Kremena joins East Street Arts as one of two artists researching and reporting on the history of Burmantofts and New Briggate as part of our Heritage Action Zone Project.
She enjoys working on socially engaged heritage projects with untold stories yet to be discovered and inviting communities to become history makers and helping them respond to their own social histories in creative ways.
Additionally, she is drawn to this project because of its creative potential. The choice of artistic journeys defines the output and is keen to see how the project develops in the coming months.
Kremena comments:
“THE HISTORIES OF BURMANTOFTS CERAMICS ARE UNDER THREAT OF ERASURE AND DISPLACEMENT. THIS PROJECT WILL ENSURE THIS DOES NOT HAPPEN. THIS PROJECT IS AN OPPORTUNITY TO USE ART TO CONNECT LEEDS’S COMMUNITIES BY VISUALLY UNCOVERING AND REMINDING THEM ABOUT THEIR FASCINATING SHARED HISTORIES OF CLAY, INDUSTRY, AND MIGRATION.”
Finally, she hopes this project will demonstrate the importance and the need for creative collaborations within the heritage sector. Ideally, it will instigate future participatory, interdisciplinary, and intergenerational initiatives encouraging artists, historians, heritage professionals, and communities to work together to achieve their common goals of bringing to light untold historical narratives.
Rosie joins us as an Artist-Educator to use the fascinating history of Burmantofts and New Briggate to engage local residents and co-create new artwork with the community.
Trained in ceramics at Edinburgh she practices as a silk painter creating work inspired by narrative and nature. She is active in community engagement and has worked in this area for thirteen years working with a huge range of groups.
Rosie says she is drawn to the Heritage Action Zone project by a few different threads.
” I AM PASSIONATE ABOUT HELPING PEOPLE EXPLORE AND SHAPE THEIR SENSE OF PLACE. I AM FROM LEEDS AND LIVED IN BURMANTOFTS A WHILE AND ADORE THE OFTEN OVERLOOKED BURMANTOFTS FRONTAGES, WHICH TO ME SPEAK OF LEEDS. THIS WAS AN INFLUENCE ON MY WORK WHEN I WENT ON TO STUDY CERAMICS.”
She is excited about a project that brings these together and hopes it will both shine a light on Burmantofts ware as well as generating a sense of belonging and historical context. As a practitioner, Rosie hopes to find new ways of enabling communities to come together that are creative and safe.
Other things!
-
Artist support
Submit your publications to our exhibition and learning library
Do you make books or printed materials on artist-led housing, live/work spaces, civic practice or living archives? Contribute now! Together we can learn.
-
Artist support
Artist-Led Housing: Histories, Residencies, Spaces
An evening in conversation with Jonathan Orlek, architectural researcher, director of Studio Polpo, and author, to launch his new book Artist-Led Housing: Histories, Residencies, Spaces.
-
Artist support
At Home: Can the archive inform the future?
Take a walk through 30 years of East Street Arts, exploring the No Going Back exhibition, and hear all the tales of project planning and delivery, highs and lows, first hand from the co-founders.
-
Artist support
No Going Back exhibition
No Going Back explores the role of art and artists in the city and civic practice, through the lens of East Street Arts’ archive.
-
Artist support
New exhibition explores the role of artists in our cities
A new exhibition exploring the role of art and artists in our cities and civic practice, through the lens of our East Street Arts archive.
-
Artist support
Housing: Can artists offer a different perspective?
Artists and activists get together to present their work and experience on setting up collectively owned spaces, artist-led houses and documenting change in a city of disappearing houses and public spaces.