This celebration marked 20 years of the Anchor Project and 130 years of St Clement’s Church. working with Cecil Green Arts to depict the diversity of the Anchor Project community, church and local area. Creative Communities Fund supported ‘Hope In Flight’, a visual arts project delivered with Cecil Green Arts that decorated the ceiling of St Clement’s Church with paper birds, handmade by the community.

Bingley Arts Centre held community consultations run by a freelance community consultant professional.

These community consultations were designed to find out what people want and expect in Bingley in terms of creative opportunities – and where the gaps and barriers are. From this learning, they plan to engage freelance arts professionals and their community groups to run free creative participation workshops, kickstarting new activities and reinvigorating existing community creative organisations.

This project brought together children and young people aged 6–17 who have come to UK in the last two years as asylum seekers, as migrants and on the assisted settlement programme.

Participants were supported to create life-story books using art to express themselves and tell their stories, while also gaining knowledge about the UK and Bradford’s diverse communities.

Around each equinox, as the seasons turn, the choir created events in partnership with others that engages directly with the natural world practically and through song and sharing food.

• Spring: A vegetable and herb planting workshop.
• Summer: An outdoor gathering for a giant Bradford picnic bringing together old traditions.
• Autumn: Allotments hosting a barbecue of excess produce and a singing session.
• Winter: Making lanterns to light our way into the dark.

The Bradford Hindu Council delivered cultural exchange festivals celebrating the traditions, music, dance, food and arts of various Indian communities.

These festivals fostered cross-cultural appreciation, unity, and inclusion within Bradford. Alongside them, the centre ran culturally rich arts and crafts workshops, poetry and storytelling sessions plus yoga sessions, offering a holistic experience of Indian culture.

Bradford Organic Communities Services ran a creative upcycling project using materials from their onsite Scrap Magic Scrap Store and from their gardens, transforming them into new items that anyone could be proud of.

Bradford South Asian Festival used the funding for an outreach and creative activity programme as part of their 2024/2025 Festival.

The project featured a story gathering process, commemorating the initial immigrant journeys of the first and second waves of South Asian immigrants into Bradford, from the 1950s through to the 1970s.

This project told powerful stories about cycling and what it means to people, celebrating and building on the cultures of cycling across Bradford District. ‘On Yer Bike’ appeared at The Beacon at Lister Park, and featured workshops with local artists alongside a showcase of cycling artworks from communities in Keighley, Buttershaw and West Bowling.

Connect The Dots ran graffiti & fine art workshops with adults with learning disabilities, where attendees created canvases to represent themselves. People tried their hand at spray painting, stencil design, sketching, blending, lines, acrylics, watercolours and more.

Creative Flare Yorkshire used this support to plan a community fashion show. The fund supported the costs for designing and making clothes; the workshops; and the rehearsals for the final event, which showcased different cultures through fashion.

This project offered creative opportunities for young people who would not normally be involved in art and cultural activities – focusing on ‘labyrinths’. Appearing at the Bowling Collective Family Welcome at The Beacon in Bowling Park, ‘The Labyrinth project’ set up two large labyrinth paths for people to walk, with an opportunity to make a handheld labyrinth to take home.

This funding allowed Impact Gamers to deliver games-making workshops for young people aged 8–14. The young people worked in groups according to the area of Bradford they lived, then designed and worked alongside Impact Gamers to produce the game of their design, with each game based in their respective area. The games were then shared and played at a participatory event at Pictureville Cinema: Impact Gamers LiVE.

Inspire Highfield used this support to produce a film and arts festival celebrating community artwork. Art classes involved all sections of the community, celebrating local places and spaces and their cultures.

The funding also allowed Inspire Highfield to set up film screenings that encouraged participation, engaging its local community to work on the project: setting up film kit, preparing the hall, making coffee and cake. This community effort brought people together to celebrate, start conversations, share stories, and make new friends.

Intercultured organised ‘Connecting Communities‘, a family fun day event that was part of The Beacon at Bowling Park, with a variety of activities including facepainting, Mehndi, Moomin Arts and crafts and foods to mark Refugee Week. This event was part of the fifth instalment of Intercultured Festival, which celebrates the multilayers of cultures and communities that make up Bradford.

Invictus Wellbeing worked in partnership with schools, colleges, and hubs to create a vibrant, interactive art project where ‘Invictus Rocks’ were created and shared within the community.

The team worked with young people aged 5–18 to create unique and individual pieces of work that encouraged and inspired others with an image, words, or both – focusing on positivity, encouragement, kindness, strength, and support. These artworks were created on pebbles or flat rocks and were hidden within local communities for another person to discover. They could then either be kept, gifted on, or re-hidden.

Keighley Creative produced ‘Rombald’s Rocks‘: a sculpture trail brought to you by Leonie Briggs and Keighley Creative that takes inspiration from local legend and creator of Ilkley’s Cow and Calf Rocks, Rombald the Giant. Keighley was dotted with ten one-foot-high sculptures designed and decorated by community groups and artists, installed in various locations.

Keighley Photo Hub North CIC, a not-for-profit social enterprise based in BD21, launched ‘CultureCam,’ a mobile photography project. The team converted a caravan, named “Nellie” by the public, into a Mobile Eco Darkroom, which travelled around Bradford and delivered 21 free workshops to communities across the entire district, inviting participants to step inside a working camera obscura and learn sustainable, plant-based photography techniques.

