade; o New Economy have further reported that the Economic Value of just two productions from 2014/2015, War Horse and Wicked, was £21.3million;
o We also won the contract to host a major international conference, SMiRT15, which alone contributed a further £1,979million to the local economy.
The Lowry continues to be a major employer in Salford and its activities support the equivalent of 295 full-time jobs across the UK, the majority in the North West. Total employees from Salford increased by 22% on last year. Direct employment figures over the period were:
Employment Total number of Employees 419
Total number of Salford Employees 135 Total volunteer hours 37,682 Total volunteer hours (Salford) 11,963
In November 2015 work was completed on the delivery of our 2020 Capital Project, a £5.5million project to secure the future sustainability of The Lowry and its work. The project included: a technical upgrade of The Lyric & Quays Theatres; a building-wide programme of energy efficiency measures and a redevelopment of major aspects of our Hospitality offer to increase connectivity with MediaCityUK and its visitors, resulting in our new Bar & Restaurant, Pier Eight. The project was funded by a £3million grant from Arts Council England and £2.5million of other private fundraising (including a £1million donation from The Law Family Charitable Foundation and a donation of £400,000 from Sir Rod & Lady Aldridge). Work on all three strands of the project completed on time and on budget.
Theatres Programme
It’s been a tremendously successful 12 months across our three Theatres. The period began with the multi-award winning Wicked which played to over 96,000 people and generated £5.8million in legacy for the tourism economy in Greater Manchester.
In May 2016 The Lowry launched a major new biennial festival, Week 53 which brings together contemporary dance, visual arts, music and theatre in interactive installations, exhibitions and performances. 200 artists presented 63 performances across 11 days including 30 Days of the Smiths, a Lowry Commission by Jackie Kay and Oberman Knocks that used the music of the Smiths as a starting point to draw extraordinary stories from ordinary local people.
The Lowry Studio is now the leading venue for new writing in the North West - we presented over 200 performances from young companies and performers from Salford and further afield – including six new shows which we supported and subsequently went on to tour nationally and even internationally.
We presented more signed and audio-described performances than ever before – and also presented six “relaxed” performances for young people on the autistic spectrum.
Families and young people remain a key priority – over the course of the year we presented 250 performances of 46 different productions specifically targeted at families and young people with an audience of 99,372.
During the period we have continued to grow and develop Our Lowry scheme, our free and discounted ticket scheme exclusively for Salford residents. Membership of the scheme saw a 31.22% growth from the previous 12 month period and current member and usage is broken down as below:
Postcode Count % of Database M3 (Blackfriars, Greengate, Trinity) 500 2.40% M5 (Ordsall, Seedley, Weaste) 1,316 6.31% M6 (Pendleton, Claremont, Irlam O’ Th’ Height) 3,970 19.03% M7 (Higher Broughton, Lower Broughton, Kersal) 1,516 7.27% M27 (Swinton, Clifton, Pendlebury, Wardley, Agecroft) 4,491 21.53% M28 (Worsley, Walkden, Boothstown, Mosley Common) 3,151 15.10% M30 (Eccles, Monton, Peel Green) 2,518 12.07% M38 (Little Hulton) 494 2.37% M44 (Irlam, Cadishead) 1,730 8.29% M50 (Salford Quays, MediaCityUK) 1,153 5.53% Unknown 23 0.11% Total 20,862 Total New Our Lowry Members July 2015 - July 2016 4,964 Total Our Lowry Tickets July 2015 - July 2016 14,505 Total Our Lowry Bookers July 2015 - July 2016 56,161
The Lowry continues to lead on Quays Culture, a programme of outdoor arts and cultural events that forms a key part of the Salford Quays Strategic Framework. Our 2015 digital commission Cathedral of Mirrors inspired over half a million visitors in November and December 2015 and is nominated for the Aesthetica Art Prize 2016. This programme, which receives an annual AGMA s48 grant, generates more than 1.8 million visitors every year and generates GVA of c. £2.5m per annum.
Visual Arts
The Lowry’s permanent display of the LS Lowry Collection has continued to be extremely popular with visitors and tourists from Salford and beyond, as well as schools and college groups. Recently re-designed to increase the amount of space given over to showing more works and additional interpretation, we have negotiated a series of new loans from major corporate and private collections, most notably from the Professional Footballers’ Association.
