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Yorkshire Contemporary

Yorkshire Contemporary is a Leeds-based arts organisation creating free, inspiring contemporary art experiences across the region.

04/06/2026

Leeds-based band Ultimate Thunder will be performing at Cabaret Mystic on Thu 18 June 2026!

Formed in 2013, they have gained significant attention over the past few years following the release of their debut album in 2022. The album, recorded over Zoom during the pandemic has led to appearances on BBC Breakfast, ITN News, Channel 4 and 6Music, and articles by the NME, Guardian, and the Big Issue.

They have also performed live at Kendal Calling, Shambala, supported Yard Act at Millennium Square and following the release of their second album, ‘A Spider Will Come To Eat Your Flesh’ have received support from Iggy Pop, Tim Burgess, Mike Watt and Emily Pilbeam.

🆓 Free, booking required via Eventbrite, link in bio

Tickets are limited, with 2 weeks to go, don’t miss out! ✨

03/06/2026

We’re excited to welcome artist, writer and performer Lucy Wright to Cabaret Mystic, bringing her feminist folkloric rituals and traditions to Rowland Road ✨
📆 Thu 18 June 2026
⏰ 7–11pm
🆓 Free, booking required via Eventbrite (link in bio) 🔗

Lucy Wright works across visual art, performance, and critical writing to explore the spaces where folklore, feminism and cultural participation meet. Her projects often emerge from years of study into under-recognised and female-led traditions, especially those associated with her own working-class upbringing in the north - resulting in artworks that serve both as invitations and provocations.

Recent activities include *Dusking* at Yorkshire Sculpture Park and Timespan, Scotland; solo shows at Portico Library, Manchester and Field System, Devon; group shows at Bloc Projects, Sheffield, Leeds Art Gallery and Kristian Day Gallery, Derbyshire; residencies at Hospitalfield, Morning Boat, Jersey and the Hugo Burge Foundation; and speaking engagements at the British Academy and Claire Bishop’s ‘Ancestral Avant-gardes’, Manchester School of Art. Her work has been featured in Sunday Times Style and Weird Walk. In 2026 she is undertaking a major national commission for Create Berwick / Arts&Heritage.

01/06/2026

✨ visited Dream Space at and to share books celebrating Black stories and literature with local families and children in Beeston.

Working with and Penguin Lit in Colour , the books were generously donated as part of a mission to bring quality Black storytelling to families in the region.

We were delighted to be a partner on this project, building on our own methodologies of play to encourage people to be creative, curious, and find their own ways of experiencing the world. It’s wonderful to be placing new ideas by innovative authors into the hands of young people to spark their own thinking.

✨2026 is the National Year of Reading in the UK and we’re excited to be part of this, including our major new commission for the Children’s Library at Leeds Central Library, opening later this year.

💭📚 Thank you to Out of Many People for inspiring new readers through the power of stories and imagination.

Image credit: 1. and 2. Photography by 3. Photography by Alice aged 7, Rowland Road Play Patch.

28/05/2026

Have you booked your free ticket for Cabaret Mystic?

With just 4 weeks to go, we’re continuing to spotlight the artists bringing contemporary art and performance into the occult 🔮

Meet David Steans, an artist and writer based in Leeds. Working in text, moving image, sound, installation, and collage, across his practice he uses repetition and iteration to disquieting, uncanny effect. Drawing influence from genre horror, metafiction, and various vernacular aesthetics, he creates a sense of strangeness in technologies of cultural production.

David is creating a new performance work for Cabaret Mystic.

📆 Thu 18 June 2026

⏰ 7–11pm

Don’t miss out, book your free ticket on Eventbrite using the link in our bio 🔗

Recent projects include Mummy Hood Nesting Forest (2022), commissioned by Primary, Nottingham, and Puppy the Goblin (2020), screened at Tate Britain in 2022. He has written erotic Deftones fan-fiction for Vice Magazine (Gore Portal, 2025), legend-tripped a cursed tv show for ‘Documents of Contemporary Art: Magic’ (Curtainz, 2021), and published a collection of experimental horror stories for Deptford X, now held in Tate Library (From the Lounge, 2018).

26/05/2026

✨Artist spotlight ✨

Leeds-based artist and horticulturalist Matilya Njau () brings people together through plants. Her practice centres on shared moments of gathering and the relationships that can form around the careful study of flora, whether that be through drinking herbal tea, smelling a flower or tending to the soil.

Through workshops and collaborative projects, Matilya is interested in the conversations and memories that grow from these encounters. Rooted in care and shared knowledge, Matilya’s work reimagines green spaces as places of connection and ritual.

