Gloves Off: Stories from Cultural Collections & Galleries at the University of Leeds

How does art care? How do artists embody care within the creative act of making and how does their work project care in all its multiplicities, its potential ethical and moral positions? How best can art, artists and curators create space to represent and engender care for both individuals and wider communities? Recorded at the University of Leeds shortly before Nnena Kalu was announced as the winner of the Turner Prize 2025, this discussion explores the complexities of care in and of art. Chaired by Turner Prize 2025 co-curator Michael Richmond, the panel comprises artist facilitator, creative programme co-ordinator and research fellow Alice Clayden, visual artist and producer Alison McIntyre, curator, lecturer and writer Aïcha Mehrez, artist Sarah Roberts, and curator and writer Tim Steer. Curated by Yorkshire Contemporary in partnership with the University of Leeds. The Turner Prize 2025 exhibition, featuring the shortlisted artists Nnena Kalu, Rene Matić, Mohammed Sami and Zadie Xa, can be seen at Cartwright Hall, Bradford until 22 February 2026 as part of Bradford 2025 UK City of Culture.   Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!): https://uppbeat.io/t/abstract-aprils/wishes-and-sighs License code: HAVTLEBZNDQPOIKX

Take a twinkling trip back to Christmas Past with the first podcast in a new series from our 2024 Bedford Fellow Dr Ruby Rutter. Ruby leaves the festive bustle of Leeds’ arcades behind to discover how a Victorian candlemaker harnessed the ancient association of light and magic to invent fairy lights. Looking closely at a 19th-century advert in The John Evan Bedford Library of Furniture History, Ruby and fellow historian Joanna Beaufoy trace the hidden heritage of hygge, and the darkness and danger that it guards us from. Each instalment of Selling Sentiment explores what a trade card or advert in the Bedford Collection can tell us about the time and place it came from.