Union 105 Artist’s residency in Chapeltown Leeds

In the first week of my resideny the Union 105 Salon show is coming to an end and I go to the gallery for a peer to peer discussion about some of the artists’ work. The Salon show was brilliant, with interesting artwork, curated nicely and having a salon was a brilliant way of getting lots of local artists and residents tyo come into the space. So I was happy to meet some of the artists and here about their work at this informal group crit.

As well as the artists’ work, we discuss education and what an art education gives you aor doesn’t and whether it’s important in being an artist. The consensus is that going to art school isn’t the most important thing – making good art is. However, I can’t help noticing that the many self taught artists I have met in the area so far some how feel apart from the art world that I know and feel obliged to keep bringing up the fact that they didn’t study art, as if this makes their opinions and artwork less valid, which it does not.

I am also really interested in this parade of shops – Reginald Parade. There is a sign outside, a compulsory purchase order. And the new joint service centre is being built right next to it. I feel sad about this even though I didn’t know the shops that were there because they have all closed down except one – the hairdressers, which is still open and doing business. I wonder what their plan is for the future?

From conversations I’ve had with people already I can feel some resentment towards the joint service centre, it has taken over half the playground and forced this shops, which were well appreciated by the community, to move out. If the parade was done up it would look beautiful but I guess it’s too late for that now.

So, the residency has been going well. I have been meeting lots of interesting people, having conversations about Chapeltown past and present and building up a body of research work.

I’ll start from the beginning:

On Wednesday 14th April, the first day of my residency, I wrote: Walking up Chapeltown Road a lot of interesting things jump out at me already. Blocked up doors in walls and buildings, lavish plants and trees spaced sparsley and sporadically in large gardens and the overall grandness of the architecture. The dilapidation, the building sites and the remnants of shoddy building work. I am struck by the clearly evident history of strong community bonds and awareness of heritage, as well as the multitude of communities living in and accessing the area. Community centres, religious centres, memorials and acknowledgements are in abundance.

I have also noticed that Chapeltown still has working phone boxes, unlike many other areas and it even has a red phone box, which by the way, stinks of piss but functions perfectly. I wonder if it is the only one in Leeds apart from the one in City Square.

I ask myself:

– Do people use these open spaces in the ways their architecture suggests? Like the stage area in the park next to Unity – does anyone ever perform there?

– Do memorials and tributes to tragic acts (in this space and others) allow/promote or hinder change and development. I agree that we must be aware and knowledgeable of our hertiage, history and legacies of theose who came before us, however, would it not be more appropriate for these dedicated physical tributes to give hope for the future? Perhaps like Jaume Plensa’s ‘Dream’ in St Helen’s.

– What allows or would enable distinct communities to thrive in the area?

– What used to be here, who used to live here and how does that impact on today?

– Does the existence of so many community initiatives indicate their necessity? Or, the communities’ active voices and caring for their communities? Or that extra funding has been available for these within Chapeltown?

As I continue up Chapeltown Road, the houses become less grand but better kept, the streets tidier and the road pothole free. I ask myself, ‘have I crossed the border into Chapel Allerton? Then I see a sign for Chapel Allerton Hospital. It’s only later, after talking to people who have grown up here and lived here that I discover that 20 years ago Chapel Allerton and Chapeltown were in fact the same area with the same communities living in them.