As the first anniversary of the city’s new landmark cultural space draws near, we take a look at Factory International’s influence on our city.

October 2024 marks one year since Factory International moved into its new — and first permanent — home at Aviva Studios. As Manchester’s new landmark arts and culture space and self-professed “hive of intention and discovery”, Factory International is producing a year-round programme of dance, theatre, music, visual and performance art in the heart of the city.

Since celebrating its opening with Mancunian director Danny Boyle’s interdisciplinary live show Free Your Mind, created in collaboration with Manchester Met’s School of Digital Arts (SODA) students, what have they been up to? It turns out, quite a lot.

Since 2007, Factory has run the Manchester International Festival (MIF) every other year, commissioning world-firsts from artists including Serbian performance artist Marina Abramović and Icelandic singer-songwriter Björk. The difference is that now they have a year-round venue and “roots firmly in our city.”

Sameed Rezayan, Head of Creative Learning at Factory International, has worked with over 25,000 children and young people across Greater Manchester to offer access and opportunity, and develop ways of sharing power with young people. Sameed says: “We’ve moved into this brand-new, really exciting art space that has kind of taken over the city. There’s always something interesting, boundary-pushing and thought-provoking happening here.

“The Festival used to take over lots of different spaces all over the city, now we have, like – a house! We’re able to have a year-round venue for the people of the city to come to our building whenever they want.”

Sameed notes that this strong focus on community practice has been integral for a number of years. “When our director John McGrath came, he brought a lot of that practice to the organisation,” he says. “The community work is strongly embedded in the way that Factory International functions.”

Recently, Factory’s work with young people, particularly in formal education settings, has significantly expanded. This includes the Factory Academy, which provides vocational training to help young people over 19 to find work and offers opportunities for artists to develop their practice.

Over the past year, Factory has collaborated with universities including Manchester Met, bringing together students from across creative departments to work on diverse commissions, from a fashion show to a puppeteering project.

Sameed highlights the value of this growing creative collaboration: “We’ve worked with many students from Manchester Met and have always had a rich and amazing exchange. Some of those students are now working here. It’s been amazing.”

Manchester Met alumna, photographer and visual artist Alina Akbar recently led a creative project titled My Stomping Ground, which was a collaboration between Factory, the social inclusion charity Football Beyond Borders, and the gender equality charity the WOW Foundation.

Alina says: “‘My Stomping Ground’ came from the ambition for young people across all of the schools to feel they can occupy space within the parameters they spend so much of their time treading.”

Alina is interested in authentic and ethical working-class representation within art, and preserving cultural histories. She set a photography brief for 170 young people from five schools across Greater Manchester, exploring identity and self-expression, which then took shape in the form of a photography zine and exhibition. Approaching this brief, Alina says: “I wanted to encourage boldness, co-creation with peers and an opportunity to begin to develop their ideas.

This Autumn promises even more new and relaunched projects, including REFRAME — a groundbreaking partnership to support Black creatives in the UK. Designed to enhance the skills and support the ambitions of emerging Black creatives, the project is supported by Apple and produced by the Southbank Centre, STEAMhouse and Midlands Arts Centre.

Sameed says: “Last year, REFRAME brought together 25 young Black creatives who have been on an amazing journey over the past 12 months. Seeing the impact that creativity can have on a person’s life, wellbeing, social skills, and confidence has been a highlight.”

September 2024 will see Factory International launch a new partnership with Adidas and relaunch the Young Factory membership scheme, offering creative opportunities through workshops, networking, and talks. This autumn’s line-up is particularly exciting, featuring Ivan Blackstock’s Olivier Award-winning Traplord in September, Laurie Anderson’s ARK: United States V in November, and a “beautiful and immersive” David Hockney exhibition in December.

Factory plans to continue engaging the community through initiatives such as their monthly ‘Global Creatives’ drop-in for people from outside the UK and by welcoming some of the world’s leading music industry names into the city with the huge Beyond The Music global music conference in October.

There are plenty of ways people can get a taste of what Factory International is doing, says Sameed: “From participatory opportunities that allow people to become the art, to artist development work, volunteering and curation opportunities, and a People’s Forum made up of Greater Manchester residents — there are lots of different ways the people of the city can get involved.”

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