BEYOND – Artists with Learning Disability Taking the Lead – Introductory Essay
‘BEYOND – Artists with Learning Disabilities Taking the Lead’ is a publication exploring the experience of individual artists with learning disabilities who took part in the BEYOND Festival 2018. The introduction took the form of a visual essay in postcards, and was compiled by Liam Hirst and James Hill, and featured work by Jenny Laskowsky, Ria, William Stapleton and Pyramid’s Legends Group.
This Autumn Pyramid will be celebrating its 30th Birthday with an exciting programme of exhibitions, performances, events and parties by fantastic artists with learning disabilities.
For thirty years Pyramid has supported people with learning difficulties from all backgrounds to discover the arts, develop their own creative practice as an artist and campaigned tirelessly to disrupt the institutional barriers that prevent its artists from enjoying the same access to work spaces, studios, galleries and audiences that are afforded to other artists.
Pyramid is also celebrating this major milestone by looking to the future, recognising that we can always do more to raise the profile of brilliant work with artists with learning disabilities in Leeds, so we are marking our 30th by announcing the intention to build a new HQ in 2024. This will be the most exciting contemporary arts centre in the north and will be run by artists with learning disabilities. We need your help to reach these ambitions. You can find out how to support our fundraising effots and to be part of this change, by clicking here.
Solo exhibition by Ria at Swarthmore Education Centre Café, September 9th – 19th.
To mark the 110th anniversary of Swarthmore and the 30th anniversary of Pyramid Ria (who attends both) has been commissioned to produce a postcard, poster and exhibition. Please visit our shop to buy: https://pyramid-of-arts.org.uk/shop/
Your chance to support Pyramid’s ambitions by attending this fund-raising party. Pay as you feel for a ticket, and take part in an art auction as well as enjoying food, drinks, music, performance, art auctions and more. All ticket sales and donations will go to our HQ Fund. Get your tickets now from https://pyramid30.eventbrite.co.uk
Light Night, at Leeds Art Gallery, October 11th.
The first ever piece of artwork produced by the Arts Club at Meanwood Park Hospital and shown outside the walls of the hospital, was the ‘Pyramid of Light’ which was shown at the City Art Gallery. On Light Night we will be projecting the Pyramid of Light, morphing into the new logo, on to the exterior of the Art Gallery.
Pyramid will take over this huge and high quality new cultural space in Leeds for a week, showing past work as well as amazing new work created by all of our groups and individuals artists in response to our history, and to the 30th birthday.
Publication launch – BEYOND – Artists with Learning Disabilities Taking the Lead, Archive Leeds, Tuesday 15th October, 3 – 5pm.
A ground-breaking new boxed set of books and publications which ask the question – what is it like to be an artists with learning disabilities? What are the challenges and frustrations? What does a city need to do to better support and celebrate the resource that is artists with learning disabilities?
‘Housewarming II’ exhibition at Swarthmore Education Centre, November.
The first ever exhibition created by Pyramid after the closure of Meanwood Park Hospital was called ‘Housewarming’ – where patients shared information with each other about the places where they had been rehoused, across the city. This exhibition will revisit and respond to that early work.
‘Hidden Art / Hidden Artists’ at the Tetley, 25th November – 30th March 2020.
Some of our leading individual artists (Ria, Stephen Harvey, Liam Hirst) will respond to three works which were created within the walls of Meanwood Park Hospital and never shown to the public, until now. Documentation of this work will be shown to the general public for the first time in 30 years, as well as a response to that work by our best young artists.
Armley Mills ‘Leeds to Innovation’ exhibition, November 2019 – October 2021.
Liam Hirst will contribute a piece to this two year exhibition which features Leeds innovators past and present, portraying Pyramid as one of the great innovators in the city, and presenting a new piece of work created using resources at Armley Mills, by Liam, to celebrate Pyramid’s future.
Lumen & Ultimate Thunder at the Tetley, January 2020.
Pyramid was set up in 1989 within the walls of Meanwood Park Hospital as a weekly, volunteer run arts club for the patients who spent their lives there. When the hospital closed in 1996 the Arts Club became ‘Pyramid of Arts’, a project to keep the patients in touch with each other through arts activity. Since then the charity has supported over 1,000 people with learning disabilities to discover and explore the arts, and to make great, high quality art work for a wide public, exhibited work at every major cultural venue in the city, creating large-scale works for events like Light Night, the Tour de Yorkshire and the Cultural Olympiad, and creating three permanent sculptures at Thwaite Mills, Meanwood Valley Urban Farm, and Leeds Industrial Museum at Armley Mills.
