The Tetley was a

contemporary Contemporary history, in English-language historiography, is a subset of modern history that describes the historical period from about 1945 to the present. In the social sciences, contemporary history is also continuous with, and related t ...

art gallery An art gallery is a room or a building in which visual art is displayed. In Western cultures from the mid-15th century, a gallery was any long, narrow covered passage along a wall, first used in the sense of a place for art in the 1590s. The long ...

Leeds Leeds is a city in West Yorkshire, England. It is the largest settlement in Yorkshire and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds Metropolitan Borough, which is the second most populous district in the United Kingdom. It is built aro ...

, England, located in the art deco headquarters of the former

Tetley's Brewery Tetley's Brewery (Joshua Tetley & Son Ltd) was an English regional brewery founded in 1822 by Joshua Tetley in Hunslet, now a suburb of Leeds, West Yorkshire. The beer was originally produced at the Leeds Brewery, which was later renamed the L ...

. The gallery was opened on Friday 28 November 2013 and closed on 17 December 2023. The charity running it, named Project Space Leeds (from a project which ran from 2006 to 2012) has now rebranded as Yorkshire Contemporary.

Background

The gallery's opening was part of a multimillion-pound redevelopment of the former Tetley Brewery site. The owners,

Carlsberg-Tetley Tetley's Brewery (Joshua Tetley & Son Ltd) was an English regional brewery founded in 1822 by Joshua Tetley in Hunslet, now a suburb of Leeds, West Yorkshire. The beer was originally produced at the Leeds Brewery, which was later renamed the L ...

ended ale and beer production at the site in 2011, demolishing all but the headquarters. This building was retained to provide commercial office space and, in 2013, space to rehouse an existing contemporary artist-led space and registered charity, Project Space Leeds. Upon its move, the charity began operating as 'The Tetley'. The charity took on the specific brief of operating as a Leeds-equivalent to the

Cornerhouse Cornerhouse was a cinema and contemporary visual arts centre next to Oxford Road Station on Oxford Street, Manchester, England, from 1985 to 2015. It had three floors of art galleries, three cinemas, a bookshop, bar and café. Cornerhouse was ...

in Manchester and

Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art (also known simply as (the) Baltic, stylised as BALTIC) is a centre for contemporary art located on the south bank of the River Tyne in Gateshead, Tyne and Wear, England. It hosts a frequently changing variety ...

in Gateshead. The refurbishment of the building for the arts centre was overseen by the co-directors of Project Space Leeds,

Pippa Hale Pippa Hale is a contemporary British artist, founder of the Northern Art Prize and co-founder of Leeds contemporary art gallery The Tetley. Early life Hale studied for a Foundation Diploma in Art and Design at Warwickshire College of Furt ...

and Kerry Harker, and Chris Walker of Esh Construction, with partial funding from the

Arts Council England Arts Council England is an arm's length non-departmental public body of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, Department for Culture, Media and Sport. It is also a registered charity. It was formed in 1994 when the Arts Council o ...

. In January 2016 Bryony Bond, a former curator at the

Whitworth Art Gallery The Whitworth is an art gallery in Manchester, England, containing over 60,000 items in its collection. The gallery is located in Whitworth Park and is part of the University of Manchester. In 2015, the Whitworth reopened after it was transfor ...

in Manchester was appointed the new Creative Director of The Tetley. The Tetley art space had a lease on the building until 2023.

Aire Park Aire Park is a planned mixed-use development in Hunslet, south of the city centre of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It is being developed by the international real estate organisation Vastint, and will mostly occupy the abandoned brownfield s ...

, a 24-acre mixed-use development which includes an 8-acre public park, is now being planned for the site surrounding the Tetley as part of the regeneration of the South Bank of Leeds. In March 2024,

announce
Kirkstall Brewery
would be taking on the building. Kirkstall Brewery plan to focus on renewing the site's status as "a landmark of Yorkshire beer culture." No longer leasing the Tetley building, the arts charity rebranded as Yorkshire Contemporary in May 2024, focusing on work in different locations across the region while seeking a new permanent home.

Programme

The gallery was one of

's National Portfolio Organisations.

Exhibitions

2013-2016

The Tetley's opening exhibitions involved a number of artists responding to the history and space of the new building under the general title 'A New Reality' (29 November 2013 to 1 July 2014). This included James Clarkson, Emma Rushton, Derek Tyman, Simon Lewandowski, Sam Belinfante and Rehana Zaman. 'Painting in Time' (2015), presented contemporary painting and its relationship to other media, including work by artists such as

Yoko Ono Yoko Ono (, usually spelled in katakana as ; born February 18, 1933) is a Japanese multimedia artist, singer, songwriter, and peace activist. Her work also encompasses performance art and filmmaking. Ono grew up in Tokyo and moved to New York ...

, Natasha Kidd, Claire Ashley, Jessica Warboys and Polly Appleborn. An exhibition staged at the Tetley in 2016 recreated a controversial exhibition by the Cypriot artist

Stass Paraskos Stass Paraskos (; 17 March 1933 – 4 March 2014) was a British-Cypriot painter, sculptor, and writer. Born and raised in Cyprus, he spent much of his life working and teaching in England, where he famously became embroiled in a 1966 obscenity ...

, originally held in Leeds in 1966. Entitled 'Lovers and Romances' the original show at the Leeds Institute Gallery was closed down by the police and the artist charged with displaying obscene and corrupting images under the Vagrancy Acts of 1824 and 1838. The exhibition at the Tetley marked the fiftieth anniversary of the original Paraskos Trial. Also in 2016, the Tetley staged a solo exhibition of work by the London-based sculptor Jonathan Trayte, comprising vegetables and fruits made of ceramic and other sculptural materials, entitled 'Polyculture'.'Artistic Appetite at the Tetley in Leeds' in ''The Yorkshire Evening Post'' (UK newspaper), 10 August 2016

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Tetley, Leeds, The Museums in Leeds Art museums and galleries in West Yorkshire Modern art museums Contemporary art galleries in England Art museums and galleries established in 2013 2013 establishments in England Art museums and galleries disestablished in 2023 2023 disestablishments in England Art Deco architecture in Leeds Leeds Blue Plaques