Public Servant Lifestyle

The recreation of a giant LS Lowry image: Head of a Man with Red Eyes from old junk by children at Little Hulton’s Big Weekend festival, shares a resemblance with a certain nations' new Prime Minister.

Pictured (right): the artwork created by Salford school children, compared with the original work by L.S Lowry.

Old Junk

Fifteen - twenty youngsters aged between 5 & 12, used old junk ranging from old curtains, cuddly toys, records, books and ornaments to create a large version - around five metres square - of this famous Lowry picture. In addition to being a good likeness to Lowry’s iconic image, widely believed to be a self-portrait, it was noted that the image made from old junk also bears a resemblance to a certain Labour Party leader/Prime Minister in waiting!

Jack Doyle, the visual arts workshop leader at The Lowry's Walkabout event in Little Hulton guided the process and bought some of the old junk used from the table top sale taking place at the same time. He commented, “Everybody had lots of fun putting this collage together. It took over four hours and we used all kinds of different materials. We had to use a mallet to hammer tent pegs into the ground to stop pieces from blowing away!”

Little Hulton’s Big Weekend - which took place over the May Day bank holiday (4 – 6 May) was the first event from The Lowry’s long-term outreach project, Walkabout. Events ranged from an ‘X’ factor contest and a Rock n Roll night to a mini outdoor festival featuring a table top sale, street dance and maypole dancing. The weekend was a great success involving over 700 local people.

Walkabout aims to use creative activity to develop opportunities for participation and social engagement among Salford’s communities. From January the pilot period of Walkabout has focused on Little Hulton and the events over the May bank holiday weekend were a springboard for further creatively based arts development projects in Little Hulton until March 2008. Walkabout involves partnerships with several organisations across the city including Salford City Council, Salford Primary Care Trust (PCT) Health Improvement, One Stop shop as well as funding from Safer Stronger Communities.

Building Communities Through Art

Andy Farrell, The Lowry’s Head of Community & Education and Director of this innovative new initiative explains, “First and foremost we’re interested in helping to build communities through art. By going out to Salford communities and finding out what they are passionate about, we can respond to their interests and encourage social participation through creative activity.”

Salford City Council has joined the Government-led Local Strategic Partnerships initiative (LSP) which brings together key agencies to formulate Community Action Plans - annual strategies which identify key community priorities for each area. The Lowry’s Community and Education team have developed Walkabout in partnership with Salford City Council and the LSP to ensure that the project dovetails into the city-wide plans for community regeneration.

Set in a magnificent waterside location at the heart of Manchester's new leisure destination, The Quays, The Lowry is an architectural flagship on Pier 8 bringing together a wide variety of performing and visual arts under one roof. Free to enter and open all day, every day, The Lowry is there to be discovered, explored and enjoyed by everyone. Donations are encouraged to support the Galleries and the care of the largest exhibition of the work of arguably Salford's most famous son - LS Lowry (1887–1976). The LS Lowry Collection. The Lowry arts complex is located just 1.5 miles from Manchester city centre (linked via the Metrolink tram system), less than a mile from the M602, connecting it with the national motorway system and just 20 minutes drive from Manchester Airport.

More information available in Education & Training, Arts & Culture