Leeds 13 were a year group of BA (Fine Art) students at the University of Leeds in the late-1990s. Their four-year degree was marked in two equally weighted parts: art theory/history and studio practice. Students usually worked as individuals, and in studio practice produced their own art projects to show at an end-of-year exhibition. However, in their third and fourth years, the Leeds 13 year group worked on studio practice as an artist collective producing two large-scale conceptual artworks and unconventional exhibitions. Going Places (1998) challenged the media and public's preconceptions about contemporary art and artists. The group pretended to go on a week-long fun in the sun Spanish holiday, apparently spending financial donations for mounting a conventional exhibition, then claimed to have made art and the exhibition of themselves and their trip. The holiday story fooled first a student newspaper then regional and national media outlets whose responses to the work and the students were predictably negative. A few days later, Leeds 13 revealed the truththe holiday was an elaborate hoax and the donations would be repaidhoping that the media and public would reconsider their initial responses. This created a media frenzy and embarrassment for outlets who ran the story without checking it was true. Leeds 13 presented the holiday simulation and response in the media as their project. The Degree Show (1999) challenged the conventions of academic fine art end-of-year exhibitions. With their new found notoriety, Leeds 13 obtained corporate sponsorship and borrowed around £1 million worth of work by other artists. Using the eclectic collection of artworks as conceptual props, the group put its effort into mounting a successful show. They claimed the exhibition was art in itself and presented it as their project. All the members of Leeds 13 graduated with first class degrees, and most continued working together until mid-2000. Leeds 13 "... [tried] to counter the traditional notion of the artist as an individual creator of specific objects." Instead they worked as a collective producing one-off events that resisted marketing. Going Places has attracted ongoing interest as an example of pushing the boundary in contemporary art and as a well executed media hoax. Going Places (1998) All thirteen third-year fine art students, nine women and four men, began the 19971998 academic year working as individuals. Through weekly seminars with their tutor Terry Atkinson, they formed a collective for studio practice later known as Leeds