Visual Arts

Seven, is a £1m independent community arts space in Chapel Allerton which has been several years in the planning and was officially opened on Saturday 7 July 2007 (Coincidence? Not quite!) and there's a full programme of theatre, music, poetry, cinema and dance planned from September 2007.

Born out of the highly successful Chapel Allerton Arts Festival (now in its 10th year), Seven aims to deliver and enable high quality, innovative and cutting edge arts activity including theatre, dance, music, film and digital arts in its 100 seat theatre. There is also a café bar area and outside performance space for smaller and more informal events such as poetry and jazz.

Seven is unique in Leeds in that it is not in receipt of core funding from Arts Council England and almost half the build cost came from private donation with the other main funder being the European Regional Development Fund.

Seven Programme Director, Penny Sanders who is one of the founders of Chapel Allerton Arts Festival and Seven said: "We are just so delighted that our dreams of having our own arts centre are now a reality with a fabulous theatre and performance space and a wide programme of events, which will appeal to people of all ages and interests, already lined up."

"It’s the culmination of ten years’ work since a group of local residents in Chapel Allerton first got together to find ways to improve community spirit through artistic endeavour. Out of this came the Festival and also, following a period of intense local consultation, the determination to create a community arts centre. It is a fantastic testimony to all the people involved who have worked on a voluntary basis over many years, despite their day jobs, to get us to the stage that we are today."

Regular programming for Seven will include monthly poetry, Screen Seven - a regular programme of art and independent cinema – and jazz. More information can be found at the website:

The event to open the centre was a guided tour around Chapel Allerton, and included masks, umbrellas, music, dancing, singing, poetry, a graveyard treasure hunt and a trapeze artist. Take a look at Carmel McNamara's images of the event: