I founded the East Leeds Project [ELP] as Artistic Director in 2017 from lived experience as a long-term resident of Gipton and a desire to address the absence of dedicated organisations and spaces for visual arts in this part of the city. In 2018 I was joined by Claire Irving, also a long-term resident of East Leeds, as Communities Director and the organisation formalised as a registered Community Interest Company. Our team expanded to include Paul Harker as Communications Director, a board of Non-Executive Directors and student placements through the University of Leeds.

Working with a broad and inclusive definition of visual arts, we worked to co-produce locally-led conversations about place, agency and creativity through projects with socially-engaged artists including major commissions to Andy Abbott (What Makes Gipton? 2019), Emma Hardaker (KIOSK, 2021) and Heather Peak and Ivan Morison (Moon Palace, 2023).

From 2023-24 we ran Healthy Holidays projects at Nowell Mount Community Centre in Harehills during the Easter, Summer and Christmas school holidays, providing healthy hot meals and creative activities led by artists including Hafifa Ahmed, Henry Etherington, Denisa Kreitzer, Hang Linton, Eve Miller and Kiu Yu Mok. Our mobile makerspace KIOSK launched at the Gipton Gala in 2021 before touring partner venues across East Leeds.

Partnerships with organisations including Chapel FM (Seacroft), Space2 and The Old Fire Station (Gipton) expanded the reach of our work and we were regular contributors to networks including SAIL (Sustainable Arts in Leeds) and LAHWN (Leeds Arts Health and Wellbeing Network) and as a founding member of the Gipton Neighbourhood Improvement Partnership.

The ELP’s long-term aim has been to secure a space locally for the creation of an independent, locally owned makerspace – the first space of its kind anywhere in East Leeds. This ambition is moving closer as the organisation continues under Claire’s leadership and makes an exciting move in September 2025 into a new space at the Henry Barran Centre in Gipton where the makerspace can evolve.