Addingham Allotments & Gardens Association will be running an Open Gardens across Addingham village on 21st and 22nd June 2025. The residents will be coming together to invite the public into their gardens, with all proceeds of the event going to Sue Ryder Manorlands Hospice. The event will also include live music events in the gardens, an art exhibition featuring local artists and mosaicist, who will also run demonstrations about their artistic medium. There will also be craft workshops from a local environmental group as well as a demonstration from a local resident, who makes musical instruments out of rocks. 

Anand Milan Elderly Centre hosted a bhajan sing competition within the community. The Centre did a callout across the district for people who wanted to participate. 10 singers were then selected to perform at the competition event with a public audience, before judges selected three applicants for the awards.

Baildon Civic & Historical Society celebrated their moorland heritage by creating a live performance of ‘The Hermit’, a story first told in word and song by the Mountain Ash Folk Group in 1976. The performance had a video backdrop of moorland vistas, and the music was provided by a local folk music band, which local residents were invited to come along and enjoy.

Bingley and District Local History Society in collaboration with Bingley Camera Club and Graham West created an exhibition of recently discovered photos taken in Bingley by Frank West in the 1960s. The photos captured the landscape and people of Bingley before de-industrialisation and the archive launched to the public in Damart Mill on 3 May 2025. Alongside the exhibition, there was a creative community activity for the public to participate in. Led by Bingley Camera Club, they prepared the photos for printing with the local community. Bingley History Society volunteers then worked with Graham West to identify 20 prints for the primary display of the exhibition.

The Bingley Bell Ringers ran a day event alongside the ‘Ale Saints Beer Festival’ with a current working title of ‘Beer and Bells’. Activity included a treasure trail and quiz relating to the history of the bells. Children had the opportunity to play the bell chimes, visit the tower, and take part in handbell ringing demonstrations.

Bingley Ukulele Group ran a day of music making, running beginners’ sessions and workshops for more experienced players. They purchased 10 ukuleles to run the beginners’ sessions. After the day of activities, they held a concert to showcase local ukulele groups and performers, then lent out the purchased ukuleles to local schools at no cost. They planned for this to develop into an annual event.

Bradford Belles did a performance in Darley Street Market after its opening in Spring 2025. The performance involved a walkabout act that invited people to watch their dance section and even join in! This event was used to create awareness about the group and encourage new members to join.

Bradford Black and Brown Queers organised a festival called Queer Joy, which was a gathering of like-minded QTIPOC to socialise in a safe space. There were currently no single QTIPOC safe spaces in Bradford and BBBQ believed it was time to make one!

The Big Knitters in association with Bradford Study Support Network ran two community workshops, encouraging newcomers to contribute to ‘the big knit’. This included some intergenerational work through their links with a local youth project.

Bradford Youth Activity Club ran four rap, spoken word, and poetry sessions for young people in Bradford district to explore new avenues to express themselves. The first part of the session provided explanations and examples of rap, spoken word, and poetry, with guidance for young people to write their own, before concluding with performances from the young people.

Burley Arts Collective hired spaces for their performances and exhibitions.

Carers Resource offered two sessions of willow weaving to unpaid carers in Bradford District during Carers Week in June 2025 and on Carers Rights Day in November 2025. 

In partnership with Oasis Academy, Connecting Roma CIC hosted a festive event called ‘Mikulas’, also known as St Nicholas Day: a traditional event that took place throughout Europe! Mikulas was accompanied by his angel, Krampus, who gave out small gifts. The event featured performances from Bradford’s own traditional Romani dance group, Terne Naja, live music from young traditional music collective, Romano Lasa, and performances from students at Oasis Academy – a fun, festive, and slightly spooky event for all ages.

Denholme Shared Church had an installation outside of the church throughout May and June 2025 called ‘Peace Doves’. The local community was invited to create their own doves and/or write their personal prayers or wishes for Peace on each dove. Starting on the weekend of 31 May, the building was open every weekend in June between 10am and 3.30pm to view the installation.

