On a Tuesday morning, on a day choc-a-bloc with appointments, I went to meet the inimitable Penny Rowe at this journalist’s favourite haunt (and how I haunt them) Huddle, to learn about the community arts scheme that she runs on Sundays and her plans for the future.
There was a fly that was annoying us throughout this conversation, with Penny attempting to swat it. The sunlight was shining brightly through the window. It was a yawn-inducing type of weather, and I was all too tired, but this conversation distracted me from it.
Penny started off by telling me about herself.
“I am a community artist. I also have my own working practice, which is that I’m a sculptor. I’ve been working in the community, facilitating artistic activity for a number of years. I started off at (a) school, just doing an art club, and then I worked in… schools in Morley, from about 2016 to 2018.”
“2018 I made it more formal, (and) it became a business entity. I set up a CIC. We got a big red caravan and I got it to try to take the studio experience around to schools. Art spaces aren’t making spaces, the exchange is very different to how it is in a… classroom. Then COVID hit, so the caravan has been on my drive since then. I’ve been using it as a studio space to make ceramics.”
“What evolved from that experience is that people still wanted me to go into schools, but it was more like ‘studio in a bag’. In 2021, part of the activity (for a Leeds City of Culture bid) was to do an art club. Then from that, I applied for funding from Leeds Inspired to do it again, but for a whole year.”
The following year she got funding through the Co-Op and that’s how it has kept running.
“It’s self-lead. Everyone should be taught the basic visual language as part of the national curriculum. We’re not, obviously, with things in schools being the way that they are. So, people engage in creativity in very small sections in their life. Normal people get a job and then blink and then retire at 65, having wished that they’d tried watercolours.
This club facilitates that engagement… I take all the materials, and people come and use the space and make their own art for two hours a month.”
Penny buys materials that people want and brings the materials to them.
“It’s really important to me that it’s free to people.”
Penny told me about the people that attend her club.
“I might get little babies to (age) 85…”
“We do have a core group of people that attend, and they’ve been there since the beginning. They are really connected with their own artistic expression.”
There are plans for another art club that will be starting soon too!
“I have just got funding to start another one in Micklefield. I got that funding from Point North, which is a community foundation. That will be starting in May. There will be two on a Sunday- one here (in Garforth) and one in Micklefield. I’m using Micklefield C of E Primary Academy.”
Penny’s Micklefield art club will start on the 10th May.
“I hope that… people who can’t make Garforth will come to the Micklefield one, and meet new people.”
She also has plans to expand in the future…
“I’d like to start one in Crossgates, then (if all three run) I’ll try somewhere else.”
Penny also told me about feedback that she got from the community when she applied for funding.
“I get some really phenomenal little stories where people talk about how much making their own art was important to them. I’m trying to make a little zine, so I asked people to talk about how art makes them feel, then I put pictures that people have made in it.”
I asked about any long-term future goals for Community Arts.
“With anything that’s sustainable, it needs time. I don’t have to do anything, because art-making is magic. Society needs to support that.”
“I’d be happy if I could do the same and replicate it in different locations… every little town in Leeds needs one. That’s the goal.”
What about accessibility?
“Yeah, I’m trying to make it as accessible as possible. The school (in Micklefield) will absolutely have accessibility needs incorporated in its function.”
Does Penny have any messages for anyone who might want to join?
“It’s a good vibe. There’s a lot of like-minded people gathering together to do what they love.
If I can encourage people to make time in their own lives for their own art-making… as far as I’m concerned, I’ve won then, because they’ve started their own practice.”
Most forms of art are supported at Penny’s Community Arts, which runs on Sundays on selected days in Garforth and Micklefield. Penny buys the art supplies and the clubs are free. The Facebook can be found here and the website can be found here.
All photos are courtesy of Penny’s Community Arts.
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