Artistic Research, Social Value and Green Space in East Leeds
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The East Leeds Project is a creative conversation about what life is like in the east of the city, and how it might develop into the future, questioning ideas around artistic research, social value, green spaces, community, identity, sustainability, and participation.
The project focuses on the corridor of green and blue space following the Wyke Beck route between Roundhay and Rothwell, linking these as one space for artistic exploration.
The East Leeds Project intends to respond to deep-seated social challenges and the disconnect between communities on the fringes and the burgeoning city centre. The Wyke Beck route is a wonderful asset that could enhance the lives of residents in some of the most deprived areas of the city. There’s an opportunity for the project to make links across areas such as Gipton, Harehills, Seacroft, Cross Gates, Killingbeck and Halton Moor among others, engaging people more with the green space on their doorstep and contributing to improved health and wellbeing.
With conservation at the heart of the project, this ‘green lung’ is essential for future sustainability, both locally – in terms of breaking down the problem of a ‘two-tier city’ that the Leeds2023 bid sought to address – and in helping the wider city find creative responses to urgent challenges such as flood alleviation and pollution. If you’re interested in these issues and east Leeds, please get in touch!
More information coming soon. To stay connected as the project develops, please sign up to the mailing list mailing list here.
East Leeds Project CIC is a not-for-profit Community Interest Company.
New Artists’ Commission – Come work with us in Gipton!
We have secured funding from Arts Council England to invite an Artist or Artists to join our project team for the East Leeds Pavilion – our bid to create the first Maker Space in east Leeds. This is a substantial commission for an Artist or Artists with a socially-engaged practice over a 10-month period, working with the East Leeds Project and Bauman Lyons architects.
Announcing a partnership between the East Leeds Project, MassBespokeTM and the communities of east Leeds.
The potential site of the East Leeds Pavilion, close to Fearnville Leisure Centre.
Design
It is our ambition to create a temporary ‘Pavilion’ on green space in east Leeds. Our preferred site is adjacent to Fearnville Leisure Centre in Gipton. The Pavilion will be a shared space, managed locally, where people come together for conversation, creativity and exchange. The process will be entered into collaboratively by local people alongside artists, architects, students and professionals from a range of disciplines, coming together to form an intergenerational project team. The project aims to reconnect with histories of innovation in sustainable social housing central to the founding vision for the Gipton estate in the 1930s, as we approach its centenary.
Construct
The Pavilion will utilise the MassBespokeTM system developed in Leeds by Bauman Lyons architects. This pioneering technology democratises the construction process by enabling a community-led approach responding to local need. MassBespokeTM employs a computer-controlled (CNC) cutting machine set up on site in a ‘Flying Factory’ to fabricate components from digital design files sent from anywhere in the world. From these, agile, high-performance timber cassettes are fabricated and rapidly assembled onsite by a local workforce comprising skilled and semi-skilled workers. Training is built into the project programme at every stage, and outputs will include enhanced digital literacy and skills development for those seeking employment. The project facilitates exchange between workers, residents and professionals sharing their respective skills, specialisms and enthusiasms with each other. MassBespokeTM is designed to achieve high standards of environmental performance, optimise use of materials, eliminate waste, and remove the need for heavy transport and lifting equipment at all stages of construction.
Explore
The Pavilion will provide a maker space for activity led by stakeholders. As a creative hub it will enable responsiveness to key dates in the cultural calendar such as Light Night and the Gipton Gala, and provide a base for exploring the Wyke Beck Valley on foot and by bicycle. Although imagined as a temporary structure, the Pavilion will be robust and could remain in situ for a number of years. Over time, a ribbon of pavilions could be constructed throughout east Leeds, growing cultural infrastructure where little currently exists and specifically addressing the complete absence of creative workspaces in the east of the city. Structures constructed through the MassBespokeTM system are potentially mobile, and once disassembled the land can be returned to its original state.
Repeat?
Once established, the Factory could enable many communities to build homes and other facilities. It could generate a new social enterprise of community makers supplying garden sheds, workshops, garages, house extensions and so on through a local supply chain adding social value to place making. The Pavilion will form an R&D phase as we test the technology, build community trust and enhance our understanding of local infrastructure needs, and gather our workforce and creative team. We are actively seeking potential partners and collaborators for the project including local residents, businesses and organisations, citywide training and service providers, and creative makers of all kinds, particularly those based in east Leeds.
East Leeds Project Team visit to Sunny Bank Mills on Saturday 8th February 2020Joanna Jowett The Sunny Bank Mills Estate is owned by the Gaunt family, who have been converting the old cloth mill buildings into workplace units suitable for a range of businesses, from offices to artist studios, maker spaces, a play gym and …
The East Leeds Project and Bauman Lyons Architects advance their ambition to co-create the East Leeds Pavilion, the first ever Maker Space in east Leeds, with the help of artist Matt Green, local residents and makers, and funding from Arts Council England. Visual arts organisation the East Leeds Project [ELP] is delighted to announce that …
The East Leeds Makers Social 4pm-7pm, Thursday 27th June 2019 Upstairs at Gipton Methodist Church* Makers of all kinds across east Leeds are invited to our first East Leeds Makers Social on 27 June. We’ve commissioned Bradford-based artist Andy Abbott to create a new participatory project about ‘making’ for this year’s Gipton Gala, funded by …
