Shanaz Gulzar on Bradford's UK City of Culture for 2025

It's hard to imagine a person better suited for the role. As an artist and producer, Gulzar’s career has spanned visual arts, theatre, public art, film and media.

Born, raised and still living in Keighley, she has worked across Yorkshire’s cultural sector for many years and brings an energy and enthusiasm to her new post that bodes well for the future.

“There is a great opportunity for change here,” she says. “It feels like a real privilege and honour – and a big responsibility. It’s one of those moments that makes you think about what impact you want to have and what legacy you want to leave and it’s made me think about my journey to date as an artist.”

Gulzar is also a broadcaster – she brought her artist’s perspective to the popular BBC Four series Yorkshire Walks in which she took the viewer on some of her favourite walks in the Dales using a 360-degree selfie-style camera to film herself and her surroundings.

And last year she presented the BBC documentary Hidden Histories: The Lost Portraits of Bradford in which she explored the stories behind a collection of unnamed portrait photographs dating back to 1950s, 60s and 70s, rescued from a skip when the photographer’s studio on Manningham Lane closed down.

As chair of Bradford 2025, Gulzar will be leading the organisation through the bidding process as well as helping to develop its strategic vision, mission, objectives and values.

“When you get a position like this you immediately start talking with the core team and all those involved and start trying to get to know your communities better and the arts sector in the city – and because of the pandemic we have not been able to do that in quite the same way. But we have been using the technology that all of us have been using to have some in-depth conversations.

“I see Bradford’s diversity as our strength and I would like us to develop a bid that has all those diverse voices in it, so they feel they have ownership. You can only be successful in transformational change if you have everybody on board. I’m looking forward to helping the whole district to make the most of this opportunity.”

During lockdown Gulzar has been working on a photographic project of her own, taking portraits of her daughter and parents, documenting how they are all coping with the situation.

“It is a personal reflection on my family,” she says.

“I have been tying to get candid shots of them and I have been listening to my parents’ stories about their past – those memories are going to get lost and it has been fascinating for me to hear them.” Listening, she says, is also a big part of her job as Bradford 2025 chair.

“It is so important. I want to listen to people’s thoughts and ideas. What I am most excited about is the energy and dynamism in Bradford within the creative communities. There is a lot of sharing of ideas and a can-do punk sensibility and drive. So there is a very definite forward motion.”

That momentum could well lead the city to success in 2025. Watch this space.

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