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Dates: Bank holiday Monday - end of September 2010 @ UNION 105 and 30 August, bank holiday Monday @ Leeds West Indian Centre
Venues: UNION 105, 105 Chapeltown Road, Chapeltown, LS7 3HY and Leeds West Indian Centre, 10 Laycock Place, Leeds. LS7 3JA.
Times: August Bank holiday Monday, both venues all day. Other times: UNION 105, Tuesday - Thursday, 12 – 6pm.

To coincide with the 38th West Indian Carnival, East Street Arts has invited cultural sociologist and campaigner Dr. Max Farrar to select from his photographic and video collection documenting the Carnival since the early 1970s.

Leeds’ West Indian Carnival is the longest running carnival of its kind in Europe, organised for the first time in 1967, by Arthur France (the longstanding Chairman) and Ian Charles, the event transforming Leeds into an epicentre of art, culture and celebration every August bank holiday weekend.

As Arthur France explained to Farrar the “carnival was established in Leeds in 1967 as a means of taking the heat out of the racial strife of the day.” Art and politics cannot be closer together than in the case of carnival, an event which celebrates “West Indian culture, as well as provide time-off from the conflictual business of demanding equal rights in a resistant white society.”

Since its early days, the Carnival became the place, where - in the otherwise marginalised parts of Chapeltown and Harehills - black and white, young and old, tall and short unite for a weekend by “their enthusiasm for the art and the history and meaning of Carnival.”

Farrar first started documenting the carnival in 1973 after graduating in Sociology from The University of Leeds, and whilst training to be a cultural sociologist. His focus is often the carnival queens, who, he says, not only display the passion of the carnival but also exhibit breathtaking costume design in the community.

In homage to the rich history of the carnival, ESA will present rarely seen documentation of the carnival by Farrar over two sites in Leeds. At Leeds West Indian Centre, on view will be photographs of past carnival queens as well as images which have a more overtly political edge, whilst at UNION 105, watch a selection of Farrar’s films documenting past carnivals, capturing an insightful glimpse of past carnivals’ unique glamour and atmosphere.

Download Max Farrar reflections on almost forty years of photographs here.

More on the West Indian Carnival:

The carnival was founded in 1967 by Arthur France a Leeds University student from Saint Kitts who is longstanding Chairman, and was one of the major players behind the formation of the United Caribbean Association, fiercely campaigning for equal rights and an end to discrimination. Arthur describes carnival as a day of the year when “the people of every race, colour, clan and creed come together in harmony”.

An invitation from the council, in 2002, saw the procession return to the city centre. Carnival has helped deliver the Caribbean community from the city’s margins to centre stage in millennium square host to the Carnival Queen show. Five contestants entered the first Carnival Queen Show. About a thousand people attended. 150,000 people were estimated to have attended the 2009 event. Millennium Square is now the grand host of the Queens show where Costume making is displayed to its highest standard on the Friday of the August Bank Holiday weekend. Here women of all ages will appear before judges wearing and carrying costumes of undeniably high artistic talent. Costumes are part judged on audience reaction, which results in an inclusive and invigorating atmosphere.

Download an article by Geraldine Connor and Max Farrar on the history and role of the Carnival in Leeds and London here.

For more images of Max’s work with carnival queens click here.

For more of Max’s work visit www.maxfarrar.org.uk.

Exhibition preview: Friday 9 July 2010, 5 - 7pm
Opening times: 13 - 18 July, 10am - 5pm
Venue: UNION 105, 105 Chapeltown Road, Leeds. LS7 3HY.
Artist talk @ Ken Brown's House: Tuesday 13 July, 6 - 7.30pm. Please note: maximum of 15 people, RSVP to ulrika.flink@esaweb.org.uk. Group leaving from UNION 105 at 5.45pm.
Chess tournament, in collaboration with Paul Auber: Weekend of 16 - 18 July.If you want to play please sign up by emailing ulrika.flink@esaweb.org.uk, spaces are limited.

We are delighted to present Art, chess ... and life inbetween, an exhibition of chess sets, paintings and photographs by Ken Brown and Erik Schelander. As part of the exhibition, there will be an opportunity for the public to visit Ken Brown's house/gallery in Chapeltown and talk to the artists about their collaboration and Brown's extensive body of work. The exhibition will also be accompanied by a chess tournament in UNION 105.

Context:

At the beginning of the 20th century, artists such as Man Ray, Max Ernst and Marcel Duchamp were among the first major European artists who placed the game of chess in an artistic context and designed chess sets. Duchamp fascination with the game later led him giving up making art and devoting his entire life to playing chess believing that “while all artists are not chess players, all chess players are artists”.

