Bradford 2025 and Creative Lives have announced the recipients of ‘Do Your Thing’ micro-awards which support community-driven creative projects across the district to celebrate the everyday creativity of Bradford’s residents.
As part of the UK City of Culture programme, over 50 grassroots creative groups have been selected under the UK City of Culture programme, and will receive a share of just over £20,000 to open-up opportunities for cultural participation in a multitude of ways.
One of the successful applicants are The Baji Bantams – Bradford City’s first fans group for South Asian women, to bring the community together with cultural music at the Bradford City Community Foundation. They are supported by ISSE (Inspire Support Sports Empower).
Another organisation included is ‘SEND Salaam’, who will hold a sensory art session for children with special educational needs and disabilities in the Girlington area, working with Summat Creative.
Rhiannon Hannon, Bradford 2025’s Director of Creative Engagement says: “We had an incredible number of applications, and we’re ever inspired and impressed by the creativity taking place every day in every area of our district. Bradford 2025 is all about making culture more available and accessible all across Bradford, and these organisations are showing how this can be done every day.”
Robin Simpson, Chief Executive of Creative Lives adds “Creative Lives was thrilled to receive an incredible 161 applications from local creative groups across Bradford, demonstrating the amazing breadth and diversity of grassroots creativity happening in communities throughout the district.
“We are delighted to be able to support 54 groups through ‘Do Your Thing’ micro-awards, but the quality and ambition shown by all applicants was truly inspiring and we hope all the groups will stay connected with Creative Lives as we continue our commitment to championing community-led creative activity in Bradford during 2025 and beyond.”
Mahum Fatima from SEND Salaam states “We’re really happy to have been selected as one of the recipients of Do Your Thing. We want to show Bradford how amazing and talented our young SEND children are! This award will enable us to raise awareness around hidden disabilities and help make art accessible to the local community.”
This news follows the recent Bradford 2025 announcement of ‘Our Patch’, a large-scale district-wide programme in collaboration with local artists, community organisations and residents, breaking down barriers to cultural participation by bringing the arts right to the community’s doorstep.
Find out more on how Bradford 2025 is putting local people at the heart of the UK City of Culture at bradford2025.co.uk/take-part and more on the work of Creative Lives at creative-lives.org.
‘Do Your Thing Award’ recipients
Addingham Allotments & Gardens Association
Anand Milan Elderly Centre
Baildon Civic & Historical Society
Bingley and District Local History Society working with Bingley Camera Club and Graham West
Bingley Bell Ringers
Bingley Ukulele Group
Bradford Belles
Bradford Black & Brown Queers (BBBQ)
Bradford Youth Activity Club
Burley Arts Collective
Carers Resource
Connecting Roma CIC
Denholme Shared Church
Equity Partnership
Feeding Bradford and Keighley
Friends of Brackenhill Park
Friends of Crag Community Hub
Friends of Heaton Community Orchard
Friends of Myrtle Park
FUNdraising 4U
Global Game Jam Bradford
Happy Healthy You
Harden Players
Haworth Stitch Group
Holmewood community association.
Ilkley Players
ISSE (Inspire Support Sports Empower)
Krylati – The Winged Ones
Lister Community Action Group
Loosely Bound / Bradford Sketch Club
Mindfulness Girls
Mixed Collective
Nebula Girls Group
Our legacy
Queensbury Singers and Black Dyke Mills Heritage Venue
Queer South Asian Cafe
Ravenscliffe Youth Centre
Redbeck Allotment Association
Routes to Roots: A South Asian Heritage Project
Sandale Community Development Trust
Sapgate Gardens Association
SEND Salaam and Summat Creative
Shipley Memories Group
Survivor Leaders
TCC Kids Art Club
Terne Caja
The ‘Art Moves Kids’ Project
The Big knitters
The City Gent Fanzine
The Sharing Tree
Thornbury Community Development Services (TCDS)
ToNE (Tamils of North East)
Topic Folk Club
Village Pavilion
