Leeds Canvas: Leeds Canvas
Picture by Brian Slater
Leeds Canvas will present a first time ever citywide collaboration between artists and arts organisations which will use the buildings, streets, and people of Leeds as the ‘canvas’ of the project. Leeds Canvas has invited internationally acclaimed artists the Quay (pronounced ‘Kway’) Brothers to be artistic directors of the project.
The driving force behind the project, also called Leeds Canvas, is a partnership between Opera North, Northern Ballet Theatre, West Yorkshire Playhouse, Phoenix Dance Theatre, Yorkshire Dance, Leeds Met Gallery and Studio Theatre, Situation Leeds, Leeds City Council, and Leeds Art Gallery, all of which are based in the city and work across the Yorkshire region.
The Quay Brothers propose the work is centred around the Dark Arches – an enclosed area underneath Leeds station, created during the building of the station and the main gateway into the city centre from the south and the motorway. It will consist of a month-long series of interventions, including fragments of film and sound and movement, in unexpected places throughout the city, followed by week-long installations, building up to a large-scale one night event on the waterfront under and around the Dark Arches.
The project will be realised by a central production team and uses the considerable expertise, personnel and facilities of all the partner organisations who, in turn, will work with local people, community groups, educational organisations and individual artists.
Leeds Canvas is the first in a proposed series of citywide collaborative projects which will take place every four years led by different artistic directors and provide a lasting legacy for the Yorkshire region after London 2012.
About the Quay Brothers
Born near Philadelphia in 1947, the Quays have lived in the UK since the late 1970s. Identical twins, they studied at the Philadelphia College of Art and then later at the Royal College of Art in London. They have influenced a generation of artists and are hugely respected for the integrity and consistency of their work. As well as making their own projects, they have collaborated widely with festivals, theatre directors, opera houses and choreographers, and are always in demand for their designs for live performance.
The Quays are most celebrated for their beautiful and enigmatic animated films, which often use a great deal of music and puppetry. Street of Crocodiles (1986), considered by many as their masterpiece, was acclaimed by director Terry Gilliam as one of the top ten animated films ever made.
They have also made documentaries on the composers Stravinsky and Janaček, as well as music videos and commercials, and live action films, including The PianoTuner of EarthQuakes (2006). They have just finished a short documentary film in Poland called Inventorium of Traces and are currently working on a short film for the Polish Cultural Institute in London on a short story by Stanisĺaw Lem called Maska.
They have a distinguished history in large-scale theatre, dance and opera. Their work with the celebrated theatre company Complicite earned them a Tony Award nomination in 1998, and most recently they designed the ballet Pinocchio and Wind in the Willows with choreographer Will Tuckett for the Royal Opera (ROH2) and Richard Ayres’s contemporary opera ‘The Cricket Recovers’ for Aldeburgh and the Almeida Opera Festival. Their work also includes decors for opera and theatre productions and directing for Channel 4.
Tate Modern commissioned from them a film based on Steve Martland’s Street Songs and for the Wellcome Trust they made The Phantom Museum which was shown at the British Museum. They have completed installation pieces and exhibitions nationally and internationally.
Other winners:
EAST: On Landguard Point, Pacitti Theatre Company
EAST MIDLANDS: Lionheart, Shauna Richardson
LONDON: Bus-Tops, Alfie Dennen and Paula Le Dieu
NORTH EAST: FLOW, The Owl Project and Ed Carter
NORTH WEST: Projected Column, Anthony McCall and FACT
NORTHERN IRELAND: The Nest, Brian Irvine and John McIlduff
SCOTLAND: Forest Pitch, Craig Coulthard
SOUTH EAST: The Boat Project, Lone Twin
SOUTH WEST: nowhereisland, Alex Hartley
WALES: Adain Avion, Marc Rees
WEST MIDLANDS: Godiva Awakes, Imagineer Productions
More information on each of the projects can be found at www.artiststakingthelead.org.uk. Further project descriptions for the winning ideas will be uploaded on the website.
The commissions have been chosen by independent panels made up of artists, producers, a regional Arts Council representative and the regional Creative Programmer. 2,163 ideas were shortlisted to 59 projects – those 59 have now become 12 winners. We are extremely excited by the winning projects. Together they will create a national celebration of culture up to and through out 2012, while also providing a focal point for regional engagement with London 2012.