Nestled in the constituency of Chancellor Rachel Reeves, a multi award-winning creative hub in Leeds has centred it’s Christmas around sustainability.
Earlier this year, Sunny Bank Mills in Farsley announced the successful expansion of its studio provision for artists following the closure of several creative spaces in the city. Already well known as the home of the popular BBC TV show, the ‘Great British Sewing Bee’, the heritage site transformed into a booming Christmas market, packed with local independent talent, offering an alternative to mainstream Christmas consumerism.
Just days before the market opened, the Chancellor delivered her long-awaited second budget, which failed to acknowledge the creative, heritage sectors, despite the success in her constituency.
Regardless, the Mill welcomed more than 4,000 visitors to its Christmas market at the end of November. Held in the site’s historic 1912 Mill, this year’s festivities showcased more than 60 independent businesses, from ceramics to prints.
Freya Laville, local maker and illustrator, commented on the positive impact of the event to: “show off your work and have a platform which many people can discover it”.
Winter isn’t the only season where creators are platformed. All year round, the gallery shop and tearoom showcase a variety of makers, celebrating independent craft and ensuring that local artists and studio holders could sell directly to customers. This space, located in the old cloth warehouse, is shared with the main gallery, which hosts numerous exhibitions throughout the year.
In the run up to Christmas, the main gallery presented the lifecycle of an item in ‘Broken//Makeshift’. This “celebration of contemporary craft”, available between the 11th of October- 24th December, focusing on finding the beauty in everyday objects and how relationships with items have changed since mass-production and the revival of upcycling and repairing.
Anna Turzynski, Arts Director at Sunny Bank Mills emphasised: “we wanted people to think about consuming and objects this time of year, when people are focused on buying gifts and new things.”
“Thinking about what happens when things are broken, or when they rip, tear and we wanted to platform a lot of different contemporary mending techniques.”
One feature in the exhibition is the work of Abdulrazaq Awofeso’s whose sculptural garments are carved from discarded wooden pallets, recreating second-hand clothing commonly shipped from the West to Africa for landfill.
His art questions how identity, consumption and environmental harm intersects by transforming the shipping materials into the clothes they once transported. Signifying the realities of global supply chains and the wider impact of consumption.
Overall, across its site, Sunny Bank Mills, united festivity and sustainability, creating a brighter, positive prospective for not just their local community of Farsley but for society.