Leeds ARTICLES

Art and retail in perfect harmony

02nd December 2009

For some artists, it can get a bit samey showing their work in gallery spaces. The recession has led to plenty of empty shop units around the city.

Now a new initiative from Leeds City Council aims to kill two birds with one stone.

Art In Unusual Spaces matches visual artists with currently unused shop units, hoardings and other retail spaces.

The aim is to take advantage of these empty places and make a unique and enlivening contribution to the city centre as well as celebrating the range of creative artistic activity in Leeds.

The scheme launches on Thursday 3 December 2009 with four exciting new exhibitions in shop units around the city centre.

This first phase is marked by four window-based projects that form a trail around the city centre.

A number of units in Leeds Shopping Plaza will be filled with projects and documentation from Leeds' annual cultural event, Light Night.

Beauty in the Ordinary (commissioned by Leeds City Council Public Arts) explores the hidden qualities of the everyday through photography by community groups, schools and people young and old from across Leeds, exhibited in a city centre unit on Lands Lane.

The window of 42 New Briggate will be used as a projection screen for Short Shorts, a showreel of artist films between seven and thirty seconds in length.

In the Merrion Centre, Curiosity Shops will be viewable through peepholes in various units.

After these first four exhibitions, Art In Unusual Spaces will continue to create new exhibitions all over the city on an ongoing basis.

Check the Art In Unusual Spaces website if you would like to get involved as an artist, or for more information about forthcoming exhibitions.

Source: BBC