Take Part

Temple.Works.Leeds is unfunded, artist-run, with no full time staff. As such we rely on and draw inspiration from an army of volunteers, stewards and outstanding interns. Read on…

Volunteering and stewardship

Temple Works (the 6-acre, uninsured, and Grade 1 listed building site) and Temple.Works.Leeds (the cultural project) relies at this critical early stage on an army of volunteers to make it work. After artists, architects filmmakers and historians early visits during the research period in 2008-2009, the first public tours in 2009 led to a rapidly growing wave of interest in being part of the project in a supporting role. From this has come a big group of volunteers and our first Stewards programme, which trains those willing to help at events and on public tours, while giving them back a chance to try out something of their own at Temple Works. Long term stewards donate time and skills, help steer the programme, and may grow to key-holder status.

Internships and education

Temple.Works.Leeds has regular internships, both privately arranged and through educational institutions. These may be in film, theatre, art, architecture, design, curating, production, construction or heritage studies. While these are unpaid, each intern has the chance to make a project or event at Temple.Works.Leeds, realtime or digitally. Accepting an inter depends on the availability of the right Temple.Works.Leeds team member to offer mentoring. We are also regularly involved with colleges and universities, offering site specific help, space for Degree Shows, guided tours and classes, and live projects. Our plan is to move towards an apprenticeship programme shortly as well within national guidelines.

Community groups and charities

Temple Works as a site is a part of industrial and social history and a much loved monument particularly for those in South Leeds. As such part of our remit is to open our doors to local community groups and charities who have a cultural programme that needs space, time and a chance to try out something new. In these difficult times many such group[s have lost critical funding and while our own funds are limited, we are always happy to see what we can do to help. Our experience to date is that such groups give as much back to the Temple.Works.Leeds programme as they receive. Our commitment too is to hire South Leeds people where possible for paid supporting roles.