The Arts Floor at Leeds Central Library includes the Music and Performing Arts Library, Art Library, Drawing Room, Studio12 and exhibition spaces. These are unique spaces and facilities for creativity, exploration, learning and expression. Over 350,000 music, art and performance items are available for study or to borrow.
The Art Library collects, organises and makes accessible material relating to the visual arts, architecture, and design. It is the largest and most comprehensive specialist public Art Library in the North of England. The Drawing Room is a collaborative city centre studio space for artists, tutors and groups based in the Art Library, with regular programmes of classes and workshops.
The Music and Performing Arts Library is the largest in the North of England and our Set Lending service allows groups across the UK to borrow over 3,000 orchestral sets and over 300,000 vocals sets.
Studio12 is a digital media project for people aged 16–30. It provides free access to a production studio, computers, equipment and training.
The Leeds Tapestry was created to provide a vision of the city of Leeds at the turn of the millennium. It was conceived and directed by Leeds artist Kate Russell and sewn by a group of volunteers. There are 16 panels, 8 feet high by 4 feet wide, each containing an aspect of life in Leeds and it is made up of 1,500 individual embroideries.
Threads of Freedom
We have a new textile artwork, co-curated by communities across Leeds, for our Threads of Freedom project which was part of a national campaign by Future Arts Centres, Our Freedom Then and Now, involving 60 libraries and arts centres across the UK and reflecting on what freedom means 80 years after the Second World War.
Lead artists Hayley Mills-Styles and Elnaz Yazdani worked with lots of community groups throughout the summer of 2025 to create embroidered, patchworked and embellished pieces of art, inspired by our collections, the history of Leeds and a specially commissioned poem by Simon Armitage; Freedom Road.
The artwork has been crafted into a panel which sits alongside the iconic Leeds Tapestry along the first-floor corridor at Leeds Central Library and is open to everyone to visit during library opening hours from 20 November 2025.
