Leeds Art Gallery in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, is a museum whose collection of 20th-century British Art is recognised by the British government as a collection "of national importance". Its collection also includes 19th-century and earlier art works. The gallery opened on 3 October 1888 as Leeds City Art Gallery and was paid for by public subscription, collected in honour of Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee in 1887. The artist Hubert von Herkomer formally opened the building, and presented an example of his work to the collection. In 1912, the Leeds Art Collections Fund was formed to support the gallery’s acquisitions, which it continues to do today. The gallery is owned and administered by Leeds City Council.

History

The gallery was built between 1886–88 by W. H. Thorp, as an extension to the Municipal Buildings to the west (built 1878–84 by George Corson, now housing Leeds Central Library). It is grade II listed. A major renovation was completed in June 2007, including opening up the magnificent Victorian tiled hall (used as a café and bookshop) which links the gallery and the library. At first floor level there is direct access from the gallery to the Art Library. The gallery includes a ground floor lecture theatre which is used for a variety of events.

An art museum or art gallery is a building or space for the exhibition of art, usually visual art. Museums can be public or private, but what distinguishes a museum is the ownership of a collection. Paintings are the most commonly displayed art objects; however, sculpture, decorative arts, furniture, textiles, costume, drawings, pastels, watercolors, collages, prints, artists' books, photographs, and installation art are also regularly shown. Although primarily concerned with providing a space to show works of visual art, art galleries are sometimes used to host other artistic activities, such as performance art, music concerts, or poetry readings.

Types of galleries

The term is used for both public galleries, which are non-profit or publicly owned museums that display selected collections of art. On the other hand, private galleries refers to the commercial enterprises for the sale of art. However, both types of gallery may host traveling exhibits or temporary exhibitions including art borrowed from elsewhere.

The Art Gallery of the University of Southern Maine, Gorham campus, is located at 5 University Way, at the main campus entrance. The building in which it is located was built in 1822 as a non-denominational church building, and has also served as Gorham's town hall. It has been part of the campus since the early 1960s, and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972.

Description and history

The Art Gallery is located at the southern edge of the USM Gorham campus, at the northeast corner of University Way and College Avenue, west of the Gorham town center. It is a rectangular wood-frame structure, about 42 by 60 feet (13 m × 18 m), with a front-facing gable roof, clapboard siding, and a stone foundation. The front, facing south, is distinguished by a temple facade, with four fluted Doric columns supporting an entablature and fully pedimented gable. The gable has a small rectangular opening at its center, that originally housed a window but is now boarded over. The facade behind the temple front has two sash windows flanking a central entrance. The side walls have six evenly spaced windows.

Coordinates: 53°47′59″N 1°32′57″W / 53.79972°N 1.54917°W / 53.79972; -1.54917 Leeds ⁱ/liːdz/ is a city in West Yorkshire, England. Historically in Yorkshire's West Riding, the history of Leeds can be traced to the 5th century when the name referred to a wooded area of the Kingdom of Elmet. The name has been applied to many administrative entities over the centuries. It changed from being the appellation of a small manorial borough in the 13th century, through several incarnations, to being the name attached to the present metropolitan borough. In the 17th and 18th centuries Leeds became a major centre for the production and trading of wool. Then, during the Industrial Revolution, Leeds developed into a major mill town; wool was the dominant industry but flax, engineering, iron foundries, printing, and other industries were important. From being a compact market town in the valley of the River Aire in the 16th century Leeds expanded and absorbed the surrounding villages to become a populous urban centre by the mid-20th century. The main built-up area sub-division has a population of 474,632 (2011), and the City of Leeds metropolitan borough of which it is a part which has an estimated population of 757,700 (2011).

Leeds was a federal electoral district represented in the Canadian House of Commons from 1904 to 1979. It was located in the province of Ontario. This riding was first created in 1903 from parts of Leeds North and Grenville North and Leeds South ridings.

It was initially defined to consist of the county of Leeds, excluding parts included in the electoral district of Brockville.

It 1914, it was redefined to consist of the whole county of Leeds, including the town of Brockville. In 1966, it was redefined to include, in the County of Lanark, in the Townships of North Burgess, North Elmsley and Montague excepting the Village of Merrickville.

The electoral district was abolished in 1976 when it was redistributed between Lanark—Renfrew—Carleton and Leeds—Grenville ridings.

Electoral history

On Mr. George Taylor's resignation on 25 October 1911:

On Mr. Stewart's acceptance of an office of emolument under the Crown, 7 August 1930:

On Mr. Stanton's death, 8 December 1960:

See also

Leeds was a parliamentary borough covering the town of Leeds, in the West Riding of Yorkshire, England. It was represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1832 to 1885.

The borough returned two Members of Parliament (MPs) until 1868, and then three MPs from 1868 until the Redistribution of Seats Act 1885 split the borough into five divisions at the 1885 general election.

Boundaries and History

Representation before 1832

Until the United Kingdom general election, 1832 the major town of Leeds was represented in Parliament solely as a part of the county constituency of Yorkshire. The only exceptions had been that the town was represented as a single member borough in the First and Second Protectorate Parliaments from 1654 to 1658.

Before 1832 no new English Parliamentary borough had been enfranchised since the 1670s, but Leeds came close to being represented from 1826. Stooks Smith, in The Parliaments of England, explained what happened.