This project taught filmmaking skills to older people in a bi-weekly, face-to-face workshop series, where attendees asked questions and collaborated with others, supporting them to overcome any technical phobia they might have. For carers, this project offered a social opportunity to spend time with others. It culminated in a film festival at Pictureville Cinema in November.

Meridian Centre delivered intergenerational activity sessions, including cooking, passing on cultural and culinary legacies to the younger generation; arts and crafts activities, such as tile painting, pottery, and mosaic making; and physical exercise outside in a local park or woodland, encouraging enjoyment of the outdoors and meeting new people.

Muslim Women’s Council used this support to establish a local choir. It served as a welcoming and inclusive space for Muslim women and girls from all backgrounds to celebrate their unique blend of Muslim, British, and South Asian heritage through music, fostering unity and cross-community interaction.

Community AssociationThis project explored three main creative art forms: visual arts, literature, and cooking. Activities included:

• Visual arts activities exploring heritage crafts.
• Cooking classes exploring cultural cuisines found across Bradford.
• Creative writing, using hip hop and urban culture as a theme.
• A theatre production that can be showcased at both the Gateway Centre and the Rockwell Centre in Ravenscliffe.
• A ‘look book’ designed by participants to showcase people’s work and the stories from Ravenscliffe and the project as a whole.

This project supported children and young people to develop their sense of belonging, harnessing the power of theatre as a vehicle to explore self-identity and internal narratives. RedBobble Arts aimed to raise individual aspirations, increase confidence, self-worth, and improve wellbeing for all participants. The company used theatre techniques such as life story mapping, mime, mask, clowning, improvisation, Augusto Boal restorative theatre techniques, scriptwriting, objective work, performance, spoken word, and film.

This funding allowed the facilitation of art therapy sessions as part of a recovery mechanism for those recovering from substance use disorders, addictive behaviours, and associated mental health issues. It supported the development of a suitable arts programme and mindful therapy expressed through art for some of the most vulnerable people in our locality.

This funding supported a series of creative workshops with the many different groups of people at Shine, including the refugees group, the men’s group, the job club, the women’s group, and others. The project aimed for the groups to create an artwork together that spoke powerfully of hope and the potential for healing.

This support allowed Small World Cultural Arts Collective to deliver a range of activities with local community groups in Keighley, aimed at providing them with new opportunities to explore creativity and culture with an end product that was displayed in the town centre.

SNOOP co-delivered a programme of cultural and heritage activities and podcasts with children and young people. The overarching aim of the project was an exploration of what life was like for a person with neurodiversity or a learning disability living within Bradford District. They also organised SNOOPFest, a festival held in August 2025 at the Bradford & Bingley Rugby Club: a large-scale, accessible event attracting over 500 people with live music, food, and activities.

20 Arches of Possibility was an ambitious placemaking co-creation project led by Young People to repurpose 145-year-old Thornton Viaduct. Through creative workshops facilitated by Nelson & Woodward, the project drew out their aspirations for the future, mirroring the vast ambition of the 20-arch architectural feat. Nelson & Woodward co-created a pavilion for the temporary activity taking place on Thornton Viaduct.

‘Flock’, a bold new sculpture by artists Nelson & Woodward, was created in collaboration with young people and inspired by Thornton’s rich industrial past.

Spin Arts created a large-scale dance and rap concert, ‘RIDE!’ that celebrated Gypsy, Roma, and Traveller (GRT) communities in Bradford as part of Bradford 2025. Presented in Knowles Park, Holmewood in September 2025, the show was co-created with the community. Their stories/experiences were shaped into a rap album by Romany Gypsy rapper Big Deli, creating a soundtrack for the production.

This support enabled Undercliffe Cemetery Charity to deliver a programme of activities, workshops, and events held at or inspired by historic Undercliffe Cemetery, including:

• A photography and filmmaking project for young people from the area to create a bank of images of the cemetery.
• A craft workshop with differently abled students creating artworks based on the sculptures in the cemetery.
• Working with the children at Peel Park Primary School to create resources about the cemetery, which were used by other schools in the district as part of the Bradford Curriculum.
• The creation of a pop-up ‘Death Café’ at the Lodge at Undercliffe, providing an opportunity for those of all faiths and none going through bereavement, grief, and loss to work with Nicola Murray of Bradford Death Café and meet other people in similar circumstances.
• Songwriting workshops with the Commoners Choir, creating a new choral piece about some of the key figures buried in the cemetery.

The Valley Project celebrated Holmewood place in Bradford’s culture while promoting a respectful curiosity for other worldwide societies. This project explored what culture meant to children and young people, including attitudes, customs, behaviour, beliefs, language, rituals, values, and roles.

This funding supported Step Into My World, a multi-disciplinary arts project working with Pause and Barnardos in Bradford. Step Into My World worked directly with a group of some of the most marginalised people in Bradford, creating artwork and poetry that led to a series of exhibitions.

West Bowling Youth Initiative ran a series of creative youth photography-based stories about places and people – formed from images young people took on their mobile phones. Young people produced their own stories that then were shared visually in local buildings, raising the credibility of young people, reflecting on the impact of places and people in their lives.

Yorkshire Life Aquatic used this support to run a project fusing Bollywood dance styles and synchronised swimming techniques. ‘Hollywood Meets Bollywood’ took place at Ilkley Lido in July, with the public invited taking part in this large-scale, sold out aquatics performance.