the Fabian Arts Group. As well as emulating the cultural, philosophical and political predilections of the Leeds Arts Club, the Fabian Arts Group was an attempt by Orage and others to influence the political outlook of the early Labour Party through one of its founding organisations, the Fabian Society. A third legacy of the Leeds Arts Club occurred in London in 1947, after the Second World War, when former Leeds Arts Club member, Herbert Read co-founded the Institute of Contemporary Arts, or ICA, again directly emulating the model, combining avant-garde culture, philosophical discussion and political mission, established by Orage and Jackson when they established the Leeds Arts Club. The Leeds Arts Club was also the starting point for the community theatre project that eventually grew to become the West Yorkshire Playhouse. This began in 1907 as an offshoot of the Leeds Arts Club, called the Leeds Playgoers' Society, and organised both performances of modern plays by writers such as Ibsen, Shaw and Chekov, and lectures on drama, which continued to be held in collaboration with the Leeds Arts Club. This later evolved into the Leeds Playhouse, the forerunner to the West Yorkshire Playhouse. Leeds Civic Trust commemorated the Leeds Arts Club by a blue plaque on number 8 Blenheim Terrace where it met from 1908 to 1923, opposite the University of Leeds. The plaque was unveiled on 15 May 2012, by Ingrid Roscoe, Lord Lieutenant of West Yorkshire, and a speech was made by Tom Steele, author of Alfred Orage and The Leeds Arts Club. The plaque had been suggested by Ben Read, art historian and son of Herbert Read. The inscription is:THE LEEDS ART CLUB A highly influential forum for the avant-garde in politics, philosophy, art and literature met here from 1908. Ground-breaking exhibitions included the 1913 Post-Impressionist show and Cubist and Futurist Art in 1914. Famous speakers included G.B. Shaw and W.B. Yeats. 1903–1923 Key themes were the interest in Nietzsche, Guild Socialism, impressionist and post-impressionist painting and Kandinksy's aesthetic theory. Artists, thinkers and writers inspired by the Club include Isabella Ford, Mary Gawthorpe, Jacob Kramer and Herbert Read. Political, literary and cultural figures, both men and women, lectured at the Club. The Club also staged exhibitions and theatrical performances. It has been argued by the art historian Michael Paraskos that the Leeds Arts Club was the closest England came to a genuine expressionist art movement. This is