We took to the moors in May to launch a pair of open-air commissions in Penistone Hill Country Park.

• Wild Uplands presented new artworks by Monira Al Qadiri, Meherunnisa Asad with Studio Lél, Vanessa da Silva and Steve Messam, inspired by and created for this dramatic landscape.
• Earth & Sky was an immersive sound walk created by Opera North with composers Caterina Barbieri, Nyokabi Kariũki and Gwen Siôn.

Both Wild Uplands and Earth & Sky could be experienced for free until October, alongside creative activities for families, walk-and-write sessions, tai chi sessions on the hills and other special events.

May also saw the launch of Bradford on Foot, a rich collection of themed walks and tours around the district – from secret streets and hidden gems to the great wide open. You can still download all the walks for free at our website.

We welcomed a couple of very special visitors to Bradford on Thursday 15 May – none other than the King and Queen.

Their Majesties enjoyed a packed day – enjoying performances from Paraorchestra (ahead of The Bradford Progress), watching the Bantam of the Opera choir and schoolchildren rehearsing for Sing, Dance, Leap, visiting the National Literacy Trust’s Bradford Stories Bus, the Brontë Birthplace and Cartwright Hall Art Gallery, and meeting schoolchildren, artists and members of the public.

May was a big month for the visual arts in the UK City of Culture. Alongside Wild Uplands and Earth & Sky, we also opened:

• We Will Sing (Salts Mill), the largest solo installation created in the UK by distinguished American artist Ann Hamilton. Hamilton invited people to write ‘Letters to the Future’, connecting our memories of the past and what we love about the present to tomorrow’s world. The letters were published on Ann Hamilton’s website and displayed at Salts Mill as part of Hamilton’s installation.
• Journeys with Mai (Cartwright Hall Art Gallery), which brought Joshua Reynolds’ monumental Portrait of Mai to the city for the first time. The exhibition was accompanied by an engagement programme featuring workshops, discussions and more, presented with Bradford District Museums & Galleries, Common/Wealth and members of the Bradford 2025 Youth Panel. Focussing on identity, self-representation and lived experiences, young people addressed their stories connected to the themes of Mai.
• RedBall (everywhere), Kurt Perschke’s long-running street art project, which toured the district as part of PLAY.
• Jameel Prize: Moving Images (Cartwright Hall Art Gallery), exploring the relationship between contemporary practice and Islamic tradition in the visual arts.
• Tape Letters (Loading Bay), a beautiful exhibition exploring the cassette tape messages sent home by new arrivals in Bradford during the ’70s and ’80s.

Two sell-out events brought the sound of Bradford out of the underground and into the mainstream.

• Bassline Symphony brought together 4×4 legends Jamie Duggan, DJ Q and TS7 with the Orchestra of Opera North for an unforgettable night at St George’s Hall.
• Bassline also featured heavily in Public Interest, a powerful piece of immersive theatre created for Bradford 2025 by political theatre pioneers Common/Wealth.

Ahead of the shows, we teamed up with All Star Ents, schools and community groups to help young people develop new music skills. The young musicians then came together to hear their new bassline tracks performed live in a special event at The Beacon.

Goodbye Wibsey Park, hello Bowling Park!

The Beacon, our own touring venue, made the three-mile journey across Bradford for the second leg of its district-wide tour, with another packed programme of performances, activities and special events – including many presented by the people of Bowling.

Highlights included Moomins 80: What Will We Do Without Exile?, a powerful multisensory installation created by Palestinian artist Basel Zaraa and launched ahead of Refugee Week in June.

The legendary Dame Zandra Rhodes was May’s artist in DRAW!, our nationwide drawing project supported by David Hockney. Hundreds of people took up Dame Zandra’s invitation to draw patterns – as you can see in our online DRAW! gallery.

May revealed two new street art commissions as part of BD: Walls, featuring exciting new artworks that reflect on the communities in Ravenscliffe and Buttershaw.

• RAVO celebrates the energy and joy of the Ravenscliffe community.
• Come On In My Friend is a striking piece inspired by Wibsey and the people at Buttershaw Youth Centre.

Our Patch, our huge community creativity programme continued working in collaboration with local people to develop ambitious new projects, deliver creative workshops and build community pride.

Alongside the Our Patch team, communities across Bradford have… built a sound system on a bike, learnt British Sign Language, cooked breakfast for the neighbourhood, banged on drum, sung in a shopping centre, taken a bus journey to somewhere new, planted flowers in a garden, mended that old pair of slippers instead of throwing them away, read Urdu poetry together, blown that carnival whistle in time to the music, or just had a cup of tea and a chat with someone they’ve not spoken to before.

Once again, our Creative Engagement team found themselves with a packed calendar, connecting with thousands across the district with a wealth of creative initiatives:

• The National Literacy Trust’s Bradford Stories Bus rolled into Bowling for another series of sessions with children aged 5–11.
• There were more ‘Alive and Kicking’ drama adventures in primary schools; and more fun, hands-on sessions for early-years pupils in the Science Explorers Play Lab, which continued throughout the year as part of our PLAY programme.
• We also provided free street art training for people across the district through our BD: Walls talent development sessions – and saw the painting of community murals in Buttershaw, Girlington and Ravenscliffe.

• Bradford AFC won dramatic promotion back to League One – and the Bantam of the Opera choir, founded in collaboration with BBC Radio Leeds for Bradford 2025, performed at the team’s promotion parade.
• We marked the 40th anniversary of the fire at Valley Parade with a screening of Unforgotten: The Bradford City Fire at the National Science & Media Museum, a staged reading of LUNG’s award-winning play The 56 at Loading Bay, and a new learning resource to help schoolchildren understand the tragedy.
• Northern Duck Productions presented Rose Illingworth: Born to the Boats, a new theatre piece set aboard a canal boat and made possible by a Bradford 2025 Artist-Led Project Award.
• Also supported by a Bradford 2025 Artist-Led Project Award: Unseen, a new project from Ascendance featuring voice work, art and movement that premiered at Saltaire Arts Trail.
• Anita Rani hosted a screening of Sisters of Disruption, her Sky Arts film about the Brontës, at the National Science & Media Museum.