Venue
Leeds College of Art
Starts
Monday, March 16, 2015
Ends
Thursday, April 2, 2015
Address
Leeds College of Art, The Gallery, Blenheim Walk, Leeds, LS2 9AQ
Location
Yorkshire
Organiser
Jane Palm-Gold

Regeneration City Blues

The exhibition explores the impact of city regeneration by corporate multinationals upon pre-existing shops, businesses and established local ‘grassroots’ creative and cultural activity. Soaring land value forces out originality and sub-cultural scenes, leaving a homogenised wasteland of international brands and luxury unlived-in apartments. Our historical, social and cultural ‘sense of place’ is being obliterated in certain city areas, to the dismay of local people and the existing community. Thus developed areas are ‘gentrified’ – but at what cost?

Jane Palm-Gold lives in St. Giles in central London. Close by, independent businesses, live music venues, cinemas and public houses have either been earmarked for redevelopment or have undergone this in recent years.

This exhibition is her remembrance of a few of the many creative and culturally important streets and places lost in the last 30 years. She also seeks to document the history of nearby Denmark Street, a street rich in music heritage, where businesses are teetering on the brink of survival because of adjacent massive redevelopment and Crossrail.