The Lowry's New Group Chief Executive Comes Home
The Lowry, the award-winning and hugely popular Landmark Millennium Project for the Arts has a new Group Chief Executive. She is Julia Fawcett, the present Chief Executive of another major Millennium success, Dynamic Earth in Scotland, and is originally from Ordsall in Salford.
Julia has an enviable track record in managing successful businesses in the leisure industries. Dynamic Earth in Edinburgh is one of Scotland's leading visitor attractions and one of the most successful science-based millennium projects in the UK.
Felicity Goodey, The Lowry's chairman said: "It's less than 2 years since we opened but The Lowry is already established as a major visitor attraction and centre of artistic excellence. We are now ready to begin expanding the businesses which underpin the project. We are delighted to have appointed Julia who has demonstrated an ability to not only run and develop a commercially successful attraction but to maintain and enhance the integrity of a culturally based project. The fact that she comes from Ordsall in Salford was a completely unexpected and unlooked for bonus."
Julia relishes the challenge of heading up such a high profile arts project as well as coming back home to the North West. She explains: "The Lowry Project represents an enormously complex business which is a terrifically exciting challenge. I have been greatly impressed with what has been achieved to date and look forward to joining a talented and committed team and working with them to take the project on to further successes."
It is quite fitting that showing in the Galleries when Julia joins is A City's Pride, the very first exhibition showing the entire Salford collection of L S Lowry's work. Starting on 9th March, this boasts over 300 oils and drawings plus several smaller works drawn on the backs of envelopes, hotel notepaper and Christmas cards.
The Lowry has proved to be a great success* in many ways since it opened its doors almost 2 years ago (28 April 2000) and had a marvellous reception from both the public and the media. The new Group Chief Executive will capitalize on the attraction's successes to date ensuring that The Lowry is set for a terrific future.
Notes to Editors: - Photos of Julia at The Lowry are available in print format or by email
- *The Lowry has proved to be a great success in many different ways: see below
Regeneration: Since The Lowry's inception £300 million of public and private sector investment has come into the Quays with a further £250 million of investment now in the pipeline over the next 5 years. Since The Lowry was begun 5,700 jobs have been created and a further 5,000 jobs will come with developments to 2005.
Award winning: The crowning praise for The Lowry as both a building and an experience came with the Royal Fine Arts Commission Trust's award of Building of the Year 2001 with its citation of The Lowry "as a joy to see and fun to go into as well as user-friendly, welcoming and bright". However, this is just one of many awards and accolades for the building, its programme and activities.
Theatres: The Lowry's Theatres programme has proved extremely popular with sell-out shows and an outstanding number of nominations (27) for the prestigious Manchester Evening News Theatre Awards, topping any other venue in the region. The theatres intend to build on the reputation they have already achieved for diversity, quality and internationalism.
Galleries: The Lowry ranked in the Top 10 of the most visited Museums & Galleries with free admission in the UK, according to a recent report by the English Tourism Council, Sightseeing in the UK 2000, even though it was only open for part of the millennium year (28 April - December 2000). Visitor research shows a high percentage (up to 30%) of The Lowry's day visitors do not consider themselves "museum & gallery goers" which suggests The Lowry is finding a new constituency for the visual arts
Education: The Lowry has wide community appeal and the ALL Arts Team (dedicated to Audiences Living & Learning at The Lowry) has developed a range of projects & initiatives with local artists and visiting companies. They have developed an extensive programme for schools, colleges and the general visitor ranging from participatory workshops and exhibition tasters to talks, theatre visits, puppet shows and special events
Conferencing: The Lowry has proved to be a stimulating and favoured location for a wide range of meetings, conferences and seminars and consequently smashed all its targets in this area. The building's stunning architecture has also generated an enormous amount of interest from recording companies & TV companies keen to use the building as a location
.
Posted on Friday, 01 March 2002 under Press General Press