By founder member Carl Waring
I met Carol in 1987 when I started at the local College. She worked there; I was a student. At that time, she was with a company called Annie Lane Theatre Company who were based in Leeds.
After some time, early in the 1990’s Carol decided to branch-out on her own and created ALTCO; from the initials of the Annie Lane Theatre Company, of course.
If I remember correctly, we originally mainly used what is now the Potternewton Day Centre on Scott Hall Road in Leeds. We did community-based music and drama workshops working with a diverse local population, including those with learning or other disabilities.
It has to be said that Carol was always the ‘driving force’ and did all the real work. I was just the technical support and admin person; though I did also provide a lot of live music as I play electronic keyboards.
LCA was first constituted in December 2006 when Carol changed the focus of the group and morphed into what is now Leeds Combined Arts. In 2007 we moved into Headingley Community Centre (the now- derelict building on the left, below) and we were one of the first groups to move into the newly-opened HEART Centre on Bennett Road in 2011.
