So Nat and myself ventured out into West Yorkshire this week to have a gander at some galleries and pick up some cheap craft materials. It was a shame not more people could make it but hopefully we’ll get over there again at some point!

We started off in Leeds, and sadly the main Gallery was closed, but we had a look around the Craft Centre and Design Gallery in which there were some very impressive etchings and pieces of jewellery such as the piece above by Susie Perring, here’s a link to the website…

http://www.craftcentreleeds.co.uk/

We then headed over to Dewsbury and met up with the curator from Options Create, an arts community Centre, set up by the fusing of P.H.A.B charity (physically handicapped and able bodied) and Serendipity Arts to create a space for art activities for the community – very similar to Space 109 in York. We chatted about what the Hidden Tentacle are wanting to achieve as a collective, and are hoping to support one another in the future – possibly by collaborating with workshops, or putting forward work to display in the centre. Here’s a link to their website:

http://dev.webequip.co.uk/cmsoptionscreate/default.asp

Then we took a bus to Huddersfield and had a look around a gallery there in which there were some pieces of interest – some vibrant textile pieces and a couple of landscape paintings that we appreciated, however there were quite a lot of contemporary pieces of work that we found a bit inaccessible, amplified by the jargon used in the paragraphs alongside the pieces trying to outline the artists intentions. That aside, it was definitely worth a visit!

So overall, a really good day! If we get the chance to go over again it would be good to get to the Holmfirth Postcard Museum Graham mentioned, and perhaps the Dean Clough gallery in Halifax which always has a good selection of exhibitions on…

http://www.deanclough.com/arts/index.asp