Artist-Led Project Awards

Ascendance is a charity working in the Dance for Health sector, combining professional work with a community dance company, weekly classes and outreach projects. A regional flagship for Dance with Parkinson’s work, Ascendance provides a caring and crucial service in the community, providing exercise, creative and performance opportunities that improve physical and mental wellbeing, coordination and social cohesion.

Unseen is a new screendance project from Ascendance combining voicework, art and movement that will be co-created with artists across Bradford into a series of five short films. Unseen will tell five different stories of people living in Bradford with neurological disorders such as Parkinson’s – empowering them as creative artists, prompting deeper conversations about who can access art and highlighting how culture can transform lives.

Emma Adams is a queer, neurodiverse playwright, screenwriter and dramaturg living in Bradford. She’s written plays for houses, libraries, swimming pools, graveyards and stages, working with many local companies including Red Ladder, Leeds Playhouse, Theatre 503 and Freedom Studios. Emma is a core member of The Writing Squad, mentoring elite young writers in the North.

Deborah Pakkar-Hull is a Bradford-based director and theatre-maker specialising in small-scale theatre touring. She has held Artistic Director roles at The Play House in Birmingham, the York Mystery Plays and Leeds-based company Blah Blah Blah, and has directed more than 20 shows for schools, theatres, community and heritage venues.

Otherhood (working title) is a new play about childlessness in later life that will tour to community and theatre venues across Bradford District in 2025. Part-immersive theatre experience and part-radio play, Otherhood explores possibilities for a fiercely hopeful old age.

Bradford-based CARBON:Imagineering, led by Imran Ali, are a group of creative technologists working at the intersection of emerging technologies, media and art, navigating their technological, ethical, creative and political implications through digital design and development.

Veiled Reality is a design fiction on the future of hijabs and niqabs. It takes the form of a immersive, interactive first-person story delivered digitally, speculating on a future where emerging technologies, feminism and religion collide in the genesis of wearable ‘shroud computing’ and ‘smart veils’.

Previous large-scale digital experiences from CARBON:Imagineering include a VR experience for visitors to the Te Papa Museum in New Zealand; BD Stories, an anthology of mobile live theatre plays set in Bradford; and Philkari x Skechers, a fictional mash-up between Skechers and Punjabi artisans.

The Human Arcade by Losing the Thread is a collaboration between Bradford-based large format visual artists Jim Mitcham and Geoff Kendal.

An evolution of the popular Window Vipers art installation, which premiered at BD:Is Lit 2023, The Human Arcade invites people of all ages to interact with large-scale, fully playable games. With huge joysticks and oversized games controllers, this interactive piece was conceived as a love letter to the golden age of 8-bit arcade machines and computer gaming. The Human Arcade will invite everyone, young and old, to unleash their inner gorilla, get ponging and blast some asteroids along the way. Ready Player One…?

An invitation. A map of multi-dimensions. A micro-pilgrimage. A mass moment for every body. A holding of Bradford.

Artist Lucy Barker is proposing a participatory and playful dance on Bradford Moor to mark Bradford 2025, triangulating the heritage of Emily Brontë, Kate Bush’s pop masterpiece and Bradford’s community and landscape.

Bradford is surrounded by moorland, few of them natural. Not all bodies can roam so simply. Is there any better feeling than dancing like no one’s watching? This project aims to initiate moments of togetherness: a moment for change, a public celebration of iconic space and a set of stories that Bradford treasures.

Nabeela Ahmed is a writer, multilingual poet and spoken word artist. Her poetry manuscript was shortlisted by Verve Poetry Press in 2023 and she published her novella, Despite Our Differences, in 2018. She teaches creative writing, hosts Bradford Writes events to platform Bradford writers, and is responsible for organising the only public Pahari Mushaira in Britain through Intercultured Festival.

According to the 2021 census, 25.5% of Bradford is of Pakistani heritage. Nearly 70% of those are Kashmiri/Pothwari and speak the invisible Pahari-Pothwari. Written literature in Pahari-Pothwari is rarely seen in Bradford and elsewhere – and this project will create new writing in Pahari-Pothwari with translations in English.

The project will work with two Bradford secondary schools and host sessions online for adults, resulting in two bilingual anthologies on current themes and set in Bradford. An intergenerational Mushaira will showcase this work and present the books to libraries, schools and to anyone wanting to engage with a fifth of the city’s population.

Northern Duck Productions, a new venture, reimagines storytelling with a modern twist, prioritising unheard narratives. Embracing their working-class roots, they amplify underrepresented stories, deeply rooted in Bradford’s community. Together, Meg and Jaz craft compelling plays and musicals, resonating with diverse audiences. Northern Duck’s commitment to innovation and impactful narratives drives them to continually explore fresh creative avenues, promising an exciting journey ahead.

Northern Duck Productions are crafting a play that delves into the history of Bradford’s canals, focusing on role of canal families, often overlooked in history books. Inspired by Meg’s ancestor Rose Illingworth, the narrative explores Rose’s struggle between tradition and modernity. Set aboard an authentic canal boat, the performance offers an immersive experience, shedding light on Bradford’s industrial past.

Since 1983, Bradford’s iconic Peace Artistes have brought their joyful noise to the streets of West Yorkshire, the wider UK and Europe. Born out of Bradford University’s Peace Studies department to bring energy to CND peace marches, they draw on global street band traditions with music inspired by a variety of cultures. A Peace Artistes’ performance has up to 24 musicians playing saxes, brass and percussion – and all dressed to thrill! They can be found on the street, at community events and at festivals.

HONK! Bradford will transform Bradford District into a vibrant hub of live acoustic music, featuring street performances from bands from across the world, stunning costumes and audience participation. The festival will celebrate cultural diversity with school and community involvement and a brand new pick-up band for local musicians.

Performances across the district will culminate in a Big HONK! in City Park on Saturday 27 September 2025, fostering community bonds and inspiring future street performances. Join us for a weekend of cultural celebration echoing the global movement of HONK!, uniting communities through music and activism.

The People Powered Press is a non-profit company based in Shipley, formed in 2021 around the largest letterpress printing press in the world. It engages communities through creative writing, typography and letterpress printing to amplify the voices of local people with important and interesting things to say about the world and their place in it, co-creating prints, zines and large-scale murals for exhibition in indoor and outdoor public spaces.

The Press will work with an intergenerational community of participants from four diverse groups across Bradford District on a programme of creative writing workshops led by local writers, addressing issues of concern to them. The output of these workshops will inform the design of four new large-scale letterpress installations to be hand-printed by the participants on the People Powered Press. The installations will appear across the district in 2025.

Razwan Ul-Haq is an artist who specialises in Arabic calligraphy, particularly the Nastaliq script. He is one of only a handful of calligraphers practicing Nastaliq calligraphy using traditional materials in the UK. His commissions include work for the Queen and land art for the Tour de France in Yorkshire. His work has been seen on Channel 4 and ITV, and in The Times and USA Today.

Razwan has always wanted to make local inks from making tinctures and crushing discarded stones from Bradford mills, Bradford’s natural stones, along with plants from Bradford’s rich natural environment. This project, a celebration of Bradford, will explore how art and culture are directly related to where someone lives. After the inks are made, they will be used in participatory workshops during 2025. Artworks created by participants and by Razwan will be used to create an abstract video of calligraphies that will be shown around Bradford in 2025.