HOPE/ACT

Bradford-based company the People Powered Press bring their distinctive style and tools to make a set of murals celebrating Bradford 2025. Using the largest letterpress printing press in the world, this team of designers and artists produce large-scale works that focus on lettering and community participation. 

HOPE/ACT explores the interplay between the responsibility of higher powers and our own personal responsibility. It asks how we might preserve hope in the face of forces much bigger than ourselves, and how we must also enact change to create hope for everyone.

Three groups from across the district wrote new poetry, collected into a series of free zines, which inspired the design of this new family of large letterpress murals.

• Students at Co-op Academy Grange, taking part in creative writing charity First Story’s Young Writers Programme
• Members of People First Keighley & Craven, a self-advocate charity run by and for people with learning disabilities
• Teenagers living in and around West Bowling in BD5 who attend after–school clubs at MAPA Community Centre

The participants were invited to the People Powered Press workshop in Shipley, to help print the new murals for indoor exhibition at three sites.

See them for yourself from May 2025 until the end of the year, at:

• City Library, Centenary Square, Bradford, BD1 1SD
• National Science and Media Museum, Bradford, BD1 1NQ
• MAPA, 1 Coates Street, Bradford, BD5 7DL

Exhibition access is subject to the opening times of each venue.

This project is supported by the Bradford 2025 Artist-led Project Awards programme.

Find out more about this programme and the projects we’ve supported below.