Bradford 2025: The Brontë Society among eight local groups to receive share of £50,000 arts grant

Eight local groups have been awarded a share of £50,000 by Bradford Council through it’s Arts, Culture and Heritage grants.

Among the projects getting funding is one that will “celebrate the unique community of Holme Wood” in preparation for an outdoor festival HWD Fest: 23, later this year.

Run by the Holme Wood Collective and Kyffin Place Community Centre, the event will “provide a place based arts and culture project for all ages” and work with artists to help develop the festival.

Another group to get funding is the Aire Rivers Trust, with the cash going towards the first in a trio of festivals planned to celebrate Bradford Beck. The vast majority of the beck runs underground, although work will start this year to renaturalise a stretch on Valley Road, Shipley, creating a new riverside park.

It will be this location where the beck event, a day of “education and entertainment” will be held. The Trust plans to use the festival to raise the profile of the little known waterway.

Other groups to be awarded grants include

The Brontë Society, which will commission an artist and/or prop-maker to create a number of artefacts that replicate or are inspired by items in the group’s collection.

These artefacts will be used by staff, volunteers and commissioned artists in future creative activities and cultural engagement beyond the walls of the Bronte Parsonage.

Connecting Roma want Bradford to celebrate the Roma History Month this June and bring people together to showcase their culture, heritage and the relevance between their communities; Gypsy, Roma, Travellers, Jewish and the Hindu community. The Roma community will be given the opportunity to share their history through arts and performance, giving them a sense of belonging and the motivation to join the Bradford 2025 celebrations.

Bent Architect will undertake an oral history and performance project, recording the voices and stories of Fountains Café, which is soon to close its doors, and Oastler Market prior to its demolition.

Manningham Housing Association will run a project is to revive, preserve and promote the writing of South Asian heritage music known as Baul Folk Music.

QM Records Limited will produce a programme of live music events in Bradford, supported by Arts Council England, with partners such as Bradford Producing Hub, The Underground live music venue and Kala Sangam.

Confirmed events in this year include three live music events at The Underground, and first ever MOVES festival at Kala Sangam.

Womenszone will use storytelling and performance techniques to enable South Asian older women to tell their stories with the support of two leading artists. The resulting performance will tour community spaces in Bradford.

Councillor Sarah Ferriby, Bradford Council’s Executive Member for Healthy People and Places, said “The successful projects cover a variety of art forms, reaching diverse communities and cover a great geographical spread across the district. I look forward to seeing what each group delivers and know that they will add to the rich diverse cultural offering as we build up to 2025 when the district will celebrate being City of Culture.”