Eight people-powered projects celebrating community heritage stories from across Bradford district have been featured in a brand new film.
The film was created as part of the Community Led Heritage Grants programme managed by The Leap, with support from Bradford Council, and with funding from The National Lottery Heritage Fund.
The eight projects have come together over the past 12 months after an initial callout which saw more than 120 applications for funding of up to £10,000.
The projects profiled in the film, and in its accompanying 24 page Heritage Showcase booklet, are:
Bradford Book Project
Thirty pupils from Bowling Park Primary School created a unique and immersive picture book telling the heritage story of Bradford through young eyes. With the help of a local author, an illustrator and a historian, they planned the content and images for the book, and worked together on the final product.
Any Old Rag ‘n’ Bones
Holmewood in Bradford is home to the largest population of ‘Rag n Bone’ people in the country (scrap metal collectors, some with Gypsy and Traveller heritage), who still use horses and carts. Mostly young white working-class/low-income men, they’re growing up in one of Bradford’s most economically disadvantaged areas and have very low engagement with the mainstream heritage sector. The ‘Any old Rag n Bones’ project challenged all that by empowering young people from the community itself to tell their own story.
‘Special’ Histories of Bradford
‘Special’ Histories of Bradford saw participants with learning disabilities working with a team of professionals to explore historical and modern accounts of life with a learning disability in Bradford district. These were potentially challenging topics, but the project sensitively investigated them, creating a safe place to explore ideas and culminating with an exhibition and a brand new, living archive with very personal, immediate accounts of lived experience of life with a learning disability.
Bussing Out
Bussing Out is a powerful audio-visual installation – all taking place in a replica school bus – about a little known moment in Bradford’s political history, the controversial ‘Bussing Out’ education policy of the 1960s and 1970s. This community-led heritage element of the wider Bussing Out allowed a group of Bradford South Asian-heritage families, helped by artist Shabina Aslam, to research history and learn to use new technologies to ultimately remake the journey of ‘bussed out’ children through art.
Scones and Samosas
Scones and Samosas united the diverse communities of Bradford through the international language of food. The Community Led Heritage Grant funded a ‘special memory’ recipe book. Participants first shared their personal heritage stories about much loved recipes from across the world. They then put the book together themselves, recording the stories, taking pictures and choosing the layout.
Pitch and Pair: Freedom Series
Pitch & Pair: Freedom Series, a project by Bradford South Asian Festival, ran a series of creative workshops in grassroots community settings on the theme of Freedom, as viewed through the South Asian diaspora’s heritage lens. Three artists worked with multi-generational families to turn their initial ideas into a variety of pieces of multi-mode visual arts and an end of project exhibition. The work will now be developed further, with content gathered in these sessions feeding into larger, performance-centred works in future festival activity.
Palay dey Khan – Minority Proverbs in a New Land
This was about exploring the beauty, hilarity and idiosyncrasy of our language heritage. The completely unique project captured cultural and traditional proverbs and idioms used by people in many of Bradford’s diverse and multilingual communities, and used them to engage people with creative wellbeing projects. It culminated in the creation of an exhibition and an anthology book of multilingual proverbs with translations and artistic interpretations.
Commonwealth Contribution Military Memories
An exhibition and archive resource documenting the contributions of people from Bradford’s diaspora communities – and those with heritage in the Commonwealth – as armed services personnel representing Britain in major conflicts. A team of community archivists collated stories and memorabilia from veterans and/or their descendants, which will be turned into a shareable exhibition and learning tool which will be made available free of charge to museums and schools.
The film is the culmination of the year-long Community-Led Heritage Grants pilot programme.
Communities across Bradford district were invited to apply for a share of a £100,000 grants pot to help their creativity flourish, and to celebrate the city and district’s rich, diverse, multi-layered heritage.
The National Lottery Heritage Fund supported The Leap – Bradford’s creative people and places programme – and its partners Bradford Council and Born in Bradford, to deliver the programme. The aim was to support projects which creatively involve local people, and help them to develop their ideas, celebrate their heritage and tell THEIR stories in THEIR way.
The campaign was especially aimed at communities where engagement with mainstream arts and cultural activities might be low, but where heritage in all its forms is deeply valued.
After a detailed selection process, eight projects were supported to use arts and culture to tell their heritage stories, and to aim to help improve people’s health and wellbeing at the same time.
Zulfiqar Ahmed, director of The Leap, said: “The people and places of Bradford District are rich with heritage. Our community-led heritage grants set out to enable communities to share their heritage, their way. We want to inspire many more people to share, celebrate and enjoy heritage. ”
Helen Featherstone, Director, England, North at The National Lottery Heritage Fund, said: “Everybody has heritage, it is the fabric of who we are. Ensuring local people’s voices are heard and their stories are shared can help to instil a greater sense of pride in communities, and these eight amazing projects are perfect examples of why Bradford is truly a city to be proud of. Thanks to The Leap, and money raised by National Lottery Players, we are thrilled to have supported them.”
