Andrea Fitzpatrick is calling on the people of the city to share their travelling recollections with her so she can turn them into an unusual piece of art.

She was one of five students awarded a bursary to help transform Neville Street – one of the busiest routes into the city – with innovative sound installations.

But Andrea, who is studying fine art at Leeds University, needs help from Leeds residents and YEP readers to bring her ideas to life.

She said: "I want members of the public to tell me their stories about coming to Leeds, leaving Leeds and travelling around Leeds.

"Perhaps someone who has lived in Leeds all their life and has gone back to where they used to play, or someone who's from another country and moved to Leeds and noticed the difference in the architecture."

She plans to record their stories, layer various sound effects over the top of their voices to highlight aspects of their journeys, then play them on a loop which people can tune into on mobile phones and portable radios.

She hopes the sonic piece of art will make passers-by more aware of their environment. Four projects have been awarded £500 which will be installed on October 10 as part of Light Night.

The scheme is backed by Leeds City Council and regional development agency Yorkshire Forward, and the young artists will have the help of a professional design agency to create the temporary works. The other bursary winners are Chris Martin and Stuart Childs from Leeds Met; Tom Cookson from Leeds College of Art and Design; and Jonathan McLeod from Leeds College of Music.

Irena Bauman, from Bauman Lyons Architects, who will be working with them, said: "We hope the artworks will provide passers-by with a different way of experiencing their surroundings."

People using Neville Street after October 10 can expect to come across a talking tree, piano music and the sound of horses' hooves, alongside the usual roar of the traffic. Neville Street is on the edge of Holbeck Urban Village, an area celebrated as the centre of the British flax industry during the Industrial Revolution and now undergoing a multi-million pound regeneration.


Leading architects, engineers, artists and acoustic experts are teaming up to improve lighting, reduce traffic noise and alter people's perceptions about safety in the area, using wall-panels, sound insulation and light art installations incorporating thousands of LEDs to transform the route.

Work on the £4.5m scheme is expected to start in June and end in December.

It aims to create a better connection between the city centre and Holbeck Urban Village after local business leaders told the council improved links were needed due to the development taking place south of the river.

For more information about Andrea's sound installation or to offer her one of your travelling tales, email andreablue75@yahoo.com.