Equity Partnership planned an LGBTQ+ History month event to take place on 15th February, planned in collaboration with their members and Bradford Museums and Galleries. The funding allowed them to host an engaging aerobics class at Cartwright Hall with Queerobics. They also hosted a panel discussion focusing on LGBTQ+ representation in sport as a part of this event. The panel featured Brinny from Queerobics, Zoe Boyd from Queer Self Defences, and members of Bradford Baddies women and non-binary football team. They hosted an exhibition of artwork created by Equity Partnership members in response to the Government Collection exhibition in Cartwright Hall, opening in Jan 2025. There were curator talks on the heritage projects, ‘Queering the Museum’ and ‘Queer Dreaming’, alongside creative workshops run by a freelance artist.

Feeding Bradford and Keighley selected one organisation in each constituency to host a showing of five short films created in partnership with the University of Leeds for the Food on Film project. These films highlighted different elements of how our district was combating food insecurity as a community. Guests were able to bring a baked bread that meant something to them along to the events. This bread was broken and shared along with personal stories about why they selected it. The aim was to celebrate the diversity of their community through this simple idea and show how different cultures had adapted this staple food.

Friends of Brackenhill Park organised a three-part series for a group of people to participate in a nature walk around Brackenhill Park. The walk included painting on a canvas, mug painting, and a picnic. The facilitator guided them through the painting activities, encouraging participants to paint what they appreciated most in their lives.

Friends of Heaton Community Orchard with Fruitworks ran a public ‘apple day’ event at the orchard. Their volunteers ran a range of creative activities alongside apple pressing activities including: 

• Nature art (mobiles for the trees) 

• Heaton Songwriters, who will perform through the day 

• Apple Stories (children will pick an apple from the story tree and a volunteer will tell the apple related story) 

• Campfire toffee apples 

Friends of Crag Community Hub purchased disposable cameras for the local community to capture a ‘day in the life of Crag’. People were encouraged to take photos of the local Crag area, which was then displayed at an open day in the hub during Spring/Summer 2025.

Friends of Myrtle Park created a graffiti-style mural painted onto the wall of the ramp located in the skate park of Myrtle Park. Their aim was to improve an overlooked but popular area in the park to create a space the skaters could take pride in. They worked alongside local skaters to select an artist and collaborate to create the design.

FUNdraising 4U put on an interactive Bob Marley celebration event, that ran on either his birthday or his day of passing. The event enabled people from all communities and backgrounds to perform their favourite Bob Marley songs to a live audience and provided an opportunity to sing with live musicians.

Happy Healthy You produced a heartfelt short film, directed by a Rohingya Refugee who found solace in a local men’s exercise group. The project will showcase how physical activity and being part of a community organisation became a lifeline for him, contributing positively to his mental health and inspired him to volunteer to support others through football sessions. 

Harden Players put on a play called Heroes, which was a prequel to their last play, ‘Shine’. Through this, they championed and celebrated local talent in their community and the event was in conjunction with the Bradford 2025 programme.

Haworth Stitch Group created a footprint stretching the length of Haworth Main Street, inspired by the saying ‘to walk a mile in someone else’s shoes’. Each footprint was printed, stitched, or painted onto pieces of fabric that were then joined together to create a collective footprint. Three workshop sessions were open to all ages and abilities, encouraging the local community to come along to create the footprints.

Holmewood Community Association created a gallery of old memories in the local area for the launch of a new art hub in Holmewood. The images were collated by older residents submitting their images, which were blown up and displayed in the new art centre. For the second half of the exhibition, Holmewood Community Association provided disposable cameras to local young people and asked them to photograph a positive and a negative image. These were used to hold future discussions.

Ilkley Players Ltd put on an 8x8x8 projection in addition to their normal Playhouse programme. The grant was used to enhance the experience of the additional production, including pay for technicians, costuming, and in creating a special ‘Magic Waiting’ lighting effect.

The ISSE worked with female Baji Bantams supporters to organise a pre-match event showcasing Bangla music and culture to Bradford City FC, bringing the collective football community together at the Bradford City FC Community Foundation. South Asian women and their families had the opportunity to share their culture with other fans and then enjoy the match day.

