By Peter Lazenby
AN ALADDIN'S Cave of art and artefacts from around the world has opened in Leeds to enable people from one of the city's most diverse multi-cultural areas to display and sell their work.
Perfume bottles from Egypt, carvings and jewellery from Gambia, icons from Russia and silk handbags from Vietnam are just a few of the items on show at "The Emporium," a venture celebrating the cultural and artistic backgrounds of the people of Chapeltown and Harehills in Leeds.
The Emporium is an example of teamwork and co-operation, with exhibitors sharing the costs of running the venture. It is also helping local youngsters who have problems at school.
The project is the idea of Hilary Hickson and Sakina Gulamhussein.
Both women have busy working lives - Sakina helps her husband run a newsagents in Roundhay Road, Harehills and is also a teaching mentor at Allerton high school.
dimmable led light bulbsHelen works as national field controller for a sales and marketing firm.
"The concept is rather a strange one really," said Hilary. "There are a lot of people out there who have product to sell within the art, craft and gift sector but for whatever reasons, lack of skills, lack of funds, lack of time, whatever, have never had the opportunity to do this. So we came up with the concept of having a shop.
Style
"We wanted it to be multi cultural, we wanted it to be 'upmarket' in style for the kind of outlet we had in mind, we wanted it to involve local people.
LED Light Bulb SP70-5W"We fancied the idea of it being in Chapeltown or Harehills for several reasons, the main ones being that the area is multi-cultural, there was nothing like it in the area, and we both have backgrounds in the area. This is also an area of Leeds ripe for regeneration - there is always a lot of bad press about this area so we felt like trying to make a difference, maybe we would be successful and others would choose to follow.
"During the summer this year we decided to throw caution to the wind and put our thoughts into reality and see how it goes."
Sakina said: "My background is Uganda-Asian. My parents came here as refugees. I wanted to put something back into the Chapeltown and Harehills area. I have seen a lot of good and creativity in the area, but it has had a lot of bad publicity.
"I wanted to do something positive. Another thing for me is that it gives people opportunities. I get a lot out of seeing people achieve something."
Hilary said: "For the concept to work we need to have about 18 unit holders. The Emporium rents space to these people, either wall or shelf space for them to display and sell their items.
"Having this magic figure means that the rent can be low, but also it does include all the overheads of running and promoting the shop. Supporters of the Emporium bring along their items, display them in their allotted space and then leave the rest to us.
"We aim for a very high standard of display and also promote a reasonable pricing structure with lots of lovely items available from [pounds sterling]1 upwards."
The shop opened last month and today is filled with artistic and other items from around the world.
Artwork featuring the Beatles, Madonna and Frank Sinatra sits alongside silk cushions from C
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