Duke Studios - 2022 in Review

As always, the year just gone has both flown by and contained more than we can recount. Let’s pause and reflect on the positive moments and achievements from 2022.?

?

First, let’s measure the year in the people who make Duke Studios, the residents.?

This summer we joined Little Amal, the giant refugee puppet, as she toured the world spreading hope and awareness. As well as our first group yoga sessions, we enjoyed Leeds Film Festival, and ate feasts of sushi and Thai food thanks to Leeds local legends like Thai A Roy Dee and Ichi Sushi. We got ridiculously good at fighting AR zombies (or one or two of us did, anyway). We hunted easter eggs and carved pumpkins and hosted Bake-offs. We danced to resident and DJ Mondo Pop in Sheaf St cafe, to throw back pop punk at Rosy’s emo birthday bash, to excellent DJ Ben Randm’s sets at the Christmas party.?

As well as more exciting and engaging socials in 2023, we’re hoping to host skills workshops to help our freelance residents thrive in their company.?

2022 saw the workspace grow and welcome more residents to our community; Let’s Run Marketing, Cloud Nexus, Spiritland Productions, Pretty Green, JNR studio, Tom Joy, Vicky Made This and Jordan O’Brien are just a few of our new starters.

We’re particularly proud of our meeting rooms this year as a host of independent and major businesses have walked through our workspace doors. As well as Haribo, Kelloggs, Morrisons, Asda, Unilever and Channel 4, we’ve shared our spaces with Leeds local legends North Star, Lord Whitney, PAFRAS, HOME and Leeds Playhouse. The entire space, all our meeting rooms and event space, was turned into a homely tour of Skipton Building Society’s ‘Keys To Your First Home’, in which they educated the public on their first steps to securing their own property.?

We’ve worked hard to make our meeting rooms even more accommodating. This year we introduced Yoello so visitors can order from Sheaf Street cafe and have it brought directly to them. We’ve streamlined our process so everything is easier for everyone involved, from booking to payment to setting up your meeting. The community team is on hand for one-on-one support whenever it’s needed.

Our event space has been host to some incredible occasions. In March, we held a week of events in celebration of International Women’s Day, including Drag Life Drawing, the All Queens Mix where women were encouraged to explore our extensive DJ set ups, and our first Clothes Swap, all raising money for SARSVL. The residents were taught the ancient art of weaving by community assistant Jas and learned about the history of women, witchcraft and textiles.?

This summer saw Midnight (our company founder James and Laura love to throw a party, and Midnight is always exceptional) as a Deep Sea Disco, complete with drag queen go-go dancers, a sea of seaweed and creatures crafted from recycled props, and a real live mermaid.?

In autumn, Rosy of Rosymotion, a skillful animator and social butterfly, hosted a killer pop-punk party. Her resident’s discount came in handy when she hired the event space and invited all the residents to celebrate.?

The way we manage our events has also had exciting developments this year, including creating 3D models of the event space layouts; from weddings, club nights and private parties to corporate meetings and staff shin-digs, from small groups to 100 strong, the 3D models show you exactly what the space can become.

We can’t look back on the year without celebrating the new members of the Duke Studios and Sheaf Street team. Hollie has revamped the way we manage events, creating a more inclusive and exciting space. Our finance and tech teams have grown, as has the Duke Studios family… Our directors James and Laura introduced Ziggy to the world, and cafe manager Gwen gave us baby Ocea. They’re absolutely adorable - probably the cutest babies ever to exist and no, we’re not biassed.?

These new lives mark the start of a new chapter, the dawning of the ‘family business’. And now, all that’s left to do is bring in the new year with joy and celebration. We don’t know what 2023 holds in store but we’re excited to find out.

We’re already accepting meeting room bookings and workspace enquiries for the new year - find out more on our website.