Welcome to Situation Leeds

What happens when artists shape the city? Can we revive and regenerate the visual arts sector through shared values and collective action? What conditions are required? What challenges and tensions may arise?

We’ll be kicking off with a conversation that looks back at the 2005 Situation Leeds festival, considers where we are now, and asks what might come next.

This opening CHATSHOW event invites artists, curators and organisers to reflect on what’s changed in Leeds over the past 20 years – and what we want to change now.

Featuring guest speaker Andy Abbott, an artist, musician and arts organiser whose socially engaged practice was developed in Leeds in the 00s. Sue Ball (MAAP) will introduce and reflect on Situation Leeds 2005 as one of the original (and current) steering group members.

The event will be held on the ground floor of Hyde Park Book Club, which is accessible via the front entrance.

More about Andy:

Socially engaged interdisciplinary artist, musician and organiser Andy Abbott will talk about his experiences as an artist involved in Situation Leeds 2005 when he was a student at University of Leeds, and as part of the steering group for Situation Leeds in 2007. Through examples of his own practice, and that of the art collective Black Dogs, he will offer a critical reflection on the conditions for public and embedded art in the city and beyond.

Andy has exhibited, performed and undertaken commissions internationally as both an individual artist and in various collaborations. In 2012 he was awarded his practice-led PhD from the University of Leeds with a thesis on ‘art, self-organised cultural activity and the production of postcapitalist subjectivity’. He is currently Lead Artist for the people and culture strand of the £25 million Nelson Town Deal in East Lancashire. Prior to this he was Visiting Research Curator for the UNIDEE Residency Programs at Cittadellarte Fondazione Pistoletto, Italy exploring aspects of Embedded Arts Practice through a peer-led learning residency programme.

🔗 Find out more about Andy’s work

More about Sue:

Sue Ball is a cultural producer who works in the context of social and spatial design and is Director of the creative regeneration practice Media and Arts Partnership (MAAP). Sue operates in the intersection of disciplines and sectors to cultivate programmes of work and foster professional learning.

Sue remains committed to collaborative working methods that strengthen value systems rooted in culture, place and community.Sue has extensive experience of producing and commissioning publicly sited art, working with international artists specifically in the field of sound art. She has led regional and national action research programmes in ‘The Making of Place’ and, in respect of interdisciplinary sound/space practice, ‘Ways of Hearing’ in London, Bristol and Leeds in partnership with Sound and Music, Arup and the design publication Blueprint.

🔗 Find out more about Sue's work

Twenty years on from the original Situation Leeds festival, we’re gathering again to reflect, reconnect and reimagine how artists shape the city.

CHATSHOW is a series of open, artist-led conversations and informal workshops taking place across Leeds in May and June 2025. Each session brings together practitioners, curators and cultural organisers to share ideas, memories, and explore what it means to work in public space today.

Together, we’ll consider what’s changed, what’s stayed the same, and what might be possible now.

This programme is made possible thanks to funding from YVAN.