Leeds is known for its culture in the fields of art, architecture, music, sport, film and television. As the largest city in Yorkshire, Leeds is a centre of Yorkshire's contemporary culture and is the base for Yorkshire's television (BBC, ITV, and Channel 4)[1] and regional newspapers.
In 2015 Leeds announced its intention to bid for European Capital of Culture 2023. Following the European Commission's decision for the UK to no longer able to bid to be part of the European Capital of Culture Competition, the City Council, along with partners, committed to a five-year cultural investment programme culminating in Leeds 2023, a year of cultural celebration.[2]
In the 1920s Leeds College of Art was the starting point for the careers of the sculptors Barbara Hepworth and Henry Moore, and in the 1950s, and 1960s it was one of the leading centres for radical art education in Britain under the guidance of artists such as Harry Thubron and Tom Hudson, and the art historian Norbert Lynton. Their attempts to redefine what art education should mean in the post-Second World War period led the artist Patrick Heron to claim in 1971 in The Guardian newspaper that "Leeds is the most influential art school in Europe since the Bauhaus".[5] This willingness to push at the boundaries of acceptable public behaviour from artists was also evident in 1966 when Leeds College of Art staged an exhibition of paintings by the Cypriot artist Stass Paraskos, who taught at the college, which was raided by the police after allegations of obscenity.[6]
This radicalism continued into the 1970s when the higher education component of Leeds College of Art was split from the college to form the nucleus of the new multidisciplinary Leeds Polytechnic, now called Leeds Beckett University. Performance art had been taught earlier at Leeds College of Art, notably by the Fluxus artist Robin Page during his time as a tutor there in the mid-1960s, but in 1977 a performance art work hit the national news headlines when the students Pete Parkin and Derek Wain used an air pistol to shoot a line up of live budgerigars in front of an audience at Leeds Polytechnic.[7]
The University of Leeds was the alma mater of Herbert Read, one of the leading international theorists of modern art from the mid-twentieth century,[8] and also the teaching base for the Marxist art historian Arnold Hauser from 1951 to 1985.[9] Partly due to Herbert Read's connection with the university, from 1950 to 1970 the university was the host of one of the first artist-in-residence schemes in Britain, using funding from the then owner of Lund Humphries books, Peter Gregory. The Gregory Fellowships, as the residencies were known, were given to painters and sculptors for up to two years to allow them to develop their own work and influence the university in any way they saw fit. Amongst those holding the fellowships were Kenneth Armitage, Reg Butler, Dennis Creffield and Terry Frost and others. Parallel Gregory Fellowships also existed in music and poetry at the university.[10]
Leeds was also a centre for radical feminist art, with one of the first galleries in Britain dedicated to showing the work of women photographers, the Pavilion Gallery, opening in the city in 1983, and the University of Leeds School of Fine Art being a well-known centre for the development of feminist art history, under Griselda Pollock, during the 1980s and 1990s. Possibly as a result of the strength of feminist art in Leeds, in November 1984 an exhibition of ceramics by students and staff at Leeds Polytechnic was attacked by a group of feminist activists who destroyed eight sculptures on display which they deemed to be degrading to women.[11] The University of Leeds's School of Fine Art also specialised in Art & Language conceptual art practice, under Terry Atkinson, again in the 1980s and 1990s.[12] Atkinson tutored the Leeds 13 year group that, in 1998, provoked a national media frenzy with their Spanish holiday as art hoax.
A major sculpture research centre and gallery, the Henry Moore Institute, is located alongside Leeds Art Gallery in the city centre, and in 2013 a new contemporary art centre, called The Tetley, opened on the site of the former Tetley Brewery to the south of the city centre.
Art practice and collecting has a long history in Leeds: the city's municipal art gallery (Leeds Art Gallery) opened in 1888. J. M. W. Turner painted numerous scenes in and around the city,[14] and the city was home to one of Britain's largest collections of Pre-Raphaelite Art, owned by Thomas Plint, during the nineteenth century.[15] There was also an early history of holding large-scale public exhibitions in the city, most notably the series of 'Polytechnic Exhibitions' held regularly from 1839.[16]
Leeds Art Gallery houses important collections of traditional and contemporary British art, with the best twentieth century collection outside London and a colourful wall painting for the Victorian staircase by Lothar Götz.[17] Just next door, The Henry Moore Institute is dedicated to celebrating sculpture. In the iconic building, they host a year-round changing programme of historical, modern and contemporary exhibitions presenting sculpture from across the world. Located in the striking art deco headquarters of the former brewery, The Tetley is a centre for contemporary art, centred on creativity, innovation and experimentation. There is also an art gallery within the Mansion Conservatory in Roundhay Park.[18]
Leeds is famous for its spectacular Victorian arcades – Queens Arcade, Thornton's Arcade, Grand Arcade and the magnificent Victoria Quarter. The centre is also home to a number of iconic buildings: Leeds Civic Hall and Leeds Central Library; a gothic masterpiece with spectacular staircases and archways.