Krylati held a festival at the Bradford Ukrainian Centre to mark 100 years since the formation of the Ukrainian Youth Association in Ukraine. It incorporated singing and dancing as well as inviting members of other communities to come and learn Ukrainian dancing.

Lister Community Action project deepened connections between The Lister Community Gallery, Temple Street Gallery, and The Ginnel Gallery, by creating a ‘Lister Art Trail’. Over the course of 12 months, they hosted six artist and exhibition trails that showcased artwork by current and former residents. One of the key objectives of the project included extending the trail to Cartwright Hall and invited visitors from the gallery to explore art embedded in the daily life of Manningham. They also held an annual ‘Art in Windows’ event, where residents and local businesses were invited to display art in their windows to create a vibrant and accessible street gallery.

Loosely Bound and Bradford Sketch Club hosted a one-off workshop called Imagine Zine Space. It was a daylong event for zine and art making, with activities that included:

• A community zine using photos sent in from people’s phones and making it into a long zine, up to two metres.
• Sketchclub XXL, which was a space for people to sketch, draw, or write what they liked. Everything created by the participants was then printed into a zine.
• Let’s Get Physical (and Digital), a podcast about the Bradford Zine Scene.

They interviewed and profiled local zinesters, and talked to them about why they made zines. Let’s Get Physical (and Digital) planned to make a physical zine to accompany the podcast, which was published for Bradford Zine Fair 2025.

Mindfulness Girls ran self-love workshops for girls, centred around culture, religion, family, friends, and communities, represented by a large banner they created. The girls were also given their own plain t-shirts to design around the theme of “Who I am”.

Mixed Collective collected a list of Bradford words and phrases of encouragement and camaraderie used by local communities. These were then laser cut into durable stencils and sprayed on pavements around the district in colourful temporary chalk.

Nebula Girls Group put on a production called ‘This is Me’, performed by autistic young people. It included singing, dancing, playing instruments, poetry recital, and videos created for this project amongst other talents that the young people involved shared. This event showed that autistic young people had lots to give when offered the right support. T-shirts were printed with Nebula Girls Group and Bradford 2025’s logos for those taking part in the show. This was a free event and provided paid work to some of the group’s 18+ cohort, who were unemployed and/or seeking work at the time.

Our Legacy planned to host an event bringing in a professional poet to help local young people express their emotions and lived experiences through poetry. An open mic night organised by the young people took place afterwards, with parents, carers, friends, and local community members invited to listen to the young people’s poems, showing others how to project negative emotions into something positive.

The Queensbury Singers with 5-6 other choirs from Bradford busked at key locations in the local village throughout the day before holding a free, open-air concert in the afternoon with a mass sing-along with the Black Dyke Band.

Queer South Asian Cafe hosted a queer sangheet at Common Space that was open to all. Led by queer South Asian people, they delivered a queer sangheet and immersed attendees in what a queer South Asian wedding would look like. People had the opportunity to imagine what it would look like for their culture to celebrate them and even be transported back to moments of joy they had already had. Queer South Asian Cafe hoped that this experience would be affirming or would help others to recognise how their culture could be used to imagine a new future and way of being.

Ravenscliffe Youth centre ran art-based workshops with young people to create a piece of visual artwork, that represented what Bradford meant to them. The finished piece was then displayed within the youth centre.

Redbeck Allotment Association brought in an artist to teach a willow weave workshop. This helped the group and community learn more creative ways of using their large willow hedge on site. They also planned to create willow sculptures to attach to the perimeter of their fence and enhance the green corridor in their local area. Plot holders were invited to the workshops and the group also offered a family willow activity at the Apple Day at Shipley Fields Orchards in October.

Routes to Roots created an exhibition around the theme of South Asian migration and settlement stories to challenge assumptions and stereotypes that this community faced. The exhibition spotlighted the history of South Asian women and their relationships with Bradford, addressing the lack of representation of South Asian history within Bradford archives and historical collections. Routes to Roots also showcased a documentary to communicate the experiences captured in this project. 

Sandale Community Development Trust hosted a fun day event to bring the community together, with opportunities to take part in various arts and culture activities. This included singing, dancing, cooking, crafts, music, food and more! They provided an opportunity for their local community to showcase their talents, when they may not previously have had a chance to. 

