Bradford Council has announced the four local artists who will receive funding to create innovative new light art projects and installations, which will be displayed in Bradford City Centre as part of BD: is LIT 2025.
The festival returns for the third time in 2025 with the ambition to light up the city centre streets, celebrating the Bradford district in its UK City of Culture year. Since 2021, BD: is LIT has welcomed over 50,000 people to see the incredible light installations across the district.
This year’s successful artists worked with the theme of ‘The Colour of Light’ to develop projects that are unique to Bradford and with national relevance. Each commission is worth between £5000 to £7500, and will light up our new public realm work within the city.
The successful artists were:
- Nicola Murray – Listening Lights
Listening Lights combines light, sound, and storytelling. Inspired by the Japanese Wind Phone, where people continue conversations with loved ones who have died, this thoughtful installation invites participants to step inside a softly illuminated, soundproof telephone booth and speak words of love, memory, and celebration into a telephone handset.
- Cat Scott – Flow (of the Broad Ford)
See Bradford’s hidden Broad Ford flowing through Market Street once more, as Cat Scott MRSS brings the beck back above ground in her mirage-like ephemeral installation, Flow (of the Broad Ford). This inspiring piece encourages reflection on the interconnected role water plays in our daily lives, the climate and our wellbeing.
- BD Dazzler – The Leap
A fun, fusion of traditional Pakistani art forms with contemporary lighting design, The Leap put vehicles front and centre with their illuminated tuk-tuk and van.
- Naomi Parker and Rachel Hyde – Light Fall
This is a collaboration between Naomi Parker, a freelance designer, maker and performer, and Rachel Hyde, the director of stilt walking company Chicks on Sticks. Light Fall is a beautiful new walkabout act with a specially composed soundtrack by local composer Dan McGlade. It has two performers, one on stilts and the other ground based. Inspired by the mirror pool in Bradford’s City Park, it is an explosion of light, music and colour, bringing family fun to BD: is LIT.
Cllr Sarah Ferriby, Bradford Council’s Executive Member for Healthy People, said: “Our local artists have risen to the challenge and designed some amazing interactive, fun and innovative light creations that can be viewed and enjoyed by a range of audiences. We are delighted to be able to fund these artists so they can take part in BD: is LIT, which is one of the highlights of Autumn.”
