Tiny sheep tiptoe above a bunk bed in one room, leaving hoofprints on the cement floor. Carrier bags have been twisted into a light fixture in the room next door, like a Hindu flower garland. Lost mementos such as holiday postcards, bingo tickets, and hazy photos adorn a glitter- and confetti-strewn resin floor down the corridor.
Welcome to the UK’s first Art Hostel, a social enterprise project that has given artists complete creative freedom to design every inch of its premises from the bottom up in order to promote grassroots creative talent from the UK and worldwide. It’s the idea of East Street Arts, a non-profit organisation that collaborates with local artists and people.While there are a number of art-focused hostels and hotels in Europe, as well as the famed Carlton Arms art hotel in New York, this is the first in the UK to really turn the spaces into works of art. And the effect is nothing short of spectacular — a massive symphony of imagination unleashed.
The hostel’s blank canvas is a building that was previously the presbytery for the historic St Patrick’s church in Leeds’ Mabgate neighbourhood and was built in 1894. (Today, Opera North and Leeds Playhouse store their belongings in the church.) Each of the 12 rooms tackles a different theme, such as politics, history, environmental critique, or nostalgia, in a unique way.
The project’s focus is on recycling and environmental protection. According to Aitken, “a lot of the old hostel stuff has been reused and recycled.” “One of the rooms is entirely built of salvaged wood, and the parlour and part of the bedrooms even have flooring that came from a Polish gym.”
