The Tetley was an independent centre for contemporary art co-founded by Pippa Hale and me in 2013 and operated by Project Space Leeds [PSL], the artist-led initiative we co-founded with Diane Howse in 2006.

From 2007-12, PSL occupied a 500 square-metre space at Whitehall Waterfront in the new ‘west end’ of Leeds city centre where we piloted a five-year programme of exhibitions and events. From this foundation we developed a new space in South Bank Leeds called ‘The Tetley’, established in the building that opened in 1931 as the new Directors’ Offices of the Joshua Tetley & Son brewery. The Tetley was created in partnership with Carlsberg UK, project managers Arup and architectural practice Chetwoods (Simon Baker, Jacqueline Mo and David Pogson) with capital funding from Carlsberg UK, Arts Council England, Leeds City Council, Garfield Weston Foundation, Leeds City Region Business Growth Programme and philanthropic donations.

From 2013-15, I was inaugural Artistic Director, working with curator Zoë Sawyer. Our opening programme, A New Reality, ran from November 2013 – August 2014 and included projects by Rachel Adams, Ben Cain, James Clarkson, Natalie Finnemore, Stephen Iles, Rob Kennedy, Simon Lewandowski & Sam Belinfante, Aidan Moesby, Nous Vous, Emma Rushton & Derek Tyman, and Rehana Zaman. Projects we co-curated at The Tetley include the Jerwood Drawing Prize (in partnership with Jerwood Visual Arts), Me and Mine by Lucy Beech (in partnership with Film & Video Umbrella), Winter Garden by Roger Palmer, and The Feast Wagon by Simeon Barclay, Lubaina Himid & Susan Walsh and Delaine Le Bas, co-curated with Irfan Shah. Download Tom Emery’s review of The Feast Wagon for Art Monthly here. The full archive of exhibitions and events at The Tetley across its decade-long contribution to contemporary art in the North is not yet publicly accessible.

PSL continued to operate The Tetley until late 2023, and under Director Bryony Bond curated Yorkshire’s only Turner Prize-winning exhibition, Tai Shani’s Semiramis, in 2018 (Shani won that year’s prize along with fellow nominees Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Helen Cammock and Oscar Murillo). Following its departure from The Tetley due to commercial redevelopment of the former brewery site, the organisation rebranded as Yorkshire Contemporary. Under current Director Hayley Dixon, it is co-curating this year’s Turner Prize exhibition at Cartwright Hall Art Gallery in partnership with Bradford 2025, Tate and Bradford District Museums and Galleries.

Project Space Leeds continues to be the name of the registered charity that runs Yorkshire Contemporary, nearly 20 years later.