James Hill, Director of Pyramid adds: “We are hugely proud of our artists and have supported them to apply for funding, win commissions and create high profile work which has been exhibited across the UK and Europe. Our artists are some of the brightest talents in the UK right now but are often overlooked for gallery shows, new commissions and other opportunities as they require additional support to undertake these projects.
As we look back on thirty years of fantastic art from artists with learning disabilities we’re really excited to reveal plans for our future starting with a programme of events, exhibitions, talks and tours to celebrate our milestone birthday in style and invite new audiences to discover the work of our artists.”
Tickets are available for the charity’s Big Birthday Party on Thursday 17th October in support of the new HQ, which will be an opportunity to celebrate the amazing achievements of artists past and present, to see performances and to find out about, and support, the Charity’s ambitions for the future.
Ben Malcolm
Ben likes to build things up then break them down, creating chaotic reinterpretations of anything from picture frames, to synthesisers for his brother’s band, Vessels, to armies of giant ladybirds. He’s great at screen printing, and his ladybird tote bags are proving very popular in our web-shop!
Stephen works with print, paint and letterpress to create text-based works which articulate the problems, frustrations and barriers that he struggles against when trying to live independently.
He has been a member of Pyramid for many years and works collaboratively in the Ribblehead Group as well as being a solo artist.
Stephen created Moan Mats for the BEYOND Festival in 2018 – a series of site specific multiples, banners and prints. The Only Way Is Up was a print-based work which he designed specifically for the staircase gallery in Leeds Town Hall.
Stephen was selected to participate in the BEYOND Artist Development Scheme. You can see his work on the Beyond Arts website.
Stephen exhibited at The Tetley as part of Pyramid’s Hidden Art / Hidden Artists exhibition, in which three Pyramid artists created responses to an exploration of our archive, and specifically to work made by our founder members, from within the walls of Meanwood Park Hospital.
Stephen took part in the Exchange 62 artist residential programme, which revealed his talent for poetry. You can see a collection of them on Stephen’s poems page.
Kelly Shine
Kelly has been a member of Pyramid for many years and has taken part in several groups including the Ribblehead Group, the High Rise Movement Group, the Singing Group and the Members’ Council.
Kelly advocates for better provision of services for people with disabilities in Pyramid and in the wider world. In 2018 she helped create a report for the Arts Council, ‘Can Everybody See This?’, which talked about what venues need to do to improve accessibility for people with disabilities.
Kelly has exhibited at many major galleries and cultural events in Leeds. In 2016 she was part of the project Bringing the Outside In, a multi-artform exploration of the strip of south Leeds between Pyramid HQ in Holbeck and The Tetley in Hunslet. The work was exhibited at The Tetley.
Matthew Watson
Matthew Watson works in sculpture, painting, illustration and installation, often mixing these elements together. He is also the lead vocalist in Ultimate Thunder.
Apron or Hairdryer? A Matthew Watson Experience
This short film by Ben G Brown documents Matthew working on his most recent project.
Other Projects
Ultimate Thunder’s self-titled debut album is available at: https://ultimatethunder.bandcamp.com
‘Thought Maps’ was a sculptural installation at the BEYOND Festival in 2018, accompanied by the zine ‘NO YOU CAN’T, YES I CAN’, which formed part of the publication, ‘BEYOND, Artists with Learning Disabilities Taking the Lead’
Matthew has sold paintings to private collections and his painting ‘Construction’ has been the signature image for the BEYOND Festival since its inception in 2015. ‘Construction’ was also selected to be exhibited in the Expressions exhibition at KCAT in Ireland in 2015.
As part of Pyramid’s Eden Group, Matthew has contributed to permanent sculptures in Leeds, and created work for the Index Festival in response to Yorkshire Sculpture International.
Stuart Illingworth
Stuart is an active and long-standing member of our Eden Group. He is an illustrator who creates beautiful images of household objects such as vacuum cleaners, cutlery and pianos. He is also a talented musician who performs with Ultimate Thunder.
As part of the Eden Group Stuart recently created work for Index, the ‘fringe’ programme of events for Yorkshire Sculpture International. With the group he created a permanent sculpture, ‘Farm Hill’ for Meanwood Valley Urban Farm and has shown work at all the major cultural venues in the city.
Andrew Towse
Andrew is a photographer who works primarily using digital media and collage.
