We're really growing places! Photo exhibition focuses on Leeds community project

A new photo exhibition is set to showcase the success of a community project in the Cross Green area of east Leeds.
One of the images from the exhibition.One of the images from the exhibition.
One of the images from the exhibition.

The exhibition – entitled I Grow, Therefore I Am – gets under way at St Hilda’s Church on Cross Green Lane this Friday.

Featuring the work of local photographer and researcher Walter Lewis, it will tell the story of the area’s Growing Together project and the people involved with it.

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Growing Together was launched by the community in 2014 to create a garden on an unused bridge on Fewston Avenue.

The following year it stepped up a gear with efforts to transform land alongside the railway on Cautley Road from a derelict eyesore into a productive growing space.

The project has been led by the Cross Green Community Group with the support of Hyde Park Source, a Leeds charity that aims to help people’s health and well-being through improvements to local environments.

Cross Green Community Group’s Mary Brennan said: “We are all really looking forward to the exhibition.

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“Growing Together is something we are very proud of, so it is nice that it will be highlighted in this way.”

Mr Lewis, the photographer who has also curated the exhibition, said: “It is intended to showcase the people of Growing Together and in so doing question our ideas of identity and self-esteem in relation to place.”

The exhibition will be officially launched on Friday by Leeds Central MP Hilary Benn as part of a community-themed workshop running from 2pm to 3.30pm.

It will then continue from Saturday until next Thursday, May 5. For opening times, visit www.feedingbodyandsoul.com.

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The exhibition and Friday’s launch event are supported by Leeds Inspired, part of Leeds City Council.

Many of the Hyde Park Source volunteers who have worked on Growing Together have physical or learning difficulties.

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