The campus was a collaboration with the British Council and brought 10 International Producers, from India, China, Brazil, Korea and South Africa (amongst others) to Manchester to network and share ideas and cultural expertise with 10 Producers from the North West.

Producers from a range of different artistic disciplines took part, exploring themes of innovation, originality, interdisciplinary and international collaboration, as well as hearing from leading UK cultural figures and taking a peek at what the MIF programme had to offer.

As more and more artists move towards creating new work that sits outside of traditional art forms, venues and delivery structures the role of producer becomes increasingly difficult and even more important.

For 2009, MIF launched a new Trainee Producer programme open only to emerging producers from Greater Manchester. The 5 emerging producers (Dafydd Launder, Ella Byford, Melanie Groeber, Joe Cassar and James Jepson) each worked with MIF for 6 months, being closely mentored by MIF Producers and undertaking skills and enterprise training by MIF in collaboration with NESTA, the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts.

Image ©Tim Sinclair

‘Vintage Deller and, somehow, pure Manchester’
Charlotte Higgins – The Guardian

Watch a clip of Jeremy Deller’s Procession on Sun 5 July.

Click here to view images from this event.

On the opening weekend of MIF 2009, thousands lined the Deansgate mile to witness a uniquely Manchester procession created by Turner Prize winning artist Jeremy Deller. Over 12 months Deller had been out and about meeting and researching communities across Greater Manchester, seeking out unexpected stories, characters and traditions.

Procession comprised over 25 elements, each developed in partnership with a local community or group; their stories contextualised and made vivid by an accompanying exhibition at Cornerhouse and an online project led by Let’s Go Global: Manchester Procession Online.

As part of the development of this commission MIF invited Greater Manchester schools to enter a competition to design a futuristic image of Manchester. The winning design was made into a full size float for the live event on 5th July and was designed by Millie Floyd from Chorlton Park Primary School. Millie’s float depicted Manchester 2050 as an underwater city with water powered submarines!

For more information on Procession, visit the event’s page here.

Commissioned and produced by Manchester International Festival and Cornerhouse.
Supported by the Association of Greater Manchester Authorities (AGMA).

Photo © Tim Sinclair

‘a proper collaboration for MIF that has been worked on since the end of last year, and it shows. Warm, happy and vibrant’
**** Metro

‘joyful music made with love and excitement – a real Mali-Manchester soul stew’
**** Manchester Evening News

Following the success of their debut performance at MIF 2007, the Beating Wing Orchestra returned to the Festival in 2009 to present the results of a new collaboration with Malian superstars Amadou and Mariam.

Audiences were treated to two electric performances which saw the orchestra re-imagining Amadou and Mariam’s music, bringing musical influences from countries as diverse as Kurdistan and Cameroon, Bangladesh and Brazil. The performances received 4* reviews from Metro, Manchester Evening News, Guardian amongst others.

Formed in Manchester from musicians of refugee and asylum seeker backgrounds, as well as musicians from Manchester’s host communities, the Beating Wing Orchestra speaks a global music vocabulary and forges new connections between the city’s rich mix of communities. Work performed during MIF 09 was the result of a collaboration that saw the orchestra working with Amadou and Mariam through a series of workshops from Dec 2008 to July 2009. For more information on the Beating Wing Orchestra visit their website.

Commissioned by Manchester International Festival.
Produced by Manchester International Festival and Community Arts North West

Image © Shaw & Shaw

Walk the Plank and Thingumajig Theatre’s madcap adventure The Difference Engine premiered at Manchester’s Town Hall as part of The Great Indoors and is set to return to Manchester in November for a series of school and public performances at the Museum of Science and Industry. Expect to travel from past to future, through a landscape of machines and ideas to help inventor and mathematician Charles Babbage find the clues to repair his Difference Engine and on the way, help Babbage to solve the spider’s riddles; persuade the counting madman to open the gates to the Hall of Shadows…and discover the secret workings of the steampunk arcade…

Alongside the show, the Centre for Urban Education led a programme of engagement with six local schools where young people and teachers were able to explore the scientific and industrial heritage of the characters and themes in the show. The results of this educational programme will be published this autumn in a new creative learning resource linked to the science, technology, engineering and maths curricula.

As part of this project MIF and partners created a set of playing cards inspired by The Difference Engine and a new teaching and learning resource aimed at creative and inventive thinking at Key Stages 2 and 3.  To request a copy of either of these resources please contact creativelearning@mif.co.uk

Created by Walk the Plank with Thingumajig Theatre.

Commissioned by Manchester International Festival, the Museum of Science and Industry and the Centre for Urban Education at Manchester Metropolitan University.

Produced by Manchester International Festival and Walk The Plank.

Photo: copyright Karen Wright

‘Truly participatory….watch Oily Cart with wonder and admiration’
Lyn Gardner, Guardian – 4* review

‘A remarkable production’ Sunday Herald

‘If only all children were lucky enough to be able to participate in such a beautiful adventure’ Parent of child participant

‘Magical in every sense of the word’ Parent of child participant

Leading children’s theatre company Oily Cart returned to Manchester International Festival with a stunning aerial adventure for young people with profound and multiple learning disabilities or an autistic spectrum disorder.

Created in collaboration with Ockham’s Razor, Something in the Air, took audiences of 12 at a time into a magical forest where they were raised into the air to swing, bounce and rock with aerialists tumbling and twirling from above.

The performances, which ran for 5 days at Contact Theatre, were preceded by an innovative residency partnership with three local schools, giving opportunities for 290 young people with special educational needs to engage more fully with the company, ensuring that those of them who saw Oily Cart’s enchanting new show experienced the very most that it could offer.

Commissioned by Manchester International Festival.
Produced by Manchester International Festival and Oily Cart.

Photo © Nick Mackey