Initiative launched to secure legal art walls for graffiti and street murals in Leeds

The Leeds Street Gallery is a collective of local artists and designers who hope to bring more colour to the city by obtaining public art spaces for people to be creative.

It is working alongside local residents, businesses and charities to source walls and other empty spaces for people to legally paint on.

Founder Jack Ellis, 27, said: “There can be a lot of stigma around that graffiti and street art but it is really specialised.

“A lot of people are highly skilled in this type of graffiti-lettering but they don’t want to do criminal acts, which is where groups like us come in.

“What we're trying to do is to provide public art spaces where artists can go and paint whenever they’d like and we’d like to host exhibitions showcasing people’s work.

“Another thing we are keen on is creating public galleries where we invite artists down to completely transform a space.

“We recently did this in the underpass in Woodhouse where we created a mural to celebrate Leeds’ promotion back up the Premier League.

“In another six weeks or so, we will have another group coming to completely transform the space again.”

One of the successful ways Jack has been able to secure the art spaces is by liaising with local businesses in areas which are already heavily graffitied and offering to “upskill it”.

Jack, who lives in Hyde Park, said he has been surprised at how quick and positive the reaction has been.

He said: “We’ve offered our services to places that are covered in graffiti and we’ve been surprised how many have come back and said they like the art, but it would be great if it could be better.

“We’ve also been approached by a few businesses and some local community groups in Woodhouse who are hoping to “upskill” the vandalism there.

“One of our sites is around the back of Jubilee Social Club which originally was covered in lots of illegal graffiti.

"They were looking for quite some time for someone to paint a mural on it but they just couldn't afford it.

“Working with them means they’ve now got really high-quality murals. It doesn’t cost them anything, but they get fresh artwork every week.”

Another key aim of the initiative is to bridge the gap between residents and street artists.

One of the ways they have been doing this is by engaging with neighbours as they paint.

Jack said: “The Leeds Street Gallery means that people are able to actually see the artists make the art, rather than just waking up and finding it like you often do with graffiti.

“It lets people appreciate how specialised it is because they are able to come and watch, have a chat and ask questions while they work.

“If we can bring local people together with the street artists then I think mutual respect will naturally follow up.”

The Leeds Street Gallery can be found and contacted on their Instagram page www.instagram.com/LeedsStreetGallery