Putting Our View Front and Centre

Pyramid is a Leeds-based arts charity that helps adults with learning disabilities and autism discover the arts and grow as artists. Throughout 2025, Pyramid’s Visioning Group worked with Leeds Art Gallery to create Pyramid View On... John Atkinson Grimshaw, a collaborative artistic response to the work of John Atkinson Grimshaw.

The Visioning group is made up of seven artists with and without learning disabilities and autism. Four members of the group, James, William, Alice and Rosie, played a key role in curating the exhibition.

Speaking about the intention behind the project, James explains: ‘our view is allowing us to put front and centre on neurodivergency inspired by John Atkinson Grimshaw.'

The exhibition brings together a carefully selected collection of original artworks by Pyramid members. For the Visioning Group, this was their first experience of curating an exhibition.

James reflects on the process: ‘We felt that everyone should be given a chance to show their work, so no one gets left out. That’s the hard part about curating. The hard part is figuring out which are left out and which
enter in the exhibition.’

Featuring over twenty artworks, the exhibition draws inspiration from Grimshaw’s distinctive use of atmosphere, particularly his transition from dusk into night. Alice explains, ‘colour-wise, we looked at colours that might reflect night-time.’

The artworks span a wide range of mediums, including digital art, collage, acrylic on paper and canvas, ceramics and more. When asked how he hopes visitors feel when viewing the exhibition, William says, ‘proud — and to look at the artwork and think, wow!’

Alongside curating the exhibition, the Visioning Group also developed three accessible, self-led creative activities designed to encourage visitors to create their own Grimshaw-inspired artwork.

James describes the activities: ‘One is the shadow puppets, where people can make their own puppets and create shadows out of it and share on social media. The second one was the skyscraper, where people could use the paper notes, post it notes, and then draw on it and stick it on one of the skyscrapers. And the third one was drawing based on my list.’