About

Dancers performing under a screen showing a person's eyes in Free Your Mind — Free Your Mind, the official opening production for Aviva Studios, the home of Factory International © Daniel Devlin, October 2023

The set of A Symphony of Flesh and Bones in the Warehouse, showing projections on large screens and pieces of fabric. The lighting is blues-green. — *Juliet Ellis: A Symphony of Flesh and Bones.* Manchester International Festival 2025 @ISHASHAHPHOTOGRAPHY

A photo of a crown of people gathered around puppets shaped like life-sized giraffes made of cardboard and wood — THE HERDS in Manchester city centre photo by David Levene

Bjork at the Manchester International Festival 2011 Photo by Carsten Windhorst

A photo of two ballerinas doing arabesques — James Hay and Ed Watson. A Single Man. Manchester International Festival 2025. Photo by Johan Persson.

A man and a woman standing in a darkened art gallery, each wearing a Virtual Reality headset and holding a black controller. They are playing a game by the artist Rachel Maclean. — Intro to Virtual Tools, one of Factory International's artist development programmes.

We Are Factory International

Factory International is a Creative Company and Charity that develops cultural opportunities and extraordinary artistic experiences, driven by innovation and focused on a sustainable future. Our home is in Manchester, and we work across the world.

We support artists at all stages of their creative lives to do things they have not yet had the chance to do – and we invite audiences to experience the results in an exciting, welcoming environment.

Partnership is key to our approach, working with a wide variety of local groups to develop ideas together, collaborating with arts organisations globally to produce ambitious new projects, and engaging with a range of commercial partners to open new possibilities.

Our work takes place at our home, Aviva Studios, across Manchester in our biennial festival, on tour globally, online and through our training wing, Factory Academy.

Aviva Studios

Aviva Studios is our home – a super flexible space for creativity, with the capacity to show large scale work across all art forms. At Aviva Studios:

-We produce ambitious new creations by some of the world’s leading artists

-We work with local communities to involve them in every level of decision making – from the choice of artists and events to our long-term plans

-We provide a home for Manchester creatives, where they can make connections, develop their skills, and take their work to the next level

Aviva Studios is also a vibrant commercial venue, where we present a world-class programme of music and events.

All profit from commercial activity is re-invested in the development of emerging local artists, in the programming of free events for all to enjoy, and also supports the operating costs of the building year-round. We embrace commercial and brand partnerships, which are key to supporting our work with Manchester communities.

Visiting Aviva Studios →

Manchester International Festival

Manchester International Festival (or MIF for short) is our biennial Festival of new creations.

Taking place across Manchester city centre and the Greater Manchester region, the Festival invites a wide range of artists from around the globe to explore new ideas and present the results for the first time.

MIF happens every two years and provides an opportunity to focus on key questions of our times.

Work is developed through partnerships with Manchester venues and arts organisations, co-producing international partners, and local communities.

Festival Square – our MIF hub at Aviva Studios – showcases the best local talent with a programme of free live music, family events and more.

About MIF and past editions →

Vision, Mission and Values

Dancers performing headstands on stage for Free Your Mind

Our Vision is a world where creativity connects and sustains us.

Our values are to be collaborative, equitable, internationalist, inventive and open.

Our Mission is to invent tomorrow together.

Invent. To take risks on ambitious new artistic work and on new experiences for audiences, bold in scale and focused on the future.

Tomorrow. To pioneer new models of sustainability – environmental, human, operational and financial – in all areas of our work.

Together. To create playgrounds, meeting places, spaces to learn from each other, locally and globally.

Our Artistic Vision

Maxim Kemp, James Seabrook, Blenard Azizaj and Maria Stamenković Herranz (MSH) in Marina Abramović's Balkan Erotic Epic

Our mission to Invent Tomorrow Together sits at the heart of our artistic choices. We have a space and resources that invite artists to ask big questions, and which provide opportunities to engage with a rich diversity of audiences. Across all our platforms we focus on work that addresses a range of the following criteria:

- Collaborative – engaging our local communities and helping train the next generation of talent.

- Diverse – reflecting the cultural mix of Manchester and its many creative communities.

- Innovative – from cutting-edge technologies to new ways of thinking about sustainability and access, to unexpected audience experiences.

- International – bringing the best new artists from around the world to Manchester.

- Large-scale – maximising the possibilities of our venue and our producing capacity.

- Mixing Disciplines – blurring boundaries between art forms and creating new possibilities.

- Northern-based – developing the breadth of talent from across the region.

- Original – exciting, new ideas that have never been seen or done before.

- Relevant – boldly addressing key issues of our times.

No project will address all of these areas, but overall these are our areas of expertise and focus.

How to pitch an idea →

Factory Academy

Audience member taking a photo with a smartphone during a panel discussion. The background is blurry.

Factory Academy is our training wing, developing and delivering courses, placements and online learning opportunities – all focused on helping people to enter employment in the creative industries, and supporting them to develop and thrive within those industries.

Factory Academy works with partners and education providers to ensure its courses are focused directly on the skills needed to access employment.

Aviva Studios is Factory Academy's base for training and placements, though it also collaborates with other arts, culture and media organisations to support them in providing training opportunities.

It focuses on bringing under-represented groups, and particularly those who have less economic opportunity, into the creative industries.

Find out more about Factory Academy →

Factory+

An illustration by Eleanor Davis showing two nude characters walking to the right of the frame. The character on the left holds a boombox on their shoulder.

Factory Plus is our online offering; commissioning digital art, film and media; sharing online versions of performances and exhibitions; providing space for ideas and for insights into creative processes: and exploring collaboration.

We explore what art has the potential to do when we allow ourselves to dream in Dream Space, our flagship podcast.

Artists and collectives show us the space where their ideas come to life in In the Studio.

Factory+ commissions some of the most exciting voices in contemporary writing to explore a selection of themes, supports first time writers and introduces audiences to the artists we work with through written pieces.

It's also a window for the Research & Development (R&D) developed by Factory International and links to the online hub for Factory Academy.

Explore Factory+ →

Rooted in Manchester

Across Manchester and the North, we develop work in partnership with local groups, to deliver creative opportunities in people’s local neighbourhoods. We bring our artistic, technological, international and training connections to this work, while always centring and valuing local expertise. We provide unique creative opportunities for young people, inside and outside education.

How to get involved with our work →

International Impact

Internationally, our productions also tour to venues and festivals around the world, many of which support the creation of our work as co-producers. We are among the largest exporters of new art and performance work in the UK cultural sector, with a unique range of projects in multiple artforms.

Discover our international work →

Brave Spaces Principles

A photo of two people kneeling in large warehouse space embracing while other people lay on the floor around them

At Factory International we are committed to Freedom of Speech within the context of a caring, supportive environment for our artists, staff and audiences. We are also committed to an ethical, mission-led approach to partnerships and behaviour. As a charity we work within a clear set of legal guidelines.

We are aware of how important questions of free speech, ethics and care are in today’s society, and we have worked with partner organisations to develop a set of principles that outlines how we can best work to balance all expectations. The Brave Spaces Principles we have developed together, and which guide our choices, can be accessed by the link below.

Read the Brave Spaces Principles →