In one room, tiny sheep tiptoe above a bunk bed and there are hoof-prints across the cement floor. In the room next door, carrier bags have been twisted into a light fixture in the fashion of a Hindu flower garland. Down the hall, lost mementoes including holiday postcards, bingo tickets and grainy photos decorate a glitter- and confetti-strewn resin floor.
Welcome to what is claimed to be the UK’s first Art Hostel – a social enterprise project that has given artists free rein to design every inch of its premises from the ground up, in an effort to showcase grassroots creative talent from the UK and abroad. It’s the brainchild of East Street Arts, a charitable organisation that works with artists and residents in local communities. And the hostel isn’t in a hip enclave of east London, as you might expect, but in a deprived central suburb of Leeds.
