Heritage tour with Katie Broadbent

Me and Katie went to the heritage tour at Leeds Market.

 

 

Design development

Workshop and sharing ideas

This session was a design led workshop, which was to enable us to come up with a strong and suitable idea for the mural.

At first, we split into two groups – one wanting to work in mixed media, whilst the other (my group), focused on illustration. In these groups, we were to make notes on the market, based on obvious as well as the research that we had gathered from our time in the market. We developed this further by collecting the notes and placing them into categories. Furthermore, this was to help fuel our ideas, as we then presented our design ideas to the people within our group, based on what we had listed, so we were able to gain feedback and take our development further.

There were different elements within the market that we had each noticed and wanted to focus on; from the atmosphere to the diversity and the architecture. 

Reflecting on our time at Leeds Market with Jean McEwan

Before we received our space within Leeds market, we met artist Jean McEwan who runs an art and social space within Oastler market in Bradford.

Jean came and visited us on our the first day, in the market. She gave us some more useful advice and support as we began decorating the space.

Then , after we had completed our time with the market, we had another visit from Jean where we displayed all of our research and art upon the studio walls and reflected on the whole experience. Again, this was handy to my research as we were all able to share our thoughts and feelings on the week as well as share what we had found out about the market.

 

Our week in Leeds Market

We spent almost a week in Leeds Market, setting up a creative and welcoming space in one of the empty units, that invited traders and visitors to share their stories of Leeds Market.

We spent Monday morning decorating the space by making posters, banners and other decorations that explained our purpose for being in the market. Furthermore, we managed to get hold of plenty of arts supplies, which we used in some workshops that we encouraged visitors to come and engage in.

Some of the stories that we gathered from traders and visitors.

Char, Michele, Amelia, Katie and Jack in the space.

We also used the empty unit as a base as we each took it in turns to go and out and explore the market, to further our research. Some of us took photographs, film and voice recordings whilst others did some illustrating. Though, I decided to go and speak to some traders and visitors and ask them questions, which I found interesting as it gave me an insight into the purpose that the market has for different types of people.

Through my time at the market, I learnt that many of the older generation had been visiting the market since they were younger and today, they still come and visit the market weekly. Moreover, I managed to speak to some students, who come to the market to buy materials for projects, simply because it is cheap and they know what they are buying, as they can see an touch the items.

During the week, I spoke to one woman whose relatives used to work in the market. She had fond memories of the market and told me about the Granellie’s who were a family of Italian descent who had around three cafés within the market.

Unfortunately, during our time in the market, we did receive some negativity from some traders and visitors, which did knock my confidence. Despite this, I did find my time in the market to be really beneficial as I was able to engage with traders and visitors and get a feel of the environment.

 

Visiting Leeds Market and viewing our space

At the beginning of the project, we enjoyed a visit to Leeds Market where we got the chance to have a brief walk around the market. This also involved us been given the opportunity to walk around the top of the balcony and look over the oldest and most famous hall within the market.

I usually pass through the market on my way home and sometimes I may stop by and purchase materials for a project or grab some food.

I loved standing on the balcony, overlooking the market and witnessing the hustle and bustle of the weekly atmosphere. As well as that, I also enjoyed admiring the striking architecture within the building.

We were also taken to see our empty space in the market that we would be using for a week. I found this rather beneficial as I was able to get a feel of the space and myself along with everyone else, were able to then decide on how we could make the space look inviting and exciting as possible.