The Lowry is a £1,000,000 better off after a donation from Andrew and Zoë Law of the Law Family Charitable Foundation.
It is the largest private donation in the organisation’s fourteen year history and in recognition of the donation, the Main Gallery spaces at The Lowry will be renamed ‘The Andrew and Zoë Law Galleries’.
Andrew Law, Chairman and CEO of Caxton Associates, a global macro hedge fund, attended state school in Manchester, and subsequently graduated from Sheffield University, with a First Class Honours Degree in Economics.
He spent his early career at County NatWest and Chemical Bank, before joining Goldman Sachs in 1996 where he was a Managing Director, heading FICC proprietary trading and joined the London office of Caxton in 2003, appointed Chief Investment Officer globally in early 2008, and to his current position effective January 2012.
His wife Zoe, is a makeup artist. She began her career in makeup in 1999 having spent 5 years in the music industry as an A&R co-ordinator, firstly at Sony Music and then Innocent Records, a subsidiary of Virgin.
At Innocent, Zoë realised her passion for makeup and her desire to change careers: she started a course in ‘Fashion Makeup’ at The London College of Fashion before being signed up to begin a two-year stint assisting top makeup artists, shooting for fashion titles including Glamour, Elle and Vogue.
The couple made the following statement about their donation
Having childhood and working links to the area we are excited to support The Lowry for three principle reasons: firstly, LS Lowry has always been very close to our hearts, capturing the very essence of northern life, with an artistic talent to match the finest history has to offer. Secondly, The Lowry is a wonderful home for the performing and visual arts. Providing a contemporary and dramatic setting for theatre productions as well as learning, it has become part of North West cultural life. Finally, the location of The Lowry is helping to deliver long needed redevelopment in Greater Manchester, as evidenced by the growth of MediaCityUK next door. The planned works, including those to be funded by the Arts Council, are truly essential if The Lowry is to fulfil all of its wonderful potential.”
Whilst The Lowry’s chief executive, Julia Fawcett OBE, commented:
Thanks to the incredible generosity of the Law Family Charitable Foundation and much valued support from ACE, we are thrilled to reach our landmark £5m funding target. This marks an exciting time for the future of The Lowry. The planned works that are now possible include upgrades to the theatre’s technical equipment; major improvements to our energy efficiency through a new lighting scheme and a redevelopment of our award-winning hospitality offer, which generates income to support The Lowry’s mission. All of this work is vital in enabling us to sustain and further develop our artistic and community engagement ambitions over the coming years.”
