PAVILION – a visual arts commissioning organisation in Leeds, UK Information

Pavilion is a visual arts commissioning organisation that produces ambitious new work with contemporary artists. Pavilion exists outside of the traditional gallery space, producing new work across surprising and diverse sites, through a process of research and discussion with artists. Pavilion illuminates its artist commissions and curatorial research through regular screenings, talks, workshops and field trips. From its base in Leeds, Pavilion collaborates with artists and organisations from across the UK and the world. Pavilion was founded in 1983 by graduates from the Department of Fine Art at the University of Leeds. It opened in a disused park pavilion on Woodhouse Moor in Leeds, as the UK’s first Women’s Photography Centre. Over ten years, it ran a programme of events, exhibitions and educational activity that sought to enable new democratic structures, art practices and radical social change. While no longer a women’s centre, Pavilion’s programme continues to be inspired by the organisation’s founding aims. The first decade of Pavilion’s activity is housed within the Feminist Archive North at the University of Leeds.