Leeds is a city built on creativity, resilience and reinvention – from its industrial roots in textiles and engineering to its modern-day leadership in digital, finance and healthcare. Yet behind its success, there’s a rising tide of inequality:

• Rough sleeping in Leeds rose by 48% in 2023, nearly double the national increase.

• Suicides among people experiencing homelessness have risen by 30% since 2020.

Homelessness is not an identity – it’s an experience. Those who live through it are not ‘failures’ or ‘problems to solve’- they are people of courage, imagination and potential.

The Lazarus Art Group and Blanket aim to flip the narrative: to bring the creativity, voices and hopes of some of Leeds’ most side-lined citizens into the heart of our civic space, alongside monuments to industry and power. This artwork will remind us that kindness and belonging are as essential to a city’s success as commerce and technology.

Since October 2024, more than 40 members of the Lazarus Art Group - including women and men of all ages - have been on a creative journey together. Some are in recovery from alcohol and drug addiction, all are vulnerable and are experiencing or have experienced homelessness.

With artists Pippa Hale and David Hawkins they’ve explored drawing, print making, model making in clay, plaster and cardboard and public art - experimenting, collaborating, laughing and learning.

‘My confidence in drawing a line gets transformed into stuff like my confidence of saying ‘hello’ to someone. Everything connects.’

‘I like being part of a group and making something together.’

For those living on the margins, creativity offers:

• A sense of purpose and belonging

• A way to process trauma and tell one’s story

• A shared experience that breaks isolation and builds community

The weekly art sessions have shown how making something beautiful together can restore confidence, connection and hope. Blanket will carry that transformation out into the streets – a lasting, public expression of kindness, safety and joy.