Over the past year, Matilya has been part of Practice: Leeds, our artist development programme. During this time, she’s been researching colonial botany and plant lineages, experimenting with watercolour and writing as ways to document the personal and collective histories held within plants.

Matilya was also commissioned at Rowland Road Play Patch. Working closely with volunteers, families and schools, she’s led collaborative planting sessions to co-design a thriving Sensory Garden. Shaped through consultation with SEND schools and youth groups, the garden centres accessibility, calmness and multi-sensory engagement, creating an inclusive space designed with all children at its heart.

Next, experience Matilya’s work as part of our upcoming evening of performance art, Cabaret Mystic!

📆 Thu 18 June 2026

⏰ 7–11pm

🆓 Free, booking required via Eventbrite

For further information please see the link in our bio ✨

22/05/2026

💅🏾UNEARTHING(S) by Hannah Catherine Jones () is now open !

Through layered soundscapes, performance and immersive installation, Central Court is transformed into a contemplative space exploring individual and collective themes of grief and regeneration.

Considering the personal and cultural loss we experience across space and time, the exhibition draws upon the artist’s own history and experience growing up as part of the region’s Caribbean diaspora.
This landmark exhibition is Jones’ largest solo exhibition to date and the first in her home county.

📆 Open until 30 Aug 2026
⏰ Tue to Fri 10am to 5pm, Sat 10am to 4pm and Sun 11am to 3pm

UNEARTHING(S) is commissioned by Yorkshire Contemporary in partnership with Leeds Art Gallery. It is funded by Arts Council England, Art Fund, Henry Moore Foundation and a Research Support Award from Goldsmiths, University of London.

19/05/2026

“Play became the way of curating the space” — Frankie, volunteer.

Rowland Road Play Patch marked its first birthday in March with a joyful community celebration, bringing together families, artists, volunteers and partners to reflect on a year of collective making and play.

This once-derelict site is now an inclusive, community-owned adventure play space. To celebrate the milestone, we’ve captured its journey and impact in our latest journal article.

🔗 To read and find out more about the project, please see the link to our recent journal post in our bio.

✨ A huge thank you to everyone that has been involved in the development of the Play Patch and joined us to celebrate its birthday. To get involved, just come along! Every Saturday, 11am–2pm, build, create, play and plant together! 🌱

14/05/2026

New work. One night only!

Join us for a night of folklore, occult and music at Cabaret Mystic! ✨

Featuring a newly commissioned performance by Taiwanese drag artist and DJ Vee Dagger. Inspired by villainesses and overwrought horror, Dagger has been performing since 2019. Her work draws from Taiwanese opera and Gothic aesthetics to explore the melodrama of overwhelming emotion, alongside a strong interest in theatrical fashion.

She has performed at , , and across DIY venues and is now set to perform in the historic surroundings of Rowland Road Working Mens’ Club.

Book now!

📆 Thu 18 June 2026

⏰ 7–11pm

🆓 Free, booking required via Eventbrite

For further information please see the link in our bio ✨

Image credit: 1. Image Courtesy from Vee Dagger 2. Yorkshire Contemporary

11/05/2026

🚨 2026 launches today!

Returning for the first time since 2005, this artist-led, grassroots festival brings together more than 40 artists for a dynamic programme of exhibitions, performances, workshops and unexpected interventions unfolding in galleries, venues and everyday spaces across Leeds.

✨ From now until 24 May, discover contemporary art popping up across the city in all kinds of places. Explore the full Situation Leeds 2026 programme via the link in their bio or on their website.

Huge congratulations to everyone behind the festival and to all of the participating artists.

Image credit: Courtesy of Situation Leeds.

06/05/2026

🌿 Introducing pARCHIVE 🌿

Join artist Claye Bowler this summer for a series of fun, creative sessions for families. Inspired by how museums collect and archive objects, you’ll help build a unique archive of play.

pARCHIVE will be popping up at selected festivals and running every Wednesday and Thursday throughout August in Cross Flatts Park. We’re kicking things off at the Let’s Move South Leeds festival:

📆 Saturday 9 May

⏰ 12:00–3:00pm

📍 Cross Flatts Park, Beeston

Come along to make, cast, find, bind, and play together!

🔗 Find out more via the link in our bio

With thanks to the National Lottery Community Fund for their support ✨

Image Credit: Image courtesy of Claye Bowler

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Leeds

Website

https://yorkshirecontemporary.org/

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