ESA is a visual arts organisation founded in 1993 by artists to meet the need of practitioners working in a range of disciplines at different stages in their careers.

Over the last 13 years ESA has worked with over 250 visual artists and offered studio spaces to over 100. Projects have included exhibitions, publications, commissions, exchanges, residencies and workshops. Professional development has always been core to the organisation and ESA devises tailored training and professional development programmes. As well as providing services directly to artists ESA also contributes to the infrastructure of the sector and is actively involved in advocacy work locally and nationally.

Patrick Studios

ESA are based at Patrick Studios. Situated on the edge of Leeds city centre, this solid, spacious red-brick facility was formerly a social club connected to the nearby St Patrick's Catholic Church.

Refurbished at a combined purchase and refit cost of £1.6 million (with £500,000 coming from Arts Council England lottery funding), Patrick Studios is a bespoke centre for artists, providing individually tailored and structured support outside of academic institutions, fostering an ethos of professional development. The aim of Patrick Studios is to add value to an artist's career.

Housing 28 individual studios plus six open plan spaces, Patrick Studios also has a state-of-the-art creative IT and office resource areas, a kiln and a darkroom. A white cube project space provides an important public face for the building.

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