Art as social action, working with artists and communities in East Leeds and beyond
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The East Leeds Project is a not-for-profit Community Interest Company based in Gipton, East Leeds, aiming to bring about positive change through art as social action, working with artists and communities in East Leeds and beyond.
The East Leeds Project’s focus is on the Wyke Beck Valley area of East Leeds, exploring issues around art as social action, the empowerment of our communities, climate change, public space and urban development. This work is shaped through dialogue with artists and other partner agencies and realised through co-production.
The East Leeds Project is now at the Henry Barran Centre!
We are now installed in our new home at the Henry Barran Community Centre. The full address is: East Leeds Project, The MakerSpace, Henry Barran Community Centre, Amberton Grove, Leeds, LS8 3JR
To find out about opportunities to get involved or just to receive regular updates on our work, please sign up to our mailing list.
Our current projects
Moon Palace
Our absurdly joyful social sculpture and mobile space observatory
As we’ve been so busy of late continuing our mission to make great things happen, I wanted to share a few updates on what we’ve been up to at East Leeds Project over the last few months.
ELP now based at the Henry Barran Centre, Gipton
The biggest news is that we are now fully installed into our new home at the Henry Barran Community Centre in Gipton! It’s really exciting to finally have a dedicated space where artists, makers, community groups and local people can come together. There’s still lots to do, but the Makerspace is already becoming a hub for creative activity and community projects involving all ages.
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Making an edible garden with Season Well.
Room to grow!
Recently, we’ve been developing a new ‘edible garden’ next to the Makerspace. The project is being created with Season Well CIC, supported by Grow Wild UK and Space2’s Community Heartbeat programme as part of Gipton Shared Futures.
What was once an ordinary patch of land is being transformed into a vegetable garden for all. We’ve got fruit bushes and trees in the ground and have more edible plants for our next community planting session. If you’d like to find out more about the garden and get involved please get in touch.
Holiday hangout
During May half term, we worked with Season Well CIC and Nanu Sports Foundation to deliver Holiday Hangout, a programme of free arts, crafts and sports activities for children aged 5–13 over the May Bank Holiday weekend. It gave our kids a chance to learn new creative skills, stay active with games of football and basketball, eat healthy snacks and importantly, have fun!
Moon Palace on Tour
Moon Palace has also been busy. Kindly supported by the Ogden Trust, in November she visited the University of Durham, in February she spent two days at the Royal Astronomical Society, introducing new audiences to her unique blend of art and science.
In March the project travelled to the University of Hertfordshire in Stevenage and then to the Queen Mary University in East London, helping to connect students, researchers and communities through astronomy, imagination and hands-on engagement.
Last month, Moon Palace again welcomed around a thousand visitors at the University of Leeds’ Be Curious festival, where people explored the observatory and shared conversations about space and our place in the universe.
What the East Leeds Project is all about
All of these activities reflect what East Leeds Project is about: creating opportunities for people to come together and shape the cultural life of our communities.
Thank you to everyone who has supported us, attended events, volunteered, collaborated or simply followed our work. We couldn’t do it without you. Thanks also go to our committed Board of Directors, our networks of artists and partners and of course our funders.
We look forward to welcoming many of you to the Henry Barran Centre in the months ahead and sharing the next stage of the East Leeds Project story. Please get in touch with me personally if you’d like to visit the Makerspace or get involved. The coffee pot is always ready and biscuits are always on offer!
Thanks for reading! Warmest of wishes. Claire Irving Director
Moon Palace
Come with us to the moon and back!
Created by artists Heather Peak and Ivan Morison, Moon Palace is a stunning artwork and captivating cosmic observatory on board a converted school bus, now touring East Leeds and beyond. Originally commissioned for LEEDS 2023 Year of Culture and Smeaton300, Moon Palace is inspired by the legacy of civil engineer and astronomer John Smeaton, and the observatory he built in East Leeds.
Header Image and gallery images: Bevan Cockerill
Bringing together creativity and art, engineering and science, collaboration and public good, Moon Palace is a space for conversations on everything from the world around us to the vastness of our Universe and our impacts on a changing planet – all over a cup of Cosmic Tea! She is also a working observatory with onboard equipment including a powerful optical telescope for after-dark stargazing and a rooftop radio telescope.
Images: Sam McQueen
From August to December 2023, Moon Palace toured community venues and schools across the city including Gipton, Seacroft and Whinmoor in East Leeds, welcoming 2947 people on board. Since then we’ve toured to Leeds Ghanaian community’s independence celebrations, the University of Leeds’ ‘Be Curious’ festival, Light Night Leeds, and further afield to Newcastle, Rotherham and the Yorkshire Dales National Park’s dark skies reserve.
Moon Palace is available for hire for events, festivals, schools and corporate supporters.
Moon Palace is most suitable for people over the age of 5, all the way up to 95! She is designed as an accessible sensory environment with a built-in wheelchair lift. We work with BSL interpreters, Audio Describers and other access specialists and we’re always open to conversations about welcoming groups with additional needs.
We fundraise for each Moon Palace outing, to cover the costs of our team including Artist and Scientist Hosts who hold the space for conversation and operate the onboard equipment. Visits can be arranged during daytime, after dark and overnight stays.
Get in touch to talk about hiring Moon Palace
If you’d like to start a conversation about bringing Moon Palace to visit your community venue, festival, business or school, please get in touch. Costs start at £2800 per day for a one-off visit in the Leeds region.