Andrew has created work for several solo exhibitions including light boxes for The Dark Light at Leftbank and Red Blue Yellow for the Newlyn Gallery, Leeds Playhouse, in 2016.
In 2018 Andrew was commissioned by the Leeds 2023 bid team to create The Sausage Atlas. This project was based around 230 images of sausage sandwiches that Andrew took on his lunches while working at Pyramid.
He entire collection of images was displayed in bespoke cube frames at Kirkgate Market and in the cafes where the sandwiches were bought. The Sausage Atlas publication documented the whole project and maps the cafes where the sandwiches were bought. The publication is available from our shop. Click here to visit the shop.
Andrew has collaborated with photographers and digital artists including Jonathan Turner, Anne-Marie Atkinson, Rosie McAndrew and Alice Burford.
Liam works with sound, sculpture and publication to explore his experiences as an artist and young person with autism, and to explore and imagine positive social environments of the present and future.
In 2018 Liam created The Adventure of Square, a graphic novel exploring his experiences as a young man with autism becoming an artist. To create this novel, he travelled from Leeds to Glasgow, Wiltz and Dortmund, exploring brutalist architecture and organisations that support work by artists with learning disabilities. The resulting publication is available from our shop.
While working with the Beam Team in 2013 he created ideaLeeds, an interactive sound and sculpture installation which was displayed at the Howard Assembly Room, Light Night in Leeds and the Nuit des Lampions in Wiltz, Luxembourg.
Liam has been a member of Pyramid since he is 13. He has been a member of the Youth Group, the Beam Team, and is currently a member of D1 where he works with James Hill on arts projects, and on strategic development and fundraising for the charity. He is a trustee and Vice Chair of Pyramid, and a member of the Members’ Council.
Liam has been involved in the following projects;
Solo
‘Hidden Art / Hidden Artists’ at the Tetely, current – for more information click here.
‘Leeds to Innovation’ at Leeds Industrial Museum at Armley Mills – current. For more information, click here.
‘#Pyramid30’ animation and projection at Light Night Leeds, 2019
‘The Adventure of Square’ exhibition at Studio 24, the BEYOND Festival 2018
‘Pilgrimage City’ portable sculpture for Light Night 2015. For more information, click here.
Solo – publications
‘BEYOND – Artists with Learning Disabilities Taking the Lead’ introductory essay, 2019. For more information, click here.
‘The Adventure of Square’ graphich novel, 2018. For more information, click here.
The Beam Team (with Scott Anderson and William Stapleton)
‘ideaLeeds’ at the Howard Assembly Room, Leeds, 2014
‘ideaLeeds’ at Nuit des Lampions, Wiltz, Luxembourg, 2014
“My art celebrates colour, shape and surface pattern. It explores identity, breaks boundaries and celebrates the small joys that can be found in everyday life.
“I am a multimedia artist and enjoy working across different art forms, depending on the project. Recently my practice has been focusing on experimenting with printmaking; primarily screen printing and mono printing.
“I also explore photography, ceramics, painting and textiles. I create large scale pieces which have a distinct, recognizable colour palette. I like to use bold, contrasting colours to create layers of images and text that encourage the viewer to look at the world around them differently.”
Ria’s iconic large scale artwork Graffiti Man is available as a poster and postcard, in our webshop.
No-one is you and that is your powerUntitledBEYOND exhibitionYou destroy the world
Exhibitions and Commissions:
Integrated Society, Any work that wanted doing exhibition at Leeds Industrial Museum at Armley Mills, Sep 2023-Jan 2024. https://anywork.org.uk/
The Decider and The System is like a jigsaw puzzle – Irregular Art Schools exhibition at The School of Fine Art, History of Art & Cultural Studies, University of Leeds, January 2023 https://irregularartschools.org/
Irregular Art School in-progress exhibition at Assembly House, August 2022
Portraits, exhibition at Left Bank, November 2021
Turn Up the Volume, mural for Meanwood Street Art, May 2021
Don’t believe everything you think, Slung Low pop up exhibition, September 2020
The changes we make, art work and poetry, featured in Drawn Poorly Zine, Issue 7: Care Click here to buy
Hidden Art / Hidden Artists at The Tetley, Leeds, November 2019 – July 2020
BEYOND at Archive, Leeds, October 2019
Pyramid30 exhibition, Archive, October 2019
Life bloody needs Art at Brick Box Rooms, Bradford, August 2019
Arts & Minds Annual Exhibition at St Johns Centre, Leeds, June 2019
No one is you and that is your power at Swarthmore, Leeds, March 2019
Excessive Human Collective Exhibition at Wharf Chambers, Leeds, January 2019
BEYOND Festival – solo exhibition at Leeds Town Hall & Studio 24, June 2018
Group work
Axis, Pyramid and KCat artist exchange / collaborative installation, May 2023
Ultimate Thunder UV installation designed backdrop for Ultimate Thunder gig at Wharf Chambers, 2019
Flock of Sheep adapted bicycle performance, Tour De Yorkshire on Millennium Square, Leeds, May 2019
Multiples Installation at Central Library for Leeds Light Night 2018
The Pyramid View On… Yorkshire Sculpture International
The Eden Group, as part of the Index Festival.
