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‘I want more activity
where I live.’
A male dancer pictured in his living room with camera equipment in the foreground, creating an online dance project for people to participate in during COVID lockdown. Image ©Lloyd Thompson
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Bradford District is the fifth largest local authority in the UK, with more than 500,000 people. Right now, the District doesn’t have the same levels of national investment per head in arts, culture and heritage activity as other places of its size. This means we have less public-funded cultural activity here and what we do have is spread thinly and the benefits and opportunities cannot reach everyone.
This lack of opportunity leads to low levels of cultural engagement with traditional forms of subsidised cultural activity too. The nationwide Active Lives Survey put Bradford in the bottom 33% of UK places for arts engagement. Similarly, the Audience Agency’s Audience Spectrum data suggests that 53% of the District population have low engagement with subsidised arts, culture and heritage compared with an England average of 33%. In some areas of the District, up to 100% of people may have low levels of engagement. Not surprisingly, these are the same areas where poverty and poor health are highest and cultural opportunity is lowest.
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Our culture is different by nature – from the grassroots energy of Keighley Exchange or The Hive in Shipley to the Qawwali and Ghazal nights taking place in back rooms and community halls across the District.
And the rich diversity of the District ensures we have a culture that is beyond the traditional white western neo-classical definitions of what is and isn’t ‘proper art’ too.
A series of portraits of happy people smiling at the camera. Our Street Gallery is creating a district-wide smile to spreads joy through Bradford, connecting people from all corners of the district.
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Of course, what this data really tells us is that people in these parts of the District don’t often show up in box-office databases as ticket buyers at our bigger venues and events. It doesn’t tell us the reality of grassroots cultural activity or about the people's creativity, which can go too easily unnoticed under the radar.
’Culture doesn’t appear to be a local activity – but it is happening all the time in back rooms of houses and halls – it just isn’t valued in the same way; it isn’t connected to the capital 'C' kinds of culture or to the city centre'
Its clear culture happens not just in our theatres and museums but in our homes, cafes, outdoor spaces, in our libraries and our places of worship.
‘We need to set lots of small fires in many more places’
An artist is shown painting in his studio. Bradford based artist Mahmud Manning create his own cultural map of Bradford Film by Pishdaad Modaressi
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Let’s Create, Arts Council England’s ten-year plan, says: 'Creativity is everywhere but opportunity is not.' We plan to celebrate the creativity of everyone, in every house and on every street across the District.
↓ What we'll do
The Leap is our new Creative People and Places programme funded by Arts Council England and will run for ten years from 2020. It will champion cultural activity in the most underserved communities in the District such as Bradford Moor, Bowling and Barkerend, City, Eccleshill, Great Horton, Keighley Central, Keighley West, Little Horton, Manningham, Royds, Toller and Tong.
The Leap isn’t just about providing more cultural activity in these places; it aims to give ownership of arts and culture to the people living there, so they set the agenda and make the choices about what they want to see, make and enjoy.