Manchester International Festival has announced its new creative director.
Low Kee Hong will join the team at MIF, coming from his current role as Head of Theatre, Performing Arts at the West Kowloon Cultural District Authority in Hong Kong.
Prior to that, he was artistic director of the Singapore Arts Festival and the founding director and general manager of the Singapore Biennale.
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He will work alongside the festival’s artistic director and chief executive John McGrath at The Factory, the new facility and arts centre that the festival will occupy on the site of the old Granada Studios.
The facility is set to open in 2023.
Kee Hong said: "I am truly honoured and excited to be given this amazing opportunity to work with Manchester International Festival and The Factory.
“It is an organisation I have always admired for its visionary and bold take on what tomorrow can look like.
“I look forward to working with a team of amazing humans who firmly believe the extraordinary and transformative experience of the arts for our communities as we build towards futures we all want to be part of."
McGrath added: “Kee Hong will join MIF in the year before we open The Factory and will be working with me and the curatorial team to develop an exciting range of new projects for the space.
“Equally importantly, he will be leading on the future programme for the Festival – re-imagining MIF for the years ahead in ways that connect both locally and globally. I look forward to welcoming him to Manchester.”
The next International festival will take place in 2023, with a programme of events set to arrive in the spring.
But the 13,000 sq ft arts centre itself, which is costing £186 million, has been hit by multiple delays, after it was first announced back in 2014.
Originally set to open in the summer of 2019, it is currently aiming to open early next year.
Manchester City Council reckons it will boost the city’s economy by £1.1 billion in its first 10 years, attracting 850,000 visitors a year to theatre, dance, opera and visual arts performances.
