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Chris’ Chats Ep. 10- Pyramid of Arts

December 2nd, 2024


Watch online HERE or read the transcript below:

CC- Hello and welcome back to Chris’ Chats and today we have Pyramid of Arts. And todays special guest is Alice and William. Thank you for agreeing to meet me today!

CC- SO as always, thanks for agreeing to meet today. Can you please tell me a little bit about Pyramid of arts please?

W- Yeah, Pyramid of Arts is a charity and we do things like drama art and music.

A- Who do we do those for?

W- For people

A- Yeah, so for people with learning disabilities and autism. And we also have some groups specifically for people with profound multiple learning disabilities. And we do that in a couple of different ways, so we have our group session that William mentioned, and that’s when we have a group of around 10people and they work with our team of artists on big creative projects. But then we also have our development team and that’s what we call our 1-1 artists board, which William is also part of.

CC- So how did Pyramid of Arts begin?

A- So it began as an arts club at Meanwood hospital about 30 years ago, so yeah it’s been running for a long time. It was started by our founder, called Julia, who was a musician and artist who ran arts clubs at the hospital. Then when the hospitals closed down she continued doing the arts projects as a way of keeping everyone connected and keeping creativity.

CC- Are there are challenges working with people with varying ability levels?

A- Yes, there are obviously challenges, but we work with a team of freelance artists, so they run all  our sessions for us. They’re amazing and have loads of experience with engaging lots of people with their projects. So when they’re planning projects and sessions they make sure that whatever the activity is, it’s accessible for everyone. So they often lots of sensory things and really break down the activities so everyone can be involved.

CC- What are the rewards and benefits of working with complex services?

W- It gives people a chance to get together, make new friends and meet new people and stuff.

A- Yeah. So we are here for the art, that’s what we do, the art and music. But one of the things that comes from that is that people get to meet lots of new people and make their own connections which is one of the  big benefits I think.

CC- What is it like being a member and artists of Pyramid of Arts? Can you talk about your roles?

W- I’m an artist, I do vision group on a Tuesday 1-3 oclock.

A- And what is the vision group?

W- We talk about Pyramid and we do a plan for the future and stuff and we made the tshirts and stuff.

A- Shall I go get a tshirt?

W- So here,  that’s what we’ve done.

A- And what are you going to be doing with them?

W- We’re going to use them as a way to make money for Pyramid and stuff.

A- So yeah as a fundraiser.

W- Fundraiser! And D- Team I work with Alice and we do projects. Last time we did Mickey Mouse. We’ve done Game boards and Lion King and stuff. I also do Next Step.

A- What’s Next Step?

W- Using art and making stuff, that we auction for pyramid.

A- Yeah so Next Step is a group specifically for people between the ages of 18 and 30 and you all work together on projects.

CC- And your role Alice?

A- Yeah so I’m the creative programme coordinator. So I make sure everyone knows that they’re doing and where they’re meant to be. I also started as a volunteer and became a freelance artist and ran projects. So like William, I have a few different hats and have a lot of experience here.

CC- Why do you think it’s important to have people with lived experience as a member of the group?

W- To meet new friends, new people.

A- And do you think you can bring your views on thing?

W- Yeah

A- And why do you think that?

W- Because we can make things better than before

A- I think it’s important because at Pyramid we want to be as member lead as possible. So we’ve been doing a lot of work with William and the visioning group to figure out how we can make the way that we choose what projects we work on, how we can make that more member lead.

CC- How do your sessions impact people?

A- You’ve kind of mentioned a few things already. They help people to meet new people.

W- Build new skills and all that.

A- What kind of skills.

W- We do art, all the drawing and all that. Learning new things we haven’t done before.

A- There’s other things as well, we learn to talk to different people and helping people have exhibitions, which is quite a big thing. Making sure peoples artwork gets out there and gets seen.  It helps to empower people to realise how amazing their artwork is and how they can use their voice to impact people.

CC- How has Pyramid of Arts changed you?

W- It trained me to make new friends, it gets me out of the house and doing stuff. And being indepently.

A- So independence is a really good one William. Because you travel here independently now don’t you?

W- I do yeah.

CC- William, what was your favourite project to be a part of?

W- My project was doing B-Team work in the past, we went somewhere with soundboxes and stuff which was a good project I did.

A- Yeah so you went abroad didn’t you?

W- Yeah

A- And made some artwork and travelled around with it. Why did you like that one?

W- Because meeting new people like that was good.

A- Yeah it was a pretty cool project.

CC- What are your recent projects?

W- A recent project is the canal project we did with Canal Connections.

A- That was a partnership project the Next Step group did with Canal Connections.

W- We made some models of boats, with water and stuff and we put them in the Canal Connections wall and stained glass windows and stuff.

A- So it ended in an exhibition at Canal Connections didn’t it?

W- Yeah

A- And I think the really great thing about that project was is it started with a trip on the canal where you did  sketches, took lots of digital work, took photos with the ipads and things. Do you quite like projects that start that?

W- Yeah

CC- We know you’ve worked on a lot of different projects, can you tell us about the different mediums you’ve worked on?

A- You already mentioned it.

W- Yeah we went abroad and did Mickey Mouse project and we did an archive with it.

A- Yeah you made drawings, illustration on a digital programme, then for the mickey mouse project you turned that into a book and a film, so you had sessions with sound artists and did a sound scape.

CC- William can you tell me about the upcycling work you’re doing downstairs?

W- Yeah we decorated stools for auction, adding wires and making it better and better. And that’s what I’ve been doing. And we’re decorating it with things people like; collage, painting, papier mache, wood.

A- Yeah and then they’re going to be auctioned to make money for pyramid as a fundraisers.

CC- You’ve been integrating technology into your projects. Can you tell us a bit more about that please?

W- We did drawings of mickey mouse and stuff on the tablet which we made a booklet.

A- We have tablets available in the studio. And we’re very lucky we work with Mickey who is the digital inclusion officer.

CC- Can you talk about the work you do in our centres?

A- Yeah we do 3 weekly groups at Potternewton, Bramley and Rothwell Fulfilling Lives Centres and that’s when our artists and musicians go in and run sensory based projects. Often combined visual arts, music and sensory play. We love those sessions and the artists that work with those groups have also started incorporating digital elements so they’ve been doing some really cool stuff with stop motion animations of the process of people making their works.

CC- What’s next for Pyramid of Arts?

W- We need to put together some money for pyramid to keep going so we don’t run out of money because we want to keep going.

A- Yeah so we’re thinking of different ways we can continue to fundraise and one of those ways is…

W- The Pyramid Plan!

A- Yeah this is the Pyramid Plan covering 2024-2028. So when you’re asking for what the future holds the Visioning Group have kind of already answered that here. Shall I read a little bit out?
“Pyramid wants our membership our workers and our audiences to be representative of all aspects of our identity. Pyramid are proud of our work, our authentic voices views and histories and they’re heard through out art. We aim for everyone to see and enjoy our work. We show our best work to the public through exhibitions and performances, and we use our art to make others think and care about the world”.

W-  We do

A- SO we’re having a Pyramid Plan launch

W- We’ll be selling these tshirts and seeing people and stuff and that’s what we plan to do.

A- And that kind of sums it up. Lots more amazing creative project and showing our art across Leeds and beyond.

CC- Thank you very much for agreeing to be our guests today.

That’s it for Chris’ Chats!


Alice, Chris and William are sat together smiling on a brightly coloured couch in the Pyramid of Arts Office space.