Taking art out on to the streets of the city

MARCEL Duchamp, that indefatigable godfather of the avant-garde, famously daubed a urinal and renamed it Fountain, sending shockwaves through the conservative art world back in 1917.

These days audiences aren't quite as demure and what actually constitutes art has been stretched to the point where the knicker elastic is at breaking point. Even so, for all its proclivity in pushing back the boundaries, art still tends to be housed in galleries. These can be minimalist white cubes or Brutalist monuments, but they are galleries nonetheless.

But attitudes to how and where we view art are changing. The great street artist and iconoclast Banksy recently created two works – a painting on a canvas and another stencilled on a rusty oil can – in a branch of HMV on London's Oxford Street. His work, once dismissed as graffiti, has appeared on walls and bridges and is now collected by Hollywood stars.

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In Leeds, the concept of displaying art in unlikely places has helped transform empty shops into working studios for young artists.

Leeds was one of the cities that took part in a Government initiative, supported by universities and colleges, last December aimed at bringing recession-hit streets back to life.

Yvonne Carmichael is curator and manager of Art In Unusual Spaces which has, with support from the council and local businesses, arranged events and artist residencies in vacated buildings around the city centre. "It's about putting art in empty shop windows because there's a real dearth of places for artists to show their work in Leeds city centre.

"You walk around and it's all about shopping and drinking and what we're trying to do is make artists' work accessible to ordinary people. When tourists come here they might visit the City Art Gallery and the Henry Moore Institute and think they've done their cultural bit, but that's not really the case."

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Exhibitions have been popping up all over the city in landmark buildings like the Corn Exchange and The Light, as well as the Merrion Centre, where people were able to take a peek through peepholes, and 42 New Briggate, a former shop unit turned artistic hub. "Art galleries can be intimidating and a lot of people don't feel comfortable in them, but if it looks like a normal shop you get people wandering in and looking around before they even realise they're in a gallery."

She believes that putting artists, quite literally, in the shop window gives them the chance to collaborate with one another and promote their work.

"Art should be for everybody, it shouldn't just be for a select group of people and it shouldn't just be about high art and getting artists working in the open on the high street is a good way of reaching a different kind of audience," she says. "Leeds has a very strong DIY ethic when it comes to art and there is a strong underground art scene here, but this kind of thing isn't just happening in Leeds it's happening right across Yorkshire."

And it's not only the bustling metropolis where you find art in unusual places. In the picturesque market town of Settle, in North Yorkshire, a red phone box has been turned into a gallery. Roger Taylor is curator of the Gallery on the Green which opened its door in July last year. "The aim was to save the phone box which had been there for over 50 years but was due to be decommissioned and taken away," he says. "So a group of neighbours persuaded the council to buy it for 1 as part of BT's 'adopt a box' scheme."

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They then decided to turn the one metre square booth into a local art gallery housing postcard-size pictures. It's proved a big hit not only with locals, but art fans from all over the world. "We've had eight, or nine exhibitions since we opened. It's proving incredibly popular through word of mouth and we've had visitors from New Zealand, California, the Maldives and Spain, as well as all over Britain. Some people stumble across it while out walking, while others make a special journey to come and have a look," he says.

"It's the only gallery which is full to capacity at least twice a day and is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week."

The gallery costs virtually nothing to run and has a team of six, or seven volunteers who help with its upkeep.

"It's a community project, it's not at all elitist, it's just about trying to serve local people.

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"I'm not going to make any wild claims but its implication is far greaterthan its footprint – and I, for one, love it."

A CHANGE OF ART IN LEEDS

Art In Unusual Spaces was born out of the recession, bringing together independent curators, landlords, artists and businesses to help transform empty eyesores into colourful spaces.

At 42 New Briggate, passers-by have been able to watch local artists at work creating everything from six-day blocks to screen shorts.

Black Dogs, an art collective set up in 2003, is another of the groups that have benefited from this partnership. Based in Holbeck Urban Village it has held a variety of events and exhibitions in empty spaces donated by developer Igloo.