Sapgate Gardens Association hosted lantern making workshops and a shadow puppets event, to create a legacy around the lantern parade and shadow puppets on the Gardens in the Winter. They worked with South Square Centre, the Community centre and the local school. 

SEND Salaam working with Summat Creative organised a sensory art session for children with disabilities like autism, ADHD, and other sensory needs, in the Girlington area. Their aim was to make art accessible for families from ethnic minority groups and engage children with additional needs. The theme of the session was culture and identity. Families were asked to bring one item that represented their child’s interest / culture to use as the foundation for the main activity.

Shipley Memories Group organised a mini festival during the Summer of 2025 for residents in the Shipley and Saltaire area, who were living with the early stages of Dementia. The event showcased local musicians from across Bradford district.

TCC Kids Art Club ran a street art workshop and a photography workshop for children and young people. The street art session involved painting a mural on a boarded-up shop to celebrate Bradford 2025 UK City of Culture, designed and created by the young people involved. The photography session was a reflection on Craig Sugden’s montage film of local residents during the pandemic. The children and young people created an updated version of the project, then merged the two videos and reflected on the changes between them. They worked alongside a professional photographer, who guided them through the creative process.

Terne Caja created a Romani flash-mob to be performed in City Park during July 2025. It included those working at Connecting Roma as well as other local groups they were working with. They had been working together to learn the dance and plan logistics since January 2025. The performance was also professionally recorded to be shared at a later date.

The ‘Art Moves Kids’ Project brought children and young people together to create brightly painted sculptures made from upcycled bike and scooter parts to celebrate the joy of scooting and cycling. The sculptures were then displayed at Saltaire and Shipley Primary Schools, as well as being visible from the public footpath for the local community to enjoy. Both sculptures were made from upcycled materials and at their end of life were both fully recyclable. Both primary schools painted the sculpture elements as a part of their art classes. The metalwork was done by students from a local secondary school as part of their Design & Technology studies. The bicycle and scooter parts were donated by Upcycle, a Shipley-based charity that supports people to build resilience and skills to prevent people from being pulled into crime.

The City Gent Fanzine produced an A1 size piece of artwork made up of their front covers from the past 40 years. A small community exhibition was created with the outputs and was displayed in Heaton.

The Sharing Tree hosted a pop-up Gallery in the Garden. Weekly art sessions were delivered by the staff from Mind the Gap, where participants worked with parents and their children to teach them about creating visual art. The art created in these workshops then featured in the garden as a pop-up gallery event. The Sharing Tree hoped to bring art to people who had the least access to it in their community.

Thornbury Community Development Services hosted eight workshops and a recording studio session with focus on reflection on life experiences and future challenges. With influence from Islamic Sufi poets, participants discovered themselves through sharing ideas and stories. TCDS partnered with local nasheed artists and groups to deliver these sessions as well as to encourage and inspire the young people involved to pursue a positive and culturally significant hobby. This project then culminated in a small community event, celebrating the things that the participants had created.

ToNE organised a traditional Tamil folk dance called Kummi Aattam, for a cultural display festival. The dance was rooted in Tamil Nadu’s cultural heritage and was performed primarily by South Asian women. It symbolised unity, community, and celebration. The group intended for this performance to bring more awareness to Tamil cultural traditions and provide an opportunity for the community to come together and celebrate. It helped preserve and promote this traditional dance form and foster a deeper understanding of Tamil culture.

Topic Folk Club facilitated a song writing workshop to bring Bradford-based people together in writing songs for their project, ‘Songs with a Bradford Accent’. They aimed to have a diverse group of people to write songs about their community and the places they experienced. The workshop took place on a Saturday and was facilitated by an experienced songwriter. Songs in languages other than English were welcomed.

Village Pavilion set up a vending machine that sold mini artworks called The Art Vending Machine. They used a second-hand vending machine, that they rebranded to advertise the art of the local artists featured. It was placed at various locations around Ilkley and users were able to enter their coin (£1 max) to receive a small artwork in return. All profits were split between the artists involved.