No one would have believed in the dying moments of 2019 that this world would soon be set upon by a virus greater and more dangerous than the human race itself; that as men busied themselves about their various concerns they were being invaded and infected on a global scale. With infinite complacency men went to and fro over this globe about their little affairs, serene in their assurance of their empire over matter.

(Apologies to H.G Wells and cue Jeff Wayne’s 'Eve of The War’)

Whilst I always understood that Jacob’s Ladder would be a labour of love for both myself, as BasementArtsProject: the commissioning organisation, and for sculptor Keith Ackerman, I knew that it would definitely take longer than the one-hundred days of the Yorkshire Sculpture International 2019. But we never imagined the three year odyssey that it would become thanks to the C***d pandemic lockdowns.

Launch day speeches (L) John Barber (R) Keith Ackerman

But, unlike ‘The War of The Worlds’, when we came under attack it was not from outer but inner space.

Man plans God laughs

As 2019 gave way to 2020, the Yorkshire Sculpture International, of which Jacob’s Ladder had been a part, became a memory, but work continued through the winter until, in March 2020, personal freedoms also became naught but a memory and the gates to the quarry were locked. Along with a vast swathe of the worlds population we were forced to halt work due to the global pandemic.

Over the course of the next two years of lockdown, we became embroiled in dispute with the quarry, apparently owned by Samuel Smith’s Brewery, over the cost of the stone; with the brewery owners claiming that the quarry manager had undervalued the stone. Despite being selected from a pile of rubble surrounded by years of weeds, and us informing them that we had a limited budget due to it being a community project, by the time we left the quarry with our stone we had been relieved of £1500 more than the original valuation. Eventually, the gates reopened and we were able to free Jacob’s Ladder from the clutches of the Quarry and move all 7.5tonnes of Tadcaster limestone to the site on which it now stands.

On an average day working on the sculpture we could be stopped by up to half a dozen people at least who, on their way past, would stop at the edge of the grass to watch the activity. Often they would ask what we were doing, ‘are you making a sculpture?’ Initially there were reservations about the idea of working in public and the kind of reception would we get?

When I first floated the idea of a public sculpture in the pages of the South Leeds Life newspaper the naysayers were quick to voice opinions such as we don’t need art, we need public services, a clean environment etcetera . . . and whilst they are not wrong, they wildly miss the point. The first point being that when money set aside for cultural projects does not get spent it does not get transferred to other areas such as policing or hospitals, it just gets taken away never to be seen again. The second point is that no local council money has been spent on the project so far, BasementArtsProject has gathered funding from other sources and continues to do so. The third and final point revolves around the idea that when something is vandalised, if it is not dealt with in a timely manner, then the vandalism extends to other things in the vicinity as the perception is that no one cares.

shooting up in public pre-Jacob’s Ladder

After years of abandonment, this part of South Leeds has become a magnet for bad behaviour. If one is to believe that transformation within society is possible then we have to trust that people will step up to the challenges associated with their aspirations. Back in 2015, after the demolition of the police station and the council’s sale of the land to a private owner, the expanse of grass outside of BasementArtsProject was reduced to a third of its size and new shopping units were built. Fortunately a tree protection order and the 1950’s clean air act meant that the last remaining patch of grass could not be built on. Unfortunately, with the land privately owned and not being adequately looked after, it had by 2017 become a haven for drug misuse, human defecation and the dumping of massive amounts of litter. After a year of working on the land, the majority of antisocial behaviour has stopped. Beyond this we will be landscaping the ground and creating a ‘Friends of’ group to assist us with the maintenance of the land into the future. Then this overlooked little corner of South Leeds with it’s tightly packed population will have a park at the centre of it for the enjoyment of all, and crucially post-covid, permanent open-air access to art as part of that arrangement.

Within weeks of getting ‘Jacob’s Ladder upright we had begun the participatory aspect of the project. Taking the method used on Jacob’s Ladder we have invited people to come and join us as we turn the other two slabs of stone into benches for the community to sit on.

The benches, although quarried in Doncaster rather than Tadcaster, come from the same seam as Jacob’s Ladder; 260,000,000 year old limestone.

Even indoors within the confines of our venue, BasementArtsProject has always been a project that sees itself in the context of social action; a venue that pushes the boundaries in terms of the work it presents, meanwhile focusing on the concept of access to art for the working classes and other marginalised groups

Further to the general social action aspect of BasementArtsProject and more specifically ‘The Corner’, it is my belief that art represents a myriad of possibilities for every aspect of life in a way that other things cannot. Art can be engaging and it can also be entertaining. It can be educational and a source of employment.

Education is currently being steered away from the humanities and creative subjects but to the detriment of the subjects that the system allegedly favours. STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) is the future according to the wisdom of the times, but, without the A (art) that puts STEAM in the engine of creativity, there will be little traction to take it forward from the present into the future. A society that has a good knowledge of scientific and technological principles will go nowhere without the creative spark to ignite that knowledge and solve the problems that currently hold us back.