Leeds-based artist Ken Brown has spent the last 15 years of his life with making unique chess sets and painting people he meets and plays with. Brown has also turned his house into a gallery space, where the boundaries between his everyday life and art disappear. After meeting photographer Erik Schnelander in Union 105 earlier this year, the two artists decided to regularly meet to talk about art, life and each other's practices. As an outcome of these meetings Schelander developed a series of photographic work creating a portrait of an artist by documenting Brown's work processes.

Ken Brown's Chapeltown Chess Tournament

Brown's chess sets are designed for social interaction and thus Union 105 will host ESA's very first chess tournament, opening our doors to Leeds' chess talents. The three -day chess tournament will end up in a finale game on Brown's one of a kind chess table.

The first modern chess tournament was held in London in 1851, but it was not until the early 1980s that a mass wave of chess masters rose throughout African and Caribbean nations taking their rightful place among the cadre of chess nations. We are happy to collaborate with Paul Auber, who conceived the Mary Secole Memorial Gardens and Gian Chess Park on Leeds' Chapeltown Road. Auber featured Ken Brown regularly in the 90s with his touring exhibition For The Honour of Africa Collection, and has used Brown's chess sets in several community chess tournaments. Paul holds a small collection of Brown's work, including a much-admired glass-topped chess table.

More on Ken Brown and Erik Schelander:

Chess has always been an important part of artist Ken Brown's life. Brown is fascinated by the game and, as for many artists before him, chess has become an obsession. Avant garde artists have always been intrigued by chess, an interest that led to the development of artistic chess sets in the first half of the twentieth century. Marcel Duchamp was the first major artist to place the game of chess in an artistic context. Chess was an ever-present motif in Duchamp's work until he decided to stop making art in order to devote his life to playing chess stating “while all artists are not chess players, all chess players are artists”.

Ken Brown was educated at Jacob Kramer College, today known as Leeds College of Art. Brown has devoted the last 15 years of his practice to the making of chess sets and this exhibition showcases the development of his unique style alongside a new series of paintings. Brown's new paintings are focusing on his own friends engrossed in chess and domino games. Brown likes to take pictures of all the people he meets capturing his everyday social life; it is from these images he finds the subject matter for his paintings. Brown has turned his own house into a gallery space, living his everyday life in constant contact with his own work.

Erik Schelander and Ken Brown met when they both took part in ESA's Chapeltown Salon. Schelander and Brown decided to embark on a joint adventure, regularly meeting up to talk about their art practices. Schelander's main media is photography and he is an integral part of the exhibition showing documentation of Brown's work process but at the same time creating a artist portrait as part of this own practice.

Worldwide, the population aged 60 and over is growing faster than any other age group. By 2025 the number of people in Britain over the age of 60 will outnumber those under 25. The greying of the population challenges policy makers in every field of society. But what questions does an ageing society bring up for the arts?

Shades of Grey is a half-day symposium exploring how art and artists respond to issues of ageing: expectations, perceptions and fears, loss and memory and generational boundaries. The symposium is a follow up to ESA's 2009 commission by Leeds-based artist Jo Lee who developed new work in collaboration with members of several care homes around Leeds through funding from Leeds City Council/NHS (Strategic Partnership and Development). The project resulted in an installation that explored issues of isolation and dignity and investigated life stories through focusing on photographs and memories. Wave was presented on 1 October 2009 at Leeds City Museum linked with the International Day Of Older People theme of 'older people and Leeds; past, present, future' and since then in Leeds Civic Hall, Leeds Library and Donisthorpe Hall Care Home (Moortown).

Speakers confirmed for the symposium include Mick Ward and Caroline Sharkey from Leeds City Council as well as artists Jo Lee (Leeds), Garry Barker (Leeds) and Geoff Broadway (Birmingham).

Schedule of the day:

3.00 - 3.30 pm arrival, coffee/tea

3.30 - 4pm: Mick Ward & Caroline Starkey: ‘Art: What's That to Do With Social Care and the NHS?’

Mick Ward is the Head of Commissioning, Adult Social Care, Leeds City Council and Caroline Starkey is Principal Officer, Health and Wellbeing in Later Life, Adult Social Care, Leeds City Council. The speakers will outline why NHS Leeds and Adult Social Care commissioned ‘Wave’ by artist Jo Lee and why they want to support longer-term work that raises the issues of Art and Artists in an Ageing Society. This will include looking at: the changing demographics, nationally and in Leeds, and the changing expectations within an economic reality; key issues of ageing, including rooting out age discrimination, the changing role of social care in supporting older people, intergenerational work, tackling social isolation and celebrating older age. The ‘Art for Older People’ Vs ‘Art by Older People’ Vs ‘Older People’s Art’ discourse.