The Index Festial is a new visual arts festival for Leeds and Wakefield which runs concurrently with the Yorkshire Sculpture International Festival.
Members of the Eden Group visited all the sites, and many events, for the Yorkshire International Festival and produced their response, populating a miniature gallery of their own making with sculpture, drawings and photography.
Artists involved in this project were; Cassy Oliphant, Claire Foster, Darren Tyreman, David Rushworth, Ian Cockburn, Julie Shackleton, Matthew Watson, Nigel Hutton, Richard Mosby, Stuart Illingworth, Suvi Saraf.
The Next Step Pyramid group worked with the Leeds Big Bookend literature festival exploring stories. They created illustrated books about their lives, interests and dreams. They also looked at films, drama, illustrators and authors, and got creative by making their own paper. All the work produced will be displayed at the Next Step Pyramid book stall on Saturday 3 June 2017 at Carriageworks where the event will take place.
Click here for more information about the Leeds Big Bookend literature festival.
Here is a selection of photos of the project in process.
The Ribblehead group used the starting point of the work of Joseph Beuys at Leeds Art Gallery. After identifying several works of art and re imagined them with Pyramid slant they did painting, dressing up, photographs, sculpture, installation and made a short film. Artist’s attitude’s to Beuys were mixed: some people loved him but others found his work difficult and alienating. However, the mini-exhibition they created was lovely and everyone seemed to learn something about Joseph Beuys.
Legends Cultural Passports
From September to December Legends group produced cultural passports by exploring their likes, dislikes and ambitions through a variety of art techniques. These included drawing, painting, collage, 3-dimensional work, fabric painting, sewing and embroidery, photography and use of the Tablet.
Each person pursued their favored art form to illustrate their ideas and thoughts. They used the exploratory artworks and / or photography to produce individual pieces of work about which can tell people about themselves.
High Rise Movement spent half of their Autumn term working on a response to their visit at The Tetley, to see the 50 Years of Leeds West Indian Carnival Exhibition. What a great response it was too!
The group worked outwards from the basis that many of the costumes took inspiration from their African roots and used birds as inspiration. They were also very taken with the costume, which was created by Hughbon Condor to celebrate the bicentenary abolition of slavery in 2007, called“Man on hos back”. It featured a colonial man on horseback being dragged from his horse by a slave, who then mounts the horse and rides it into a new direction.
Animals became their theme, and featured animals from around the world. They chose music, and paraded around the gallery, as if it was their own Carnival Procession. Anyone in attendance to the gallery that day would have been met with quite the sound and sight!
Below are some of the highlights of the parade.
High Rise in Wonderland
High Rise Movement group created their own bizarre version of Alice In Wonderland. Their sensory event involved peculiar props, fantastical smells, whimsical music and for the Madhatter’s Tea Party a grand selection of biscuits, of course!
High Rise Music spent half of their Autumn term working on a response to their visit at The Tetley, to see the 50 Years of Leeds West Indian Carnival Exhibition. They continued to work on their musical throughout the rest of the term, and performed the completed piece at Seven Arts. Caribbean sunshine in the middle of December, it was a truly enjoyable show.
You can check out the programme here, complete with lyrics and an understanding of how the group created the songs.
The Viking Musical
High Rise Music Group only had a short term, so they decided to look at one of their musicals that the group enjoyed the most, and with new members in the group, it was exciting for them to discover it for the first time.
This was also their swan song with the current group members, as the Big Lottery Funded project comes to an end. Many of the members are joining a Music Group that we are setting up from April. We have all enjoyed seeing their performances and singing along to their songs.
You can see a copy of the programme here and read all about the story of the Vikings quest to find the moon. It’s also got lyrics so you can sing along with the show!
