Funding opportunities

We’re supporting Bradford’s brilliant creative sector to help bring your artistic ideas to life in 2025, realising opportunities that could only happen during our year as UK City of Culture. These awards are open to individual artists, companies, collectives, creative collaborations, festivals and any other artist-led activity.

There are two rounds of awards. In each round, we expect to award up to 15 projects, each for up to £15,000.

Round 1 – Now closed

• Opened in February 2024, closed in March 2024
• Primarily for projects where the final output is due to happen in the first seven months of the year (January–July 2025)
• A list of the successful projects will be published soon

Round 2 – Open now, deadline 30 September

• Applications open now until Monday 30 September 2024
• Successful applicants will be notified in October 2024 
• Primarily for projects where the final output is due to happen in the last five months of the year 2025 (August–December 2025)
• We may also encourage applications from artforms, identities and geographical areas that were less well represented in Round 1 

Find out more and apply for Round 2

Sign up for our online Q&A

What we’re looking for
First and foremost, the work must be designed to reach people and audiences in Bradford District, and it must happen between 1 January and 31 December 2025.   

You must be able to demonstrate a genuine connection to the district (living here, company based here, history of making and sharing work here, etc). We will accept applications from companies and organisations based outside Bradford, but only where the lead artist is based in Bradford.  

We will support a broad range of artforms, including theatre, music, live art, visual arts, photography, literature and storytelling – or something that combines artforms and blurs definitions in the way that we know Bradford’s brilliant artists do so well. 

We’re happy to receive applications where workshops, engagement and participation are part of the project, and we really want to see as many opportunities as possible for Bradford residents to get involved. However, your project should result in a finished output (not a work in progress) that will be experienced by audiences, the general public or a wider group of people – for example, an exhibition, a screening, a performance, a reading, a listening event, an installation, etc.  

We welcome applications from festivals for a new commission, or for a special 2025 event within your festival programme that wouldn’t otherwise happen without our support. However, we won’t support the running costs of your regular festival programme.  

Match funding
Match funding is not essential, but we will look more favourably on applications that have, or have plans to, draw extra funding from other sources too.    

Support available alongside an award
If you’re awarded a grant, the Bradford 2025 team will be on hand to offer a range of advice and guidance in areas such as technical, production, access, marketing and engagement. Your event will also be included in a number of marketing and PR activities that we’re planning for 2025. That said, we expect all projects to have their own marketing plans prepared, with costs included in your budget.

Our Micro-Grants will support small and special one-off moments that are due to happen in 2025. They’re aimed at community, volunteer and social groups that may not have been eligible for the Bradford 2025 Creative Communities Fund (applications now closed; see below), or that may need just a small amount of money to make their activity happen – for example, hiring a venue for a reading of works by a local poetry group, or buying materials for a group henna workshop.    

• There will be around 25 Micro-Grants, each valued at £250–£500   
• There will be one round of applications, with a very simple application process and quick turnaround time
• Applications will open in autumn 2024, and your event or activity may happen any time in 2025

We’re really pleased to be working with GiveBradford, which distributes vital grants and gives trusted advice to community organisations across the district to influence positive change. 

GiveBradford are delivering the Bradford 2025 Creative Communities Fund, which is supporting community-led organisations to engage local people of all ages in creative and cultural activities as part of Bradford 2025 UK City of Culture. These activities will be led by community organisations, promoting and celebrating the diversity and richness of Bradford’s culture. 

Organisations were able to apply for one of 20–30 grants of between £500 and £15,000, with a pot size of £250,000. 

• February 2024 – GiveBradford held an online briefing to introduce the fund and explain the programme criteria 
• 4 March 2024 – Applications opened
• 23 April 2024 – Applications closed
• July 2024 – Decisions shared with applicants

Read more about the successful projects on our Creative Communities Fund page, and on the GiveBradford website. 

Places and spaces
We want to see creative things happening in every corner of Bradford District during 2025. Across all our programming and funding opportunities, we’re aiming to ensuring that there’s something inspiring, exciting and unexpected on everyone’s doorstep.

Activities and events could happen in parks, on the street, in shops, in social clubs, in community centres, in schools, in people’s houses, in places of worship, online or wherever will make it easiest for the people for whom they’re designed to get involved. 

Project-specific development commissions
We’ve been talking to a number of artists and companies about specific events and productions that have come through pitches, previous seed commissions and ongoing relationships, over and above the grants and funding opportunities listed on this page. Some of these exciting new works were announced as part of our programme launch in September 2024, with others due to be announced in the coming months.    

If you’ve got a great idea and don’t think it fits one of the funding opportunities on this page, please email [email protected]. We’ll do our best to signpost you to other existing grant schemes. 

A UK City of Culture for everyone 
We want Bradford 2025 UK City of Culture to be for everyone in Bradford, a celebration of all the identities, experiences, backgrounds and beliefs that make up our rich and brilliant district. This ambition will be reflected across all our funding opportunities, and will be a key consideration when we review applications. We’ll also be looking to make sure you’ve thought about how your project will be accessible, meaningful and welcoming to the people you’re creating it with and for. 

Find out more
We’ll add full information about each funding opportunity and grants programmes to our website as they launch. The best way to find out when they’re live is to follow us on social media and sign up to our newsletter.  

We’ll also host an online information session for each new funding opportunity, where we’ll give a full overview of the programme and answer any questions you may have about the application process and criteria. These sessions will be open to all, with details published alongside the application guidance.