Posted on Monday 2nd April 2012
Leeds Art Fund Centenary celebrations begin in style
Anticipation mixed with excitement when over 300 invitees - far more than expected - turned up at Leeds Art Gallery on 22 March for the opening of ART IN OUR TIME, a unique exhibition which showcases 80 works (from over 400) which the Fund has purchased outright, or made valid contributions to, on behalf of the City over the last 100 years.
Welcoming the guests, LAF Chairman Ben Read made the point that this was not just the end of one century of giving but, more importantly, the start of another - a view echoed by Andrew Goodchild of exhibition sponsors Brown Shipley.
The diversity of work on display is a testament to the buying and intellectual power of the Fund's trustees, across a century of collecting for the City, who always strived - and still do - to balance traditional purchases with the new, adventurous and pioneering.
ART IN OUR TIME continues at Leeds Art Gallery until 26 August.