Exhibitors at the 10th Anniversary Celebration Event
At the Priestley Centre's celebration event for its 10th Anniversary, after the talks and panel discussion, guests will have time to network and explore a curated programme of creative works related to climate, environment and place between 16:45 - 18:00.
Curated sound installation by Dr Scott McLaughlin
The installation will unfold across the School of Music’s performance and foyer spaces. It has been curated by Dr McLaughlin, University of Leeds Associate Professor in Composition and Music Technology, whose work explores listening, perception and our relationship with environments through experimental and collaborative music practice. The programme brings together composers, students and environmental researchers in a shared exploration of sound, place and climate.
Upon arrival and while colleagues network, field recordings from Gair Wood will play as background audio, transporting us into the University's wonderful woodland site.
During the networking section of the event, guests are invited to dip into the Clothworkers Centenary Concert Hall to experience Dunwich, an audio‑visual work by Professor Martin Iddon, University of Leeds composer and researcher in contemporary and experimental music. Invoking climate grief, the piece reflects on the medieval East Anglian port lost to the sea, combining piano, field recordings, spoken ghost stories and evocative black‑and‑white film to create a haunting meditation on landscape, memory and loss.
In the foyer, a dedicated listening station presents new works by University of Leeds composition students, created especially for the Priestley Centre’s 10th anniversary. Students were invited to respond musically to themes of climate, environment and place, many drawing on field recordings, live audio streams and environmental sensor data from Gair Wood.
These student compositions reflect close collaboration with colleagues from the School of Earth and Environment, including Cat Scott and Tom Sloan, and with Dr Alex de Little, Lecturer in Creative Practice and Performance. Alex is a sonic artist and researcher whose practice focuses on listening as a way of understanding environments, ecologies and relations, and he contributed live and recorded audio from the woodland site as part of this interdisciplinary experiment in creative climate research.
James McKay’s Dreams of a Low Carbon Future
A visionary illustration project imagining Leeds as a positive, zero-carbon city of the future.
James Mckay is an award-winning writer-illustrator who collaborates with scientists to communicate research into prehistoric life, human history and our future in the context of climate change. Described by author Rob Hopkins as "the man who draws the future" James uses art (including live paintings at events) to inspire climate action. His visions of a positive future where people adapt to and mitigate climate change have been informed by research projects at the University of Leeds and elsewhere.
With a background in comics (Flesh for 2000AD magazine), James has created collaborative graphic stories including Dreams of a Low Carbon Future and an animated environmental short film directed by David Bunting ‘No One is an Island’. His projects have been shortlisted for national and international prizes for comic art, animation, science engagement and future visioning. 'No One is an Island' won Best Animated Film at My Hero International Film Festival, CA, USA 2025, among other awards. James won the 2026 Marsh Palaeoart Award (Palaeontographical Society 2026) for reconstructions of Mesozoic Yorkshire.
James’ artwork has appeared in scientific journals (including on the cover of Nature), popular science books, websites and in museums. James wrote and illustrated the book ‘Trilobites, Dinosaurs and Mammoths: an introduction to the Prehistory of the British Isles’ (Palaeontological Association 2019) and most recently illustrated 'Yorkshire's Amazing Dinosaur Coast' (High Tide Publishing 2025).
Climate poetry curated by Matt Howard
Matt Howard is manager of the University of Leeds Poetry Centre and is a poet and environmentalist who worked in various roles for the RSPB for more than a decade.
Poets have long used their craft to reframe issues, convey emotion and share ideas, and climate change is an increasing feature of poetry shared across the world. The poems we will display at the event were developed through a collaboration between University of Leeds poets and Priestley Centre climate researchers.
Find out more here: Climate poetry - Priestley Centre for Climate Futures