Leeds hosts the Leeds West Indian Carnival in its Chapeltown district, which is home to a sizable West Indian community. This takes place each August and is the longest running West Indian carnival in Europe, having taken place since 1967.[19] The 2017 event attracted an estimated 250,000 visitors.
Leeds is one of the only English cities outside London to have its own repertory theatre, opera and ballet companies. Leeds has some of the finest theatres in the UK and offers a wide range of entertainment, from music hall evenings and pantos at the City Varieties, to West End plays and musicals at Leeds Playhouse and Leeds Grand Theatre. Leeds is also home to the internationally renowned and award-winning Opera North and Northern Ballet.
Playwright Alan Bennett hails from the city and many of his plays including his televised Talking Heads were set in Leeds or areas surrounding the city.
For film, there is the historic Cottage Road Cinema, one of the oldest cinemas in the country, or Grade II listed Hyde Park Picture House: believed to be the only one in the world still lit by gas.
Leeds is well known for hosting world-class sporting events, with unforgettable, international competitions being held in the city, including the Grand Départ of the Tour de France in 2014, Rugby World Cup 2015 and the ITU World Triathlon Series Leeds in 2016, 2017, 2018.[22]
Leeds has two professional Rugby League teams. Leeds Rhinos play at the Headingley Rugby Stadium and compete in the Super League. In South Leeds there is also Hunslet R.L.F.C. There are many other professional Rugby League teams in areas surrounding Leeds.
Rugby union
The main Rugby Union team in Leeds is Leeds Tykes, who play at The Sycamores in Bramhope, about 9mi (14km) outside the city centre. Lying just outside the city sprawl but within the Metropolitan District is Otley R.U.F.C.
Cricket
Yorkshire County Cricket Club's main ground is the Headingley Cricket Ground, which backs onto the rugby ground.
Kirkstall Abbey is a ruined Cistercian monastery in Kirkstall, north-west of Leeds city centre in West Yorkshire, England. It is set in a public park on the north bank of the River Aire. It was founded c. 1152. It was disestablished during the Dissolution of the Monasteries under Henry VIII.
Kirkstall is a north-western suburb of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, on the eastern side of the River Aire. The area sits in the Kirkstall ward of Leeds City Council and Leeds Central and Headingley parliamentary constituency, represented by Alex Sobel. The population of the ward at the 2011 Census was 21,709.
The Cyprus College of Art (CyCA) is an artists' studio group, located in the village of Lempa on the west coast of Cyprus. It was founded in 1969 by the artist Stass Paraskos; the current director is the Cyprus-based artist Margaret Paraskos.
Stass Paraskos was an artist from Cyprus, although much of his life was spent teaching and working in England.
Sir Herbert Edward Read, was an English art historian, poet, literary critic and philosopher, best known for numerous books on art, which included influential volumes on the role of art in education. Read was co-founder of the Institute of Contemporary Arts. As well as being a prominent English anarchist, he was one of the earliest English writers to take notice of existentialism. He was co-editor with Michael Fordham and Gerhard Adler of the British edition in English of The Collected Works of C. G. Jung.
Leeds Beckett University (LBU), formerly known as Leeds Metropolitan University (LMU) and before that as Leeds Polytechnic, is a public university in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It has campuses in the city centre and Headingley. The university's origins can be traced to 1824, with the foundation of the Leeds Mechanics Institute. Leeds Polytechnic was formed in 1970, and was part of the Leeds Local Education Authority until it became an independent Higher Education Corporation on 1 April 1989. In 1992, the institution gained university status. The current name was adopted in September 2014.
Benedict William Read FSA was an English art historian. Usually known as Ben Read, he was the author of numerous books, essays and articles on nineteenth and twentieth century art history, and was one of the most authoritative writers in the second half of the twentieth century on British Victorian sculpture.
The Leeds Arts Club was founded in 1903 by the Leeds primary school teacher Alfred Orage and Holbrook Jackson, a lace merchant and freelance journalist, and was one of the most advanced centres for modernist thinking, radical thought and experimental art in Britain in the pre-First World War period.
Abbey House Museum in Kirkstall, Leeds, West Yorkshire, England is housed in the gatehouse of the ruined 12th-century Kirkstall Abbey, and is a Grade II* listed building. The house is 3 miles (4.8 km) north west of Leeds city centre on the A65 road. It is part of the Leeds Museums & Galleries group.
Harry Thubron OBE was an English artist and art teacher. He made radical innovations in art education which are still controversial today.
