Creative in the city

Light Night

Light Night is a city-wide arts festival which brings central Leeds to life for just one night each year. Our students and staff regularly play a central role with live performance and art installations designed to surprise and delight the crowds passing by. Last year, our performing arts students took centre stage with ‘Now You See Us’, an exploration of light, line and shape taking the geometry of Leeds city architecture as inspiration, and senior lecturer Simon Ringe’s large-scale projection piece ‘Pool’ was shown on the side of our University’s Portland Building.

Art, Architecture & Design end of year show

This year our Art, Architecture and Design show was titled ‘The Mother of Invention’ and took inspiration from Denys Fisher’s classic ‘Spirograph’ toy. The launch night regularly attracts a crowd of culture enthusiasts from across the city, including regional arts and business people, and this year was no exception. The exhibition included works created by postgraduate and undergraduate students studying subjects including landscape architecture, architecture, product design, fine art, interior architecture, graphic arts and graphic design and also work from our first year of fashion. Selected pieces from the show were chosen by The Gallery at Munro House, an independent gallery in the city centre, for a further exhibition, ‘The Future in their Hands’. The gallery says: “These selected graduates will hopefully join our growing stable of graduates and artists whom we work with on a regular basis.”

Lift Off Festival

Lift Off Festival celebrates the work of our talented students in our School of Film, Music and Performing Arts. This year 10 professional music studios were opened to the public so our music students could showcase the work they’ve produced over the last 12 months. Our film school students’ showcase was hosted at the iconic Hyde Park Picture House. Meanwhile, performance and dance students performed to friends, family and the general public at events at both our campuses, as well as Northern Ballet and Yorkshire Dance in the city centre.

Photographic Journalism exhibition at Trinity

Our photographic journalism students joined together to present a spectacular exhibition in Leeds Trinity shopping centre this spring, featuring more than 150 images from around the world. Pictures covered a range of genres including fashion documentary, architecture and landscape.

Fashion pop-up at Lamberts Yard

This summer, our fashion students launched a pop up shop at cutting edge city boutique Lamberts Yard. Students from BA Fashion, BA Filmmaking and BSc Music Technology also screened their short film at a special screening event. The film used input from students across the courses to create a modern alternative to a runway show.

Christmas tree at Brewery wharf

Students from our MA Architecture designed and built a controversial Christmas tree that stood on Brewery Wharf over the festive season. The tree stood five metres tall and consisted 1500 pieces interlocking with nuts, bolts and screws. The juxtaposition of art and design with engineering techniques certainly provided a talking point for passers-by!

Slam Dunk & Live At Leeds

Our University is one of many host venues at award-winning city music festivals Slam Dunk and Live at Leeds. Our students and staff work hard behind the scenes in a wide range of roles to bring everything from metalcore to math-rock to festival-goers travelling to our city from the UK and beyond.

Humans of Leeds exhibition

Our BA Graphic Arts & Design students worked together to launch the first official photography exhibition for ‘Humans of Leeds’. Taking inspiration from legendary ‘Humans of New York’, this Facebook account posts mini-biographies of citizens from across Leeds to tell the story of present day culture in our city. Our students worked tirelessly on the exhibition, entitled ‘So &So’, to showcase these powerful portraits in all their glory.