ABBEY HOUSE MUSEUM
Opening Hours
Mon: closed
Tues – Fri: 10am – 5pm
Sat: 12 – 5pm
Sun: 10am – 5pm
Last admission: 4.30pm
Address
Abbey Walk
Kirkstall
Leeds
LS5 3EH
Ticket Provider
ABBEY HOUSE MUSEUM
Opening Hours
Mon: closed
Tues – Fri: 10am – 5pm
Sat: 12 – 5pm
Sun: 10am – 5pm
Last admission: 4.30pm
Address
Abbey Walk
Kirkstall
Leeds
LS5 3EH
Ticket Provider
LEEDS ART GALLERY
Opening Hours
Mon: Closed
Tues -Sat: 10am – 5pm
Sun: 11am – 3pm
Address
The Headrow
Leeds
LS1 3AA
LEEDS CITY MUSEUM
Opening Hours
Mon: closed (11am – 5pm on bank holidays)
Tues – Fri: 10am – 5pm
Sat & Sun: 11am – 5pm
Address
Leeds City Museum
Millennium Square
Leeds
LS2 8BH
Ticket Provider
LEEDS DISCOVERY CENTRE
Opening Hours
Visits by appointment/special event only.
Free public store tours are now available by booking in advance. Please call or email us.
Address
Leeds Discovery Centre
Off Carlisle Road
Leeds
LS10 1LB
LEEDS INDUSTRIAL MUSEUM
Opening Hours
Mon: Closed (10am – 5pm on bank holiday Mondays)
Tues – Fri: 10am – 5pm
Sat – Sun: 12 – 5pm
Last admission one hour before closing.
Address
Canal Road
Leeds
LS12 2QF
KIRKSTALL ABBEY
Opening Hours
Mon: closed (10am – 4pm on bank holidays)
Tues – Sun: 10am – 4.30pm
Last admission: 4pm
Address
Abbey Road
Kirkstall
Leeds
LS5 3EH
Ticket Provider
LOTHERTON
Opening Hours
Open Daily
Estate opens: 7.30am
Hall: Open (Downstairs only) 10am-5pm
Wildlife World: 10am – 5pm
Estate closes: 7pm
Last entry 45 mins before estate closing time
TEMPLE NEWSAM
Opening Hours
House: Tues – Sun: 10.30am – 5pm
Home Farm: Tues – Sun: 10am – 5pm
Last entry 45 minutes before
THWAITE WATERMILL
Address
Thwaite Lane
Stourton
Leeds
LS10 1RP
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Working with the John Sell Cotman Collection: Shelter from the Storm
Collections, Fine ArtResident artist Hondartza Fraga begins her ‘Cotmania’ blog series by exploring the collection and it’s context, ahead of Leeds Art Gallery’s reopening in Autumn.
Last week I started my artist-in-residence project at Leeds Art Gallery. Over the course of the next few months, I will immerse myself in the work of John Sell Cotman – in particular, the archives created by his most ardent collector, Sydney Decimus Kitson. The team are re-cataloguing the collection of Cotman’s works and digitising the extensive material left by Kitson.
My role as a contemporary artist is to create new work in response to Cotman’s works and the Kitson collection. Even though I have created work in response to collections before, this is the first time I will be doing so to a single artist’s work, and it feels both exciting and challenging. Kitson’s approach to collecting Cotman verges on the obsessive, especially when confronted with all the material at once!
Alongside the boxes and boxes of Cotman’s sketches, Kitson kept notes on all his research: what looks like every newspaper clip mentioning Cotman, gallery catalogues, auctions papers, and lists of all the works he visited in numerous exhibitions across the country. All this was compiled into 12 beautifully bounded notebooks by Kitson himself, which he titled ‘Cotmania’. The notebooks are being scanned and very patiently transcribed by a team of 10 volunteers.
John Sell Cotman (1782 – 1842) ‘A fishing smack struggling in heavy seas. Possibly a study after a picture’ c. 1824 – Graphite on laid paper
Over the next few weeks I will be spending time with all of these materials, as well as talking to the volunteers and main curators who are preparing an exhibition of Cotman’s works to open in the autumn when the gallery reopens to the public.
Thinking about archives in general, I have started collecting some texts on artists working and responding to archives, although I want my response to focus on Cotman and Kitson in particular.
There are different contexts throughout time for interpreting Cotman’s work: firstly when it was created between the 18th and 19th centuries, secondly during Kitson’s time nearly a century later, and finally the present day, almost another century after that. Our readings of the work, the artist and the collector throughout each time period must consider the many layers of meaning behind Cotman’s art, and yet offer something fresh and unexpected.
John Sell Cotman (1782 – 1842) ‘Boats in Harbour, Dover Castle on cliff behind’ c. 1799 – Graphite on laid paper
I am very honoured to be part of this project, which I know means a lot to those involved and has been in the making for many years. I hope my contribution will create an interesting dialogue between the material and the curators’ rethinking of it.
By Hondartza Fraga, Resident Artist at Leeds Art Gallery
Visit Hondartza’s website and find out more about her work.