Leeds in West Yorkshire, England is a tourist destination.
Tetley's Brewery(Joshua Tetley & Son Ltd) was an English regional brewery founded in 1822 by Joshua Tetley in Hunslet, now a suburb of Leeds, West Yorkshire. The beer was originally produced at the Leeds Brewery, which was later renamed the Leeds Tetley Brewery to avoid confusion with a microbrewery of the same name.
Michael Paraskos, FHEA, FRSA is a novelist, lecturer and writer on art. He has written several non-fiction and fiction books and essays, and articles on art, literature, culture and politics for various publications, including Art Review, The Epoch Times, The Guardian newspaper and The Spectator magazine. In the past, he has reviewed art exhibitions for BBC radio, curated exhibitions, and taught in universities and colleges in Britain and elsewhere. He has a particular focus on modern art, having published books on the art theorist Herbert Read, and he is also known for his theories connecting anarchism and modern art. He lives in West Norwood in south London.
Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios is a British architectural design firm, established in 1978, with offices in Bath, London, Manchester and Belfast. The firm is known for its pioneering work in sustainable design and social design agenda.
Clive Head is a painter from Britain.
The Stass Paraskos obscenity trial was a notorious court case held in the northern English city of Leeds in 1966 involving an exhibition of paintings by the Cyprus-born British artist Stass Paraskos.
The Tetley is a contemporary art gallery in Leeds, England, located in the art deco headquarters of the former Tetley's Brewery. The gallery was opened on Friday 28 November 2013.
Leeds Museums and Galleries is a museum service run by the Leeds City Council in West Yorkshire. It manages eight sites and is the largest museum service in England and Wales run by a local authority.
Terence Frederick Friedman (1940-2013) was an American-born art and architectural historian and museum curator. After his death in Leeds, UK, The Sculpture Journal, in their tribute, defined him as ‘a rare being - a scholar curator working in a regional museum, and an outstanding art historian, educator and collector’. He was also a highly acclaimed author and respected as a leading authority on 18th century ecclesiastical architecture. His book, The Eighteenth-Century Church in Britain, the first substantial study of the subject to appear in over half a century, won the William MB Berger Prize for British Art History in 2012.
Natalie Finnemore is a British visual artist who creates sculptural installations. Finnemore's artistic practice utilises drawing, printmaking, painting and sculpture. Her sculptural work is influenced by design, and explores the viewer's expectations or relationship with form, function and play.
↑ Tom Steele, Alfred Orage and the Leeds Arts Club (London: Orage Press, 2009)
↑ Michael Paraskos, The Yorkshire Art Exhibition (Scarborough: Scarborough Museum and Art Gallery, 2000); see also Michael Paraskos, English Expressionism (unpublished academic dissertation, University of Leeds, 1997)
↑ Patrick Heron, 'Murder of the Art Schools', in The Guardian (UK newspaper), 12 October 1971, p.8
↑ Paul Rooney, Thin Air (Leeds: Leeds Metropolitan University, 2009) p.10f
↑ Michael Paraskos, 'Herbert Read and Leeds', in Benedict Read and David Thistlewood, Herbert Read: A British Vision of World Art (Leeds: Leeds City Art Gallery, 1993) p.25
↑ Katharina Scherke, 'Arnold Hauser and the Social History of Art', in Peter Weibel, Beyond Art: A Third Culture: A Comparative Study in Cultures, Art and Science in 20th Century Austria and Hungary (Berlin: Springer, 2005) p.478
↑ Hilary Diaper, 'The Gregory Fellowships', in Benedict Read and David Thistlewood, Herbert Read: A British Vision of World Art (Leeds: Leeds City Art Gallery, 1993) p.133f
↑ John A. Walker, Art and Outrage (London: Pluto Press, 1999) pp. 134–138
↑ James Charnley, Creative Licence: From Leeds College of Art to Leeds Polytechnic, 1963-1973 (Cambridge: James Clarke and Co Ltd, 2015) p.254
↑ Whateley, Laura (15 March 2017). "20 best cultural places to live". The Times. No.72171. times2 supplement. pp.6–7. ISSN0140-0460.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: location (link)
↑ David Hill, Turner and Leeds (Leeds: Northern Arts Publications, 2008) p.1f
↑ Caroline Arscott, 'Without Distinction of Party' in Janet Wolff and John Seed (eds.)The Culture of Capital (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1988) p.135
↑ Toshio Kusamitsu, 'Great Exhibitions before 1851' in History Workshop, No. 9 (Spring, 1980), p.76f. See also Caroline Arscott, 'Without Distinction of Party' in Janet Wolff and John Seed (eds.)The Culture of Capital (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1988) p.135
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