The Lowry

Architect	James Stirling and Michael Wilford
Date Built	2000
Location	Salford Quays
Description
Laurence Stephen Lowry is an artist associated intimately with the industrial North and many of his drawings and paintings feature life in Salford and Pendlebury where he lived and worked. He has often been regarded as a naive artist, an amateur, self-taught painter. However, this is far from the truth and the photographs of him looking rather eccentric in a paint splattered suit have led people to draw incorrect conclusions about the man. The truth is that he attended the Manchester Municipal College of Art and had as his teacher the French impressionist painter Adolph Valette. Far from being naive his work reflects a unique style that captures the working-class world in which he lived. When the Trafford Park docks and warehouses were being redeveloped, a centre of the arts which included an art gallery and theatres was built on one of the old quays and it was dedicated to L. S. Lowry and named after him. The Lowry describes itself as follows: "The Lowry opened on 28th April 2000, bringing together a wide variety of performing and visual arts under one roof. Opening its door to the best in entertainment and education in the arts, The Lowry aims to give everyone access to new areas of creativity and to embrace its broad community. The Lowry houses two main theatres and studio space for performing arts (1,730, 466 and 180 seats respectively) presenting a full range of drama, opera, ballet, dance, musicals, children's shows, popular music, jazz, folk and comedy and gallery spaces showing the works of LS Lowry alongside contemporary exhibitions."