Cultural venue in Manchester given the go ahead

Factory – a new cultural venue in Manchester – has been given planning permission by Manchester City Council.The building, designed by the Office for Metropolitan Architecture, will form part of St John’s neighbourhood, which is currently being developed by Allied London in partnership with the city council on the site of the former Granada TV studios. The Treasury has approved the full business case for the £78m government capital investment. Factory will offer a range of events including dance, theatre, music, opera, visual arts, spoken word, popular culture and innovative contemporary work incorporating multiple media and technologies. Artists from across the world will be invited to create new work at the venue, which will be run by the Manchester International Festival (MIF).Mark Ball, currently the artistic director of LIFT, will join MIF’s senior leadership team as associate artistic director, focusing on the creation and delivery of the Factory programme. He will start full time at MIF in June, working closely with artistic director/CEO John McGrath to create a unified vision for the venue and the festival.As part of the Northern Powerhouse the new venue is expected to create hundreds of full-time jobs and accelerate economic growth.