The Love Arts Festival will be taking over a stall in Leeds’ Kirkgate Market with a range of individual artists and organisations getting involved to create a hub of creativity and activity within the Market.  

The Love Arts Festival is a culmination of eight fruitful years developing links between arts, mental health and wellbeing. The festival has been organised by Leeds Partnerships NHS Foundation Trust, the local mental health and learning disability provider.  

The four week market event begins with a ‘Hats off!’ workshop run by Skippko, the award winning Leeds based arts charity, on Friday 28 October from 1-3pm. The workshop will be celebrating all things hat related in a unique heritage and arts project. There will be opportunities to make some art, find out about different headwear and try on a selection of hats!  

On Saturday 29 October the festival will be celebrating the start of the winter season with a ‘Love Arts Knit In!’ Groups from across the city are getting together to knit and you could be part of the ‘Knit In.’ Come along to learn to knit, meet other knitters and find out where you can get your knitting materials from.  

‘The Living Dead’, a challenging and thought provoking piece of installation art by Emma Cuckson, will explore prejudices and emotions about eating disorders. The exhibition will provide a focus point and encourage discussion about how eating disorders can affect people. 

There are many more events including workshops run by Active Arts, a group of inspirational young people who want to bring about creativity and artist Jenna Jay Hurles presenting a Live Arts day by creating a piece of art over the course of a day as well as creating some interactive artwork. 

An interactive Art Installation from Inkwell, the arts project run by Leeds Mind, will be in place between the 7 - 12 November and Leeds College of Art will be getting people involved with their pop up postcard workshop between the 15 - 21 November. 

The grand finale will be an exhibition from Inspire, the organisation that supports artists with mental health issues in Leeds. Artists will be on hand to talk about how you can get involved and to show their work, perfect for Christmas presents, as well as encouraging you to express your creativity throughout the day. 

All events are free to take part in so come along to celebrate arts and wellbeing, get involved with some fantastic interactive arts projects and discover how much is happening in Leeds! The festival will be at Kirkgate Market from Monday 24 October to Saturday 21 November, for more information please visit www.loveartsleeds.co.uk.

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