The Belle Isle Tapestry
Based at BITMO, our Community Artist in Residence, Elnaz Yazdani worked with the community in Belle Isle to create the ‘Belle Isle Tapestry’, an artwork celebrating local people and places that are important to residents. Supported by volunteers, Elnaz gathered stories about the area from Belle Isle residents at local community centres and groups, including Trinity Network, Cranmore & Rayland’s, the 26 Centre, the 59 Club and the 58 Centre.
The unveiling event is on
29th May 2025
5pm - 6pm
Bitmo's Gate, Aberfield Gate, LS10 3QH.
We will be unveiling the work, listening to some of the stories and of course, there will be cake.
Everyone is welcome to join us - hope to see you there!
As the collection of stories grew, a group of creative participants met with Elnaz each week at BITMO to stitch stories from their own lives and other peoples’. Some participants were trying embroidery for the first time, so we were delighted to see how much they got involved in stitching and taking ownership of the artwork. Some group members even stitched pieces at home to add onto the tapestry. These enthusiastic crafters have now set up their own stitching group, ‘Sew 2gether’ so they can continue to collaborate at BITMO and hopefully pass on the skills they’ve learnt to more members of the community.
The Belle Isle Tapestry will be on display in the Community Corridor at Leeds City Museum from June until August. After this, it will return to BITMO, where it will be permanently installed.
