The Triumph of Love in Bradford

The Triumph of Love  is an ambitious new art project by people at Wur Bradford.

 

Inspired by the creative energy and collective love that has been springing up in our city over the past few months – from the ‘Bradford Says Everyone Stays’ vigil in July  which people at Wur created banners, posters and placards for, to the successful #LoveBradford world record attempt which created a chain of 2,331 people making the heart-shaped hand gesture, The Triumph of Love is a statement of intent, hope and imagination.

It is a creative celebration of our love and ambition for Bradford,  and will take many forms including artworks, creative interventions, happenings  and discussions, which will be popping up around the city over the coming months.
The Triumph of Love will be a truly collective venture – and we invite people to bring ideas and get involved.  If you have an idea for something we would love to help you make it happen!

We will be springing up in a variety of spaces and events over the coming weeks and months, including at ‘Reflections’ creative event in Lister Park on 15th October part of the Listers Lantern Parade and also at The Wild Woods Bradford  after dark adventure events in Darley Street in October with our friends at Brickbox

To warm us up we will be running some creative workshops at  Wur artspace in Kirkgate Market over the next few weeks:

Saturday 24nd September:
1-3pm
The Triumph of Love: Lantern making
Join theatre designer and  Wur Bradford artist Uzma Kazi to make special ‘3D light zines’  celebrating DIY Bradford creativity, and featuring Bradford places and people we love. These will become part of our Triumph of Love interactive installation space at the Reflections event and will join the Listers Lantern Parade

Thursday 29th September
12-2pm
The Triumph of Love: Make Your Message
Join Wur volunteer Dilwar and artist Jean McEwan in a collage session to make images containing messages, quotes and inspirations of love and hope.  These will become part of our mobile Triumph of Love decorations which we’ll be adding to and taking around the city in  the coming months. Bring your own message or stories or take inspiration from ours!

Thursday 13th October
Triumph of Love: The Big Make-In
12-3pm
Join artists Uzma Kazi, Chemaine Cooke and Jean McEwan in a massive love themed make-in session – to create lanterns, banners, decorations and costumes in readiness for our outings to The Wild Woods and Reflections events in October

All the sessions are free and everyone is welcome! Feel free to come for the whole sessions or to drop in. You can find us at the back of Kirkgate Market, opposite Home From Home Cafe

Saturday 15th October
4 – 6.30pm
‘Reflections’ in Lister Park
Join us at  the Reflections creative event Lister Park in our specially  created Triumph of Love installation space –  a place to feel connected, welcomed and creative.
– Get involved in a making light collages  with an overhead projector with cutout words and images, transparencies and objects
– Be captured in movement through photography and collage yourself  into one of our ‘3D light zines’  along with Bradford places and people and messages to become part of Listers Lantern Parade.
– Come and tell us your own stories about The Triumph of Love

There will also be a host of other creative people, happenings and activities happening, including dance, music and creative workshops , before we all take part in Listers Lantern Parade at 6.30pm.

We look forward to seeing you at the workshops and events! To get in touch with us email wurbradford@gmail.com

This Thursday 25th August: #LoveBradford badgemaking and the ‘Lucky Bag’ game

Join us this Thursday any time between 12-3pm when we’ll be doing loads of good stuff
– Make a love themed badge for the upcoming ‪#‎lovebradford‬ upcoming world record attempt in September (more info here https://www.bradford.gov.uk/lovebradford)

Find out and get involved in our Mapping The Market creative project. Join Dilwar in making a 3D model of Kirkgate Market, and take part in our ‘Lucky Bag Game’ with objects bought from the stall in the market. You’re also invited to peruse our research so far and bring your own ideas to the project as it develops.
As always, everyone is welcome!

Looking back at June and July

We’ve had a packed couple of months, with loads going on – we’ve been involved in lots of different activities both at our base in our stall in Kirkgate Market and at events around the city, some planned and some completely spontaneous and responsive.

We were delighted to be part of Bradford Refugee Week this year, taking part in the Refugee Festival at Bradford University on 4th June, where we ran an instant book workshop, and we met many fantastic, creative kids and young people who made books like these

We also took part in Bradford Refugee Week exhibition, ‘Welcome’, in June and produced a collective zine of the same name, containing reflections, writing and images in response to the theme, which was given out free as part of the exhibition.

We still have a few copies left- they are available via our online shop for  £1 plus postage – all proceeds going to BIASAN ((Bradford Immigration & Asylum Support & Advice Network)

On 11th June we were delighted to help host an event called ‘Rubbish Ideas’  as part of the very first Bradford Open Source Economy Day organised by Bob Thorpe and Richard Dillon from Fairmondo, the UK’s first cooperatively owned ethical marketplace.

We watched a film about upcycling and talked about how we could start to imagine Bradford as a zero waste city. Julie brought in some sewing she is working on, making curtains from upcycled fabrics, and we shared ideas for how we can connect and use our energies and resources.Thanks to Richard and Bob for bringing such a great conversation to the space – these are ideas we will be thinking about and hoping to connect with people on in the future.

