A venue for arts and music

I think Leeds has a really strong and creative music community that could help support the artistic community too. Places like the custard factory in birmingham www.custardfactory.co.uk and Islington Art Mill in Salford http://www.islingtonmill.com/ have done a great job of providing a space for crossover for these two interest groups.

Not been to either, I'm sorry to say but havin a look at the website The Custard Factory seems to have a great set up, and yeah Leeds has got a lot of musical talent so bringing them together seems like a win win situation.

It's not in the city center either so I guess that makes it more cost effective. Where would we set up something like that in Leeds?

To add to Andy's examples - somewhere a bit closer to home which is just starting out is Bradford Playhouse. Its having a go at bringing both art and music audiences together and as a former theatre it lends itself well to hosting the performing arts/dance etc. It's definitely worth a visit, I've had a great time there at Hatch events, exhibitions and at gigs. The team there seem incredibly enthusiastic and open to experimenting.

The music scene is more established than the arts in leeds and because there is more of a need for spaces for the arts than there is music; there has perhaps been an unneccessary reluctance to join forces, as when arts spaces do crop up its as if they should be kept solely for the arts? Not sure how true this is but after visiting the Playhouse in Bradford I did think how fantastic it would be good to have a space as dynamic and spacious in Leeds.

I couldn't agree more with this idea... Will check out those examples in other cities, but I have been to some great Music/Art/Literary (to add another dimension!) crossover spaces in London...Berlin...even Manchester, which have a wonderful atmosphere and really serve to draw the different creative communities together. Something like this would surely thrive in Leeds. I have a little dream of opening up such a cultural epicentre as this one day... just waiting on that lottery win?!

Will certainly pop down and check out the Bradford Playhouse- sounds exciting!

Merrion market?

On the student run because of morrisons, has existing quirky shop/stalls underused and under appreciated, begging for something to happen there really. Just a shame it's so tucked away...

Have to say a lot of the smaller independants in leeds seem to have fallen by the wayside as rents have risen - the corn exchange is a shining example of how that affects small independant retailers...