The Leeds Songbook project is a unique creative collaboration bringing together poets, composers, and visual artists to tell the real-life stories of Leeds people through words, music, and art. For the past four years, Leeds Song’s long-established Composers & Poets Forum has brought together student composers and Yorkshire-based poets to create new songs, performed during the annual Leeds Song Festival by Young Artists from the Leeds Song Young Artists Programme.

These works, telling the stories of Leeds people through words and music, are collected in A Leeds Songbook. In 2026, a visual component was added to the project, and this will continue to be developed for the 2027 Festival (10–17 April 2027), when we will again invite a group of artists to create a piece of visual art to accompany/represent the themes/subject of each of the new songs written about the lives of Leeds residents. These stories may be ordinary or extraordinary — reflecting the city’s diversity and character and will be presented as part of an exhibition at Leeds City Museum, alongside a performance showcase of the new songs at Brodrick Hall on 14 April 2027.

Further detailed information about the project and its schedule can be found in the attached document here.

What We’re Looking For

• Any artist (amateur, student, professional) age 18 years and over, working in any medium (painting, drawing, sculpture, textile, collage, printmaking, photography, video, digital, mixed media, etc).
• Applicants must be available to attend occasional online meetings, 2 days of workshops on 13 and 14 April 2027, and the final showcase/exhibition in Leeds on 14 April 2027.

Leeds Song champions diversity across all of its work, underpinned by our values of being inclusive, visionary, friendly and committed. We are committed to building a culturally diverse workforce, wide audience demographic and a community of artists who represent our values. We strongly encourage applications from individuals from underrepresented groups, which might include, but is certainly not limited to, those who identify as neurodiverse, having a long-term health condition or other condition which affects your everyday life, acting as a long-term carer, having traveller heritage, identifying as LGBTQIA+, or being ethnically minoritised. We are committed to equality of opportunity and welcome applications from all individuals, regardless of their background, faith, age or personal characteristics.