City leaders have welcomed the award announced today by DCMS and Arts Council England of £21m to The Factory, the iconic world-class new cultural venue currently under construction in the heart of Manchester city centre.
The award – from the government’s Cultural Capital Kickstart Fund – has been made to directly help offset the challenges and significant impact Covid-19 has had on the construction project, which have resulted in unforeseen additional costs and unavoidable delays in construction timescales.
The fund is part of the Government’s wider £1.57 billion Cultural Recovery Fund package to protect the UK’s culture and heritage sectors from the economic impacts of the pandemic, and to help the country’s post pandemic cultural recovery. £120m of this funding has been allocated specifically to support construction on cultural infrastructure, and for heritage construction projects in England which have been affected by the coronavirus pandemic.
Designed by Rem Koolhaas’s OMA, The Factory is backed by the city council, alongside HM Government and Arts Council England.
Predicted to bring a £1.1 billion boost to Manchester’s economy over its first decade alone, the landmark building will be one of the largest, most ambitious, and most versatile purpose-built arts spaces in the world.
Managed by Manchester International Festival and building on the Festival’s success, The Factory will commission and present a year-round programme of extraordinary, ground-breaking, and interdisciplinary work by leading artists from across the globe.
“We’re extremely grateful to DCMS and Arts Council England for their continued support for The Factory and for the substantial award announced today to help address the unforeseen additional costs and delays on the project due to Covid-19.
“Culture enriches lives and also livelihoods – it helps make, shape, and grow communities. The importance of The Factory and the part it will play in this to Manchester, the wider region, and to the cultural economy of the UK as a whole cannot be overstated.
“We have never been in any doubt about the value of culture to Manchester, or for that matter the value of Manchester to culture. And never more certain either about the important part it will have to play in the city and the region’s re-birth as we come out of this global pandemic.
“The Factory is going to re-draw the UK cultural map and will do much to bolster Manchester and the north’s credentials as an economic and creative powerhouse to rival not just London, but the rest of Europe and beyond.”