2018 exhibition at Swarthmore
Pyramid uses the café space at Swarthmore annually to exhibit some of our favourite pieces of work produced by groups or individuals throughout the year. Our funding is usually very project driven, meaning that many ‘little gems’ produced alongside the project work never get a public viewing. Using the café allows us to share these pieces with you. Swarthmore is in the city centre and the café serves hot drinks and food. Please call in if you get the chance.
Opening hours:
8.30am – 8.30pm Monday – Thursday
8.30am – 2.30pm Fridays
If you would like to visit at the weekend, please call 0113 243 2210 to check opening times.
We’re hiring!
High Rise Bramley Development Worker
We are looking for a highly motivated and efficient individual with practical project delivery experience. This is a rare opportunity for the right candidate to take a leading role in a project which is exciting, innovative and will uphold Pyramid’s reputation as a national leader in inclusive arts practice.
This project aims to
reduce social isolation
increase opportunities for people to take part in creative activity
improve community cohesion within Bramley, Leeds
improve individual social wellbeing and development of life-skills
Our beneficiaries are
people with profound and multiple learning disabilities (PMLD), local to Bramley
non-learning disabled residents of Bramley who actively engage in the project through volunteering and training
the wider Bramley community who will experience and enjoy the impact of our project, and benefit from the establishment of a new Tenants and Residents Association in the area
The Development Worker will:
administrate and coordinate sessional activities for our client base, working with our established team of freelance artists
liaise with care agencies and Supported Living providers to recruit new participants to the project
work to develop networks and connections with organisations and community groups within the Bramley ward
recruit volunteers from Bramley and provide supervision and support to ensure that they are getting the best experience and obtaining valuable transferable skills
support the development of training in equality, diversity and inclusion for organisations
continuously monitor, evaluate and report on the project with regards to its intended outcomes
Fee:£20,600.96 per annum pro rata, 21 hours per week / 0.6fte (actual salary: £12,360.58)
Contract term:The post is offered for a fixed-term of three years, starting mid-late June 2019 (exact date by mutual agreement)
Location:Barkston House, Croydon Street, Leeds LS11 9RT (please note the role will also involve spending a significant amount of time working directly in the Bramley ward.)
How to apply:You can download the application documents below, or contact Alice for a pack by email / post:
info@pyramid-of-arts.org.uk // 0113 234 6040
Application deadline:2pm Tuesday 7th May 2019
Interviews:Tuesday 14th and Wednesday 15th May 2019
Pyramid of Arts is a committed equal opportunities employer.
We are looking for a highly motivated and efficient individual with practical project delivery experience. This is a rare opportunity for the right candidate to take a leading role in a project which is exciting, innovative and will uphold Pyramid’s reputation as a national leader in inclusive arts practice.
This project aims to
reduce social isolation
increase opportunities for people to take part in creative activity
improve community cohesion within Bramley, Leeds
improve individual social wellbeing and development of life-skills
Our beneficiaries are
people with profound and multiple learning disabilities (PMLD), local to Bramley
non-learning disabled residents of Bramley who actively engage in the project through volunteering and training
the wider Bramley community who will experience and enjoy the impact of our project, and benefit from the establishment of a new Tenants and Residents Association in the area
The Development Worker will:
administrate and coordinate sessional activities for our client base, working with our established team of freelance artists
liaise with care agencies and Supported Living providers to recruit new participants to the project
work to develop networks and connections with organisations and community groups within the Bramley ward
recruit volunteers from Bramley and provide supervision and support to ensure that they are getting the best experience and obtaining valuable transferable skills
support the development of training in equality, diversity and inclusion for organisations
continuously monitor, evaluate and report on the project with regards to its intended outcomes
Fee: £20,600.96 per annum pro rata, 21 hours per week / 0.6fte (actual salary: £12,360.58)
Contract term: The post is offered for a fixed-term of three years, starting mid-late June 2019 (exact date by mutual agreement)
Location: Barkston House, Croydon Street, Leeds LS11 9RT (please note the role will also involve spending a significant amount of time working directly in the Bramley ward.)
How to apply: You can download the application documents below, or contact Alice for a pack by email / post:
info@pyramid-of-arts.org.uk // 0113 234 6040
Application deadline: 2pm Tuesday 7th May 2019
Interviews: Tuesday 14th and Wednesday 15th May 2019
Pyramid of Arts is a committed equal opportunities employer.
