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Vitrine was conceived in order to make a virtue out of a necessity – Leeds still has very few venues for the visual arts for a city of its size and stated ambitions, and especially compared to other regional centres such as Manchester or Liverpool. In addition, opportunities for artists based in the city are limited.
Our aim with Vitrine is to showcase the work of artists living and/or working in the city and in the wider Yorkshire region, alongside artists from elsewhere, and to profile Leeds’ visual art sector both within the city itself and further afield.
Vitrine is funded by Arts Council England and Leeds City Council/arts@leeds.
Vitrine would like to acknowledge the following organisations who kindly and generously supported both the project and individual exhibitions: University of Leeds, Leeds Civic Trust, Logistik, Wish, Leeds Art Collections Fund, Leeds Philosophical and Literary Society, Situation Leeds, Artsparkle, ESA
We would also like to thank all the artists, writers and curators who have taken part in the project so far and given their time, ambition and drive to presenting the project at the high professional standards we
are aiming for.
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Vitrine is a curatorial project for Leeds’ city centre by artist/curators Pippa Hale and Kerry Harker.
The project utilises pre-existing ‘vitrines’ (glazed display cabinets) and retail windows around the central shopping district to stage a series of temporary exhibitions of contemporary visual art, much of it newly commissioned especially for Vitrine. Up to 10 sites have been used in any one exhibition, unified as one ‘gallery’ space for the duration of each show.
Starting at Leeds rail station, the geographic spread of the venues suggests a circular walking tour around the city centre, taking in many different faces of the new Leeds; from the down-at-heel Riley’s snooker hall to the upmarket shopping centre The Light.
The project cuts across many facets of contemporary art, including the role of art and artists in the public realm; art and the built environment, art and city-centre regeneration, and the use of non-gallery or ‘alternative’ venues for staging the visual arts. |
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