4 - 4.30pm Jo Lee – 'Wave'

Jo Lee is a multi media artist incorporating ceramics, 2D and photography in her work that takes an inquisitive approach to the human experience. She is intrigued about how people attempt to validate their existence by documenting their lives to retain histories, stories and memories. Wave is an installation comprising of 100 hands which have been cast from 100 residents of Leeds ranging from 3 months to 100 years old - including generations of families from great grandchildren to great grandparents. For the symposium Jo Lee will re-install the work in the Project Space at Patrick Studios and talk about the story of its making as well as its public perception.

4.30-5pm Coffee/Tea

5 - 5.30pm Geoff Broadway - 'Elders'

Geoff Broadway is a multi-disciplinary artist who works with media that includes light, sound, photography and video and often shows his work as installations. A common theme in much of his recent artwork is the re-articulation of perceptions of everyday life that have been recorded with a wide range of participants. During this presentation he will be showing aspects of Elders, a dynamic 18-channel light and sound installation. Based around conversations with 18 elders from across the West Midlands, this project shares how each participant makes sense of their own life and reflects upon aspects of wisdom and belonging. Geoff will discuss the wider context of the project, asking if negative perceptions of aging have its roots in a lack of meaningful connection to life.

5.30 - 6pm Garry Barker - 'The Image of Grief'

Garry Barker has been lecturer at Leeds College of Art since 1975. His work for the last 35 years has been centred on a long-term project to develop a mythic understanding of autobiographic experience. In relation to some of his works presented as part of the symposium, Garry's presentation will be a reflection on the dead and their afterlife among us. "As we get older we need to accept death in order to humanise our present and imagine our future. The presentation will be a meditation on trying to create images of dying initially for the self and close family and on how the thought of death shapes the communion of the living."

6pm Discussion

7pm Symposium ends

The symposium is supported by Leeds City Council, Adult Social Care and NHS Leeds.

Residency launch Mapping Chapeltown
Date: Wednesday 2 June 2010, 6 - 9pm.
Venue: UNION 105, 105 Chapeltown Road, Leeds. LS7 3HY.

Come and share your experience of Chapeltown! Larna is interested in your favourite place and your daily movement in Chapeltown. Bring anything you like; images, objects, texts, quotes that represents your life in Chapeltown. There will be a large map in the project space at Union 105 where you can add your photocopied memorabilia of Chapeltown. Please come and make your every day visible on Larna Campbell’s Chapeltown map.

CPT Late Show
A 'talk show' with live performances
Hosted by Larna Cambell

Date: Tuesday 15 June, 2010
Time: 6 - 10pm
Venue: Leeds West Indian Centre, 10 Laycock Place, Chapeltown. LS7 3AJ‎.
Free - All Welcome

Chapeltown is a creative community with a long-standing history of artistic practice, but - as artist Larna Campbell discovered whilst doing research for her residency - this history is not easily accessible. Campbell will try to rectify this through her 'talk show' by collecting oral history and showcasing artistic practice from the area. 'CPT Late Show' will introduce the audience to young art practitioners from Leeds Young Authors, artists from the local hip hop scene and students from Northern School of Contemporary Dance alongside more established practitioners such as poet Khadijah Ibrahiim. Campbell will facilitate a night of knowledge sharing to explore what came before and what is beyond the horizon for Chapeltown's creative community. Come, listen and add to the stories that our invited guests will recollect from the heyday of the music venue Phoenix, memories from the Hayfields and much more.

Larna Campbell’s Open Studio
Dates: 16-17, 22-24, 29, 30 June and 1 July 2010.
Venue: Union 105, 105 Chapeltown Road, Leeds. LS7 3HY.
Times: Tuesday and Thursday 12 - 6 pm, Wednesday 2 - 8pm

For two weeks Union 105’s project space will be turned into an artist studio. Artist studios have always been the symbol of creativity and the place for contemplation underlying this creativity. Campbell will let the public experience, engage with and contribute to the artist's work as it is being developed and will use a large map during the two weeks where she and the audience/participants can document their experiences of Chapeltown.

Regular updates and information about related events will appear here and on the artist’s blog developed throughout the residency. The project will culminate in an exhibition/event as part of ESA’s public programme later this year.

For more information on this project please contact Ulrika Flink (Curatorial Fellow) at ulrika.flink@esaweb.org.uk or ring 0113 262 6633.

More on Larna Campbell
Larna Campbell’s practice is driven by her desire to engage with people from all walks of life, both within the UK and internationally. Larna has performed at theatre festivals in Sibiu (2006) and Bilbao (2007). Larna has developed partnerships with schools, galleries, council officers, curators and members of the general public. Education and consultancy work clients include Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Cartwright Hall, Creative Partnerships, Artworks Creative Communities, Kala Sangam and Bradford Council. Regional commissions include projects such as Bradford LINk's health and social care consultation and Holmewood natural play consultation. www.larnacampbell.co.uk

Read about Larna's project on The Guardian's Leeds blog here.