August 2016 was dedicated to Lowry Non-Stop: a unique programme of free, family, artist-led, drop-in visual arts, drama and dance activities in the Lowry Galleries every day of the month. Combined with children’s productions in our Quays Theatre and Kids Eat Free offers in our Pier Eight Restaurant, Lowry Non-Stop has been designed to provide families with a complete offer in the summer holidays.
Amongst our flagship visual arts exhibitions has been Right Here, Right Now – a major survey of contemporary digital art that reflected The Lowry’s position at the heart of one of the most innovative digital communities in the world. The exhibition combined cutting edge technologies with a range of engaging and interactive artworks that proved especially popular with families and young audiences.
As part of The Lowry’s Week 53 Festival, we mounted the largest ever exhibition by Berlin- based Katie Paterson. Her intense and thoughtful work examined our place in the Universe,
and included two major new commissions, Totality and Ara. These, along with the rest of the exhibition, drew excellent reviews from a wide range of publications – from high-end art magazines to New Scientist.
Other major exhibitions included ExtraOrdinary, a lively and provocative survey of contemporary works that invited visitors to question ‘is it art?’, and A Day in Salford with The Smiths: iconic photographs of The Smiths taken outside Salford Lads Club in 1986. Learning & Engagement The Lowry’s community outreach work continues to engage people from across Salford and build on relationships with Neighbourhood Managers. Between September 2015 and August 2016 a number of outreach initiatives have been delivered across Salford, including:
Salford-wide:
Our First Lowry – this scheme targets Salford families with a child aged 5 or under and provides supported trips to see family friendly productions at The Lowry 3 times per year. 176 families have been recruited to the 2016-17 scheme. They have been to see The Gruffalo’s Child (August 2016) and are due to see Stick Man (October 2016) and The Very Hungry Caterpillar (February 2017).
% of Postcode Count Database M3 (Blackfriars, Greengate, Trinity) 4 2.27% M5 (Ordsall, Seedley, Weaste) 17 9.66% M6 (Pendleton, Claremont, Irlam O’ Th’ Height) 36 20.45% M7 (Higher Broughton, Lower Broughton, Kersal) 22 12.50% M27 (Swinton, Clifton, Pendlebury, Wardley, Agecroft) 31 17.61% M28 (Worsley, Walkden, Boothstown, Mosley Common) 24 13.64% M30 (Eccles, Monton, Peel Green) 23 13.07% M38 (Little Hulton) 5 2.84% M44 (Irlam, Cadishead) 11 6.25% M50 (Salford Quays, MediaCityUK) 3 1.70% Total 176
Free Tickets – we provide free tickets for selected performances to targeted groups. During 2015-16 we have provided free tickets for targeted groups of young people to a wide range of productions at The Lowry including dance, circus, drama and studio.
The Lowry continues its relationship with agencies across Salford via attendance at a range of Outreach & Engagement meetings and Employability Meetings.
We are now in our second year of delivery of the Booth Charity Family Scheme, targeting families in Salford with a child with a disability. This scheme, funded by the Booth Charity, allows us to provide three free theatre trips and associated arts activity over the year for 20 families. We had 32 families in year 1 (2015) and currently have 27 families registered for year 2 with recruitment ongoing. The group have attended The Gruffalo’s Child and are due to attend Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Babe.
We will be delivering a number of dance workshops with Rambert targeting families, young people and older people from across Salford as part of the Perpetual Movement: Rambert at 90 exhibition.
Central Locality (Ordsall/Langworthy/Weaste & Seedley/Claremont/Irwell Riverside/Broughton/ Kersal):
Opera North have delivered Pop Up Opera sessions at Ordsall Hall and in Muir Head Care Home, Ordsall.
We continue to work with Belvedere Sure Start Centre on the delivery of our Young Parents Project. The group have recently attended the Our First Lowry performance of The Gruffalo’s Child.
Our Centre for Advanced Training in Dance and Commotions Dance Company ran an open day to recruit young dancers at Oasis Academy in May 2015.
Contemporary Dance workshops were piloted at the UTC MediaCityUK
West Locality (Little Hulton/ Walkden/ Worsley/ Boothstown):
We continue to support a young parent, Melissa, to develop as an artist. She is currently nearing completion of a Gold Arts Award and is directing a play, A Taste of Honey, at The Roundabout in Eccles and in the Aldridge Studio, Lowry.
