Leeds International Festival creative hub launches at Platform
By Bruntwood Works
A new partnership is to enhance innovation in the city with the launch of an official creative hub for Leeds International Festival.
The move brings together one of the UK’s leading metropolitan festivals of new ideas and innovation and Bruntwood, a company with a passion for supporting arts, culture and community engagement.
Leading regional property company Bruntwood, which has had a long standing presence in Leeds, is to house the official ‘L20 Creative Hub’ at its landmark building Platform in the city.
It will provide a flexible creative space where the festival’s artists and innovators, who are part of the programme for next year’s 10 day festival running from April 30th- 9th May 2020, can come together to be inspired, connect and collaborate.
Platform, which is located next to Leeds Station, provides the perfect environment in which to develop work, with the opportunity to liaise with others on big ideas, share creative visions and nurture artistic skills.
The partnership offers the opportunity to use Platform’s facilities for the development and realisation of individual events including free access to meeting rooms and co-working space in the run-up to the festival, as well as providing a place where artists, creatives and innovators can come together to road test ideas and audience reactions to events in development.
Leeds International Festival provides a great opportunity to attract and grow the city’s creative and innovative talent, while helping enhance the experience of those who live, work and visit the city.
Gemma Holsgrove, Festival Executive for Leeds International Festival, said:
“Platform provides an inspiring co-working space in the city, an environment which encourages the sharing of ideas and nurturing of innovation and creativity – which is the essence of Leeds International Festival.”
“By collaborating, we can work together to celebrate and enhance the city’s pool of creative talent and provide a network for local innovators to help and support each other.”
“Having a place to go and develop ideas and events is integral, especially to young career artists and for some of those involved in next year’s festival, this really is that first important opportunity to showcase their talents.”
Kate Vokes, Director of Social Impact at Bruntwood, said:
“Supporting the success of our regional cities has always been a key priority for Bruntwood, with creating vibrant and sustainable communities a key part of what we do. We care passionately about Leeds and our new partnership with the festival is perfectly aligned with our purpose of creating thriving cities, helping to shape Leeds’ character as a dynamic and exciting city with culture at its heart. The Leeds International Festival will provide outstanding experiences for all to enjoy and a stage for home-grown talent to shine.
“Platform, it is the perfect community hub to nurture inspiring talent, giving them the opportunity to meet, network and collaborate with like-minded creatives and innovators to help boost the success, talent and ability of the city and the region.”
Bursting onto the festival scene in April 2017, Leeds International Festival, launched and fully-funded by LeedsBID (Leeds Business Improvement District), combines an international programme of performers and speakers, with the unshakable creative spirit of Leeds.
This year’s festival which ran from 2nd-12th May delivered an extraordinary ten days of innovation, diversity, education and celebration. It saw a monumental 62 events taking place across the city, pulling in 15,000 visitors, across 19 venues in the city, whilst cementing The Village at The Tetley and new Discovery Zone on Briggate.
It showcased the talent settled in and around Leeds, and pulled both speakers and audiences from across the nation, and the world, to come and enjoy the astounding output on offer in the city.
For 2020, an overarching theme - Generation Future – runs throughout the programme acting as a catalyst for response and encourage artists / creatives to explore, investigate and interrogate what Generation Future means to people in their own individual ways, promoting thought, discussion and artistic interpretation.
Keep up-to-date with all L20 information and announcements at www.leedsinternationalfestival.com