BasementArtsProject has continued to provide a programme of art exhibitions, community lunches, talks, events and workshops at the heart of the South Leeds community of Hunslet and Beeston, and the surrounding post codes, in which it is located. This community has a high percentage of people described as economically inactive with high instances of drug and alcohol problems, homelessness and a population of vulnerable adults as well as re-homed ex-offenders, recovering drug addicts, alcoholics and those suffering from effects of domestic abuse. Part of BasementArtsProjects remit is to improve contact between people living in these situations and trying to reduce instances of social isolation through the creation of networks through events. Our indoor programme of activities has included seven exhibitions by artists from Leeds, Bradford, Macclesfield, Wales and the 3rd year MA students of Leeds Beckett University. Our public programme has included three days of performance work by Macclesfield Artist Dr Simon Woolham aka The Frog Performer whose mobile performance around Hunslet and Armley culminated in a day by Jacob's Ladder on 'The Corner' Pocket Sculpture Park -created by BasementArtsProject between 2019 and 2022 and a musical performance by his band L.A.S.H. A further day was added at the end of his show which moved between Beeston and the City Centre. The Frog will return in 2027. The aforementioned project came after a period of difficulty that we experienced with an encampment of drug addicts, alcoholics, drug dealers and related instances of prostitution and extreme antisocial behaviour that took over 'The Corner' Pocket Sculpture Park between Jan and April 2025. This was due to the closure of local trap houses, of which the area has many, and it stopped people from using the park. Working with Leeds City Council and West Yorkshire Police we were able to get the encampment removed with the genuinely homeless re-homed and numerous arrests and dispersals. Since creating the park in 2022 we have had 3 years of relative peace and quiet in what is a somewhat chaotic area. I am sure that this will not be the last instance of this kind of thing but the continued existence of BasementArtsProject will ensure a timely resolution to such unfortunate events. The Frog was our opportunity to revivify the space and encourage the community to start using it again. I have had many positive comments about Jacob's Ladder and The Frog from the longterm homeless people that remain in the community. They have stated how much they love the things that we do and how it makes the area so much nicer to live in. For every exhibition in this period we have staged a community lunch in which we provide a home cooked meal around the kitchen table at which visitors can get to know the artist before they are taken into the exhibition and given a tour of the work. Over the course of 2025 we have had 634 visitors to our indoor venue. 40% of these have come from the local community whilst the other 60% has come from the wider Leeds, UK, International art scene. Our outdoor venue 'The Corner' Pocket Sculpture Park sees an average of 20 people per day throughout the summer months and maybe a quarter of this on bad weather days and throughout the winter months. (This was of course affected by the drug encampment for the first 4 months of 2025). The community of South Leeds generally does not access the art of the wider city due to issues connected to poverty so BasementArtsProject is the only access for many to the arts as it is on their doorstep and always free. We maintain our low carbon footprint commitment by sourcing materials locally and with sustainability in mind, whilst keeping travel to a minimum. We continue to find new ways of engaging the community with what we do.

In my role as Curator and Project Manager I litter-pick on ‘The Corner’ Pocket Sculpture Park at least three times a week. This is my opportunity to ensure that it stays clean and tidy whilst chatting to members of the public using the park and/or passing about local issues and our work as BasementArtsProject. I am known by name to most in the area now and I also know most of them by name. My position as an artist, resident and working in South Leeds, is bolstered by my position as a Co-Director of South Leeds Life Newspaper and its online counterpart, and as a Community, previously Parent, Governor at Cockburn John Charles Multi-Academy Trust. Through these channels I am able to talk to the community about both local issues and art. After the drug encampment that disrupted the life of the community between January and April, we were able to re-engage with the community on ‘The Corner’ post-dispersal, which included a mixture of re-housings and arrests, with performances by ‘The Frog’ aka Dr Simon Woolham. After three days, spread across late April and May I was approached by a long-term homeless individual that has been living on the doorstep of Aldi since it opened in 2016 who said that he “loves the stuff you [I] do, it makes it so much nicer to live around here.” He chatted to me, and still does on regular occasions, about ‘The Frog’ and ‘Jacob’s Ladder’; the 9ft stone sculpture that we realised on ‘The Corner’ in 2022. This individual has regularly stood listening at the back of student groups when I have been giving lectures on ‘The Corner’ about the making of ‘Jacob’s Ladder’. I am convinced that in his more lucid moments he could tell me as much about the project as any student group. This individual, and several of his friends, continue to engage with me and crucially do not cause mess in the streets and on the land around about. BasementArtsProject has a membership system to which anyone can sign up for free. This gets them access via mailing list to all of our events slightly in advance of the general public announcements on social media. Through my occasional lecturing with Leeds Beckett University, University Centre Leeds, Leeds Arts University and University of Leeds I am able to create networks between these educational institutions and individuals and groups from the community. Recent sessions with a mature student from South Leeds attending an FE Access course at University Centre Leeds have been instrumental in him joining BA Fine Art at University of Leeds as well as starting up his own group: South Leeds Artist Collective (SLAC). We continue to work closely with Sluice Expo and Magazine as well as other national and international organisations to find unusual, unconventional and creative ways to create networks of engagement between artists and community with a focus on the South Leeds area and its needs and well being.

£3150.00

No transfer of assets other than for full consideration