2020 was a really challenging year, but that has not stopped us delivering high-quality arts opportunities to children and young people across Leeds. We had to adapt to working from home and delivering workshops and events online. Despite this, we managed to deliver 12 projects, collaborated with 13 organisations, and reached an impressive 817 young people aged 8-25.

Take a look at this infographic to find out more:

Download the infographic

2020 started with Global Mash Up. We built dens, explored music, dance and poetry and created a short film with young people from Burmantofts & Richmond Hill.

We held two online events for National Windrush Day – Generations Dreaming. Hosts Khadijah Ibrahiim and Dr. Emily Zobel Marshall were joined by artists from the UK and the Caribbean and they celebrated the Windrush Generation through music and literature. Catch up here.

We also produced two online learning resources on our website, one about the Windrush Generation and one about Carnival. These are still available, and completely free to access!

Throughout the Summer and Autumn we teamed up with Heritage Corner to support them with the Leeds Black History Walk. We supported them to hold 20 socially distanced walks and educated over 300 members of the public about Leeds’ Black history. The final walk was a ‘New Responses Special’ where Joe Williams was joined by four guest artists who  performed responses to the history he uncovered.

A definite highlight of the year was Represent. Over four days we worked with 15 young people aged 16-24 to produce creative responses to neglected industrial narratives of people of colour. Working in partnership with Heritage Corner and Ignite Yorkshire, we were able to in-person workshops at Leeds Industrial Museum with guest artists and some participants joining virtually. To find out more about the week, check out this short film!

2020 finished off with The Big Give Christmas Challenge. This is the third time we have taken part in the challenge, and thanks to your generous support we were able to raise over £4,000.

Thank you for all your support over the year – we could not have done it without you!

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Banner photo by Ashley Karrell.