There's a finely crafted review of what seems to be a highly interesting exhibition in today's Independent newspaper. The article may also be available on-line but I haven't looked. The following link:

http://www.thelowry.com/

will take you to the venue (the Lowry Arts Centre), and if you scroll down to 'The Myth of the North' you can read a rather more prosaic account of the event being organised, which is scheduled to run until 2 Novemeber. It's a venue I don't know, but Salford Keys and the Lowry Arts Centre certainly seem a fine success story for the city of Manchester and I've pencilled in a trip when I'm next in Carlisle at the start of September - Carlisle, of course, being in the REAL north...