In the week running up to the EU referendum, we hosted an informal lunchtime discussion, with Bradford IWW trade union member and friend of Wur Altaf Arif. Many thanks to Altaf, and to our friend Lisa Cumming from Programme For a Peaceful City

co-hosted an event at Bradford University in the weeks before and who were generous enough to share their resources, information and time to help us explore the issues at Wur. It was a really valuable space to talk through our thoughts,  and to try to understand the issues.

On June 25th, we hosted a writing workshop ‘Tales of Transformation’ as part of our Season of Change programme,  with Bradford author Elizabeth Hopkinson.

Elizabeth, primarily a writer of fantasy fiction who has published in both short story and novel form, led us through a wonderful  workshop where we generated ideas of change and transformation through storytelling. It was a very welcome space for us to be able to do explore ideas and thoughts through fiction at such a heightened time as the Brexit result just announced the day before. Many thanks to Elizabeth for facilitating such a sensitive and thoughtful workshop – it was so good.

We put together our second collective zine, on the theme of COMMUNITY, the following week in time for the Printing Communities exhibition event at South Square

 

 

We’re really proud of our zine,  which contains stories and experiences and explorations on ideas of community via writing, drawing and collage, made by members and friends of Wur Bradford. Themes include Ramadan, Bradford City football team, the story of a community garden, reflections on post Brexit racism and strategies for surviving far right popular crises, and the power of smiling to feel connected to others. The zine is dedicated to the late Jo Cox MP,  tragically murdered on 16th June, who said
“We are far more united and have far more in common that things that divide us”

Many thanks to all our friends in Bradford and beyond who took time to contribute. There are still copies available of the zine at our online shop for £1 plus postage.All proceeds go to Bradford Immigration & Asylum Support & Advice Network (BIASAN) 

We were  proud to be part of ‘Bradford Says Everyone Stays’ vigil on 13th July, which was initiated and organised by Bradford theatre maker Javaad Alipoor in response to concerns about post Brexit racism and attacks happening around the country. The vigil brought many people together in solidarity to show that our city of Bradford would not be divided and that we stand together against racism and for love. We hosted several drop in sessions at the stall to make banners and posters for the event.

Being able to be involved in the event gave us hope – we were inspired by the many people came down to help make banners, signs and posters  and so happy to see these being part of the event, which brought 500 people together in a powerful statement of unity and solidarity with all our communities.

We leave July still processing all the tumultuous world and political events of the past months and feeling unsure what is ahead of us, but with an overriding  feeling of pride and hope in our city, and with a sense of purpose to carry on with our part in  it, by connecting people through creativity however and whenever we can.

Thank you to everyone who has contributed in so many different ways over the past couple of months – onwards and upwards!

Wur Bradford is generously supported by Bradford Council, Bradford Markets and  Two28

June events at Wur Bradford

Here’s a list of our June events which has everything from  workshops in creative writing and collective  zinemaking to a day of ‘Rubbish Ideas’ exploring how we can imagine a zero-waste Bradford. These events are all part of our  ‘Season of Change‘ – looking at the changes we want to make in ourselves, our communities, our city and the wider world. Come along and get involved! All of our events are free and open to all

You can find the Wur Bradford stall at the back of Kirkgate Market (above the shopping centre) opposite Home From Home cafe)

Saturday 4th June
Wur  Bradford at Bradford Refugee Festival, University of Bradford
10-3pm

This is a free festival with food, poetry, music, workshops, football tournaments and plenty of stalls to keep the whole family entertained!

Happening at

University of Bradford Union, Student Central, 
Longside Lane
, BD7 1SA

Wur Bradford will be running a drop in creative workshop showing people how to make ‘instant books’  (sometimes also called ‘zines’ – handmade, self published magazines) with collage, drawing and words.

 
Thursday 9th June
12-3pm
Exploring ideas of  WELCOME and EXCHANGE, and RAMADAN

‘Welcome Spell’ from ‘The Bradford Book of Modern Spells’ by friend of Wur, Mike Barrett

We will be making artwork and a collective ‘zine (hand-made magazine) on the theme of ‘Welcome’ for Bradford Refugee Week exhibition which will be taking place at 5 John Street, Bradford (outside Oastler Market) 20th – 25th June. Come join us and get involved!
We will also be looking at the idea of ‘Exchange’  and how we can share support, knowledge, skills and resources –  and asking:
What do you need?
What can you offer?

In the first week of this special month of Ramadan, our regular volunteer Mohammed will also be sharing personal experiences and reflections of fasting and faith.

 

 

Saturday 11th June
“Rubbish Ideas”: looking at waste and how we can remake and reuse things
1pm – 3pm

Join us at for a fun, creative session of sharing and workshopping ideas on how to find new uses for “rubbish” and change the way we value resources.
Activities will include a look at the inspirational Precious Plastic project; mapping Bradford districts’ existing circular economies and developing our own ideas.
‘Rubbish Ideas’ is part of the very first Bradford Open Source Circular Economy day – to  more about this international  movement and events happening elsewhere, at https://oscedays.org/
Before the session there will be a “Don’t Skip Breakfast” meet up at ‘Pay As You Feel’ cafe Saltaire Canteen, from 9 – 10.30am – where OSCE Days Bradford are hosting a drop in breakfast (PAYF) for anyone who wants to find out