From the many conversations that I have had with the people of the South Leeds community over the last twenty-two years, it has become apparent that the majority do not have access to art through the channels that many would normally come to such a subject; the gallery environment. Having lived in this community for more than two decades now I can also see that very little has changed on that front, and why would it?

In ‘This Is Not Art’ Activism and Other Not-Art’ by Alana Jelinik the main concept underpinning the book is that

“Art is not political action. Art is not education. Art does not exist to make the world a better place. Art disrupts and resists the status quo, and if it fails in this prime objective it serves only to deaden a disenfranchised society further”

— Alana Jelinik

Whilst I agree with this, I would suggest that with artists at the heart of the process of defining what art is and isn’t, it can do all of those things whether it intends to or not.

Taking a very traditional form of art making -direct carving- we achieved the disruption needed for positive change. In doing so, we have set in motion a chain of events that has led to this small corner of South Leeds at least becoming a better place. Gone are the needles, the faeces, the litter and other such forms of criminal behaviour, replaced instead by an area of inner city grassland containing a large stone sculpture, produced by hand, and encouraging a spirit of quiet contemplation amidst the noise and haste of this South Leeds community. An act of resistance; not just against those who do not care about their or anyone else's environment, but also against those, within the community and the establishment, who would question the need for such a thing.

The final element of ‘On The Corner’ is ‘Nature of Balance’; a sculpture by Dominic Hopkinson that has been donated to BasementArtsProject. This aspect of ‘On The Corner’ is ongoing due to the various delays of the last couple of years but is next on the agenda now that Jacob’s Ladder is securely in place. We already have a site for this work which is about 100 yards away from Jacob’s Ladder on a brick plinth at the nearby traffic lights also on the corner.

When Keith Ackerman came to sculpting in his late fifties he found himself at York College being taught by Dominic Hopkinson. At an earlier stage in his career Hopkinson had been a technician working for the sculptor Peter Randall-Page. With Keith Ackerman having completed Jacob’s Ladder with John Barber as assistant technician, we made a decision to have Barber as the man leading the bench carving workshops, with Ackerman as ‘his glamorous assistant’. The point of this being, about the possibilities of serving time on projects as an artist and using that time served as a means of stepping into the next role. Just as Hopkinson had done with Randall-Page, Ackerman and Barber had done with Hopkinson, now Barber takes on the mantle of lead artist.

And this returns us to the point that I made earlier on, about art as a source of employment and engagement alongside its functions as a form of enjoyment and education.

The ‘On The Corner’ Team (L-R) Jadene Imbusch, Phill Hopkins, Dominic Hopkinson. An intergenerational project

Now John and Keith are taking their knowledge and skill and passing it onto the next generation of people who may have never realised that such options were open to them. Sometimes it is not the technology of the future that opens people's eyes to a new future but the skills of the past, the idea that regardless of innovations we will always be needed and that we all can bring something to the table. The workshops, whilst bookable online, attract as much attention, if not more, from those passing who, intrigued enough to have a go, provide us with insights into their lives.

Carving On ‘The Corner’: Thursday 18th August. Whilst working with members of the community who we enlisted in passing to help us carve, the youngest being 13, the eldest 50 something, I met one guy who told me he was a recovering alcoholic and that he could not believe that there was art stuff going on like this on his doorstep. He was not going to have a go. After showing him the current exhibition at BasementArtsProject (Resonate by York based artist Sharon McDonagh) he decided to have a go and threw himself into it, taking up tools with us for at least the next half-an-hour or so.

Drop-in and bookable workshops at the edge of Tunstall Road

Another guy who had a go with us lived a few streets away and he was telling us all about his brother who is a successful sculptor living in Germany. He already knew how to carve.

Whilst the piece was lying down as we worked on it between May 2021 and May 2022, a young girl used to come and sit each week and watch the piece taking shape. One day she told us about her dad being unwell and how she had been looking after him, but he had since died. She said she had enjoyed seeing the progress as the work had changed from a piece of rough rock into a sculpture and that she considered it a monument to her dad. A month or so later the same person was sleeping rough in a tent on the land. After a week or so she packed up her tent and disappeared. We have not seen her since.

Over the last year we have had many such conversations and experiences both uplifting and absolutely tragic. It has reinforced in my mind the idea that the visibility of art in society, and the promotion of it as a source of aspiration: education, enjoyment, entertainment, and employment is essential, even more so in such straightened times as these.

As Angela Davis points out “no change is possible without hope”.

Bruce Davies | September 2022

BasementArtsProject gratefully acknowledges the support of

Yorkshire Sculpture Park

G Gibson of Garforth Tool Hire

Jacob's Ladder: an impact report of sorts