An outdoor theatrical event created by the magician formerly known as Dynamo, the Turner Prize, tributes to the Brontes and an adaptation of The Railway Children are among the events announced for Bradford’s tenure as UK City of Culture 2025.
The first part of the year-long programme was unveiled tonight at St George's Hall, and included a nation-wide drawing project supported by David Hockney and a musical event created by composer Charles Hazlewood and artist Jeremy Deller celebrating the music of Bradford.
Events and performances will spread from the city to the towns, villages and green spaces across the district, running from January to December.
Organisers say it will celebrate Bradford as “a forward-looking city of change” and “one of the most diverse communities in the UK”.
It celebrates contemporary culture in all forms and showcases the rich history and heritage of the area.
This is about Bradford-born artists, writers, musicians, performers, and local cultural organisations, but national and international partners will also be welcomed throughout the programme.
Bradford 2025 creative director, Shanaz Gulzar, told the Telegraph & Argus that Thursday’s announcement was not the full list and that more would be revealed later in the year.
Steven Frayne, formerly known as Dynamo, will launch the City of Culture year on the second weekend of 2025 (January 10 and 11).
He has created a large-scale theatrical event called RISE, which is directed by Kirsty Housley.
It will explore the themes of heritage, people, place, and magic found in unexpected places.
There is also plenty for art lovers across the programme, with highlights including a nation-wide drawing project supported by Bradford’s beloved David Hockney, and the prestigious Turner Prize coming to the city.
DRAW! is inspired by Hockney’s daily practice of depicting the world around him, using everything from pencils to iPads.
Bradford 2025 is inviting people of all ages across the UK to reflect their everyday lives through drawing.
Meanwhile, The Turner Prize, which showcases and celebrates the most exciting new developments in British art, will be hosted at Cartwright Hall Art Gallery, in the year that the UK celebrates the 250th anniversary of JMW Turner’s birth.
There will be a collaboration featured in July, between Dance United Yorkshire and Akram Khan, who is a world renowned dancer and choreographer of Bangladeshi descent.
This intergenerational project, called Memories of the Future, will see 60 dancers drawn from communities across Bradford perform on the main stage at The Alhambra, and is inspired by Khan’s Jungle Book reimagined.
The Bröntes feature heavily in this first programme announcement.
Four fantasy writers and illustrators from Ghana and the north of England will revisit the sisters’ imaginary world of Angria for a new collection of stories and animations.
These will be published as part of the annual Brönte Festival of Women’s Writing, usually taking place in September.
The wide skies and expansive moorland that spurred Emily Brönte’s Wuthering Heights is the stage for Wild Uplands, four new contemporary visual artworks created by national and international artists placed across Penistone Hill Country Park from May.
Jeremy Deller and Paraorchestra will present The Bradford Progress that same month.
This is a musical pilgrimage featuring hundreds of musicians starting on the moors and travelling into the centre of Bradford.
The following month, something that has never happened before will occur.
Artworks created more than 10,000 years ago will leave the British Museum for the first time, with an immersive exhibition of artefacts from the Ice Age.
The National Science and Media Museum is reopening in January following a multi-million-pound renovation and it will feature a new digital installation by Marshmallow Laser Feast from April.
Clio Barnard will curate a series of films from working-class northern women, behind and in front of the camera, at the museum’s Pictureville, Yorkshire’s biggest independent cinema.
Mike Kenny’s Olivier Award-winning adaptation of E Nesbit’s The Railway Children will be adapted to take place on the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway line from July.
The first UK City of Culture exhibition to include all four nations of the UK will travel to four cities, beginning in January.
It will feature local heroes from Bradford, Cardiff, Glasgow and Belfast, photographed by Aïda Muluneh, as part of a series of new artworks from the acclaimed Ethiopian artist.
Opera North take up residency across the year with newly commissioned contemporary music by national and international composers, inspired by Bradford composer Frederik Delius.
This will be heard on sites across the moors (from May), a live orchestra paired with Bassline DJs (May), singing and performance workshops in schools (year-round), and a production of Simon Boccanegra (April).
Music will be key to the programme including: a three-day contemporary-classical New Music Biennial (June); a weekend celebrating brass music of all kinds featuring the Black Dyke Band (April); Dialled In will lead a celebration of contemporary South Asian music (August); and Asian Dub Foundation will live score the landmark French thriller, La Haine (January).
Many elements of the programme will be free.
Shanaz Gulzar, Bradford 2025 UK City of Culture Creative Director, said: “I am delighted to announce the first events in the programme for Bradford 2025 UK City of Culture which showcase the exceptionally rich, diverse talent that Bradford holds.
“This is a once in a lifetime opportunity to celebrate our extraordinary cultural heritage, and for our young population to become leaders and changemakers, starting a new chapter in our story.”
It is more than two years since the city and district won the title, beating County Durham, Southampton and Wrexham County Borough to the crown on May 31, 2022.
Bradford 2025 UK City of Culture is supported using public investment from HM Government, Bradford Metropolitan District Council, and West Yorkshire Combined Authority.
It also receives funds through National Lottery funding from Arts Council England, National Lottery Heritage Fund, National Lottery Community Fund, Spirit of 2012, as well as private investment and donations from a number of trusts, foundations and corporate sponsors.
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