We continue to supports a young man, John H, to develop his dance and entrepreneurial skills. He, along with other young people from across Salford joined Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures and the River, The Canals Trust and Birmingham Hippodrome on a week-long dance project traveling on a barge from Birmingham to Salford to devise a piece of contemporary dance performed as part of the National U-Dance Festival 2016.
We continue to work with Little Hulton Sure Start Centre on the delivery of our Young Parents project as well as supporting Salford Dadz open events.
We have delivered two sessions by Birmingham Royal Ballet at St Anne’s Hospice with a third session scheduled for September.
South Locality (Irlam/Cadishead/Winton/Barton/Eccles):
We are working with Eccles Neighbourhood Team, Festival Committee and the Yemeni Cultural Society on community engagement activities connected to Paines Plough’s Roundabout programme scheduled to run as part of Eccles Festival Sept 2016.
North Locality (Swinton/Pendlebury):
We will be supporting the delivery of Salford’s Big Day at the Civic Centre on 17 Sept.
We continue to support Courtney on employability skills. Courtney has now completed her Bronze Arts Award, and completed a Young Researchers project in partnership with Curious Minds.
Key highlights from our Major Projects during the period were:
Learning and Engagement Showcase – In November 2015 we held our first L&E Showcase celebrating the talent of young people from across Salford and beyond. This included performances by Salford Young Carers, Looked After Children, Young Parents alongside our Youth Drama Company, Commotions Dance Company and CAT. The event was hosted and facilitated by young people from across the city.
Young Carers – continuing the relationship with Salford Young Carers we developed a box set of their films and associated learning resources targeting health care professionals, schools and public. This was launched on 23 September 2015. Our work in partnership with the Young Carers Service received the Young Carer Project Award at the national Children & Young People Now Awards in London in November.
Looked After Children & Care Leavers – following the 2013-14 project with SCC & consultation with participants, The Lowry has provided a free weekly drama activity for LAC aimed at improving confidence, mental health & well-being. In 2015-16 the group performed at the Learning & Engagement Showcase and have presented several scratch performances. We are now working with a number of participants, training them to be peer mentors and workshop assistants.
Young Parents –We are delighted that our work with Young Parents was shortlisted for the Children & Young People Now Awards in London in November. We’re now working to support young parents to participate in the core family offer at The Lowry by supporting visits and engagement through Our First Lowry etc.
Young People on the Autism Spectrum and with Behavioural Difficulties – in partnership with the National Theatre, New Park High School Salford and Springwood Primary School Salford we have delivered a cross-art project working with targeted students with the aim of improving attainment, confidence, communication skills, coordination skills and social skills. Springwood Primary has produced a series of art work and performances based on stories, including excerpts from A Midsummer’s Night Dream. Students at New Park High School have created digital art work and a film exploring their lives. This project culminated in a celebration event at The Lowry on 20 October 2015. Following evaluation with the participants, The Lowry is launching Relaxed Playhouse, a drop in family visual arts activity on a monthly basis from October. We have also increased the number of Relaxed Performances taking place in the theatres throughout the year. Many of the younger children and families involved in the 2015 project have now signed up the Booth Charity Family Scheme.
Youth.Employment.Skills (YES) Programme – A refreshed form of YES began in October 2015. A cohort of 12 young people from Salford have been referred by partners and engaged in long term placements with pastoral support. A total of 566 young people have been supported in developing employability skills via the Y.E.S tiers between September 2015 – July 2016.
Through our Formal Education Programme we offer a full range of opportunities connected to the early years, primary, secondary, FE/HE curricula. Alongside Lowry-focussed visual art and drama workshops we offer a formal learning programme connected to our Theatres and Galleries programme as well as delivering bespoke opportunities. In June 2016 we worked with the Children’s Shakespeare Festival to provide engagement for 880 school pupils most of whom completed either a Discover or Explore Arts Award.
All Salford schools receive subsidised workshops every year and engagement is broken down as follows for the period September 2015 - July 2016:
Formal Education School pupils attending 14,487 Salford school pupils attending 2185
Julia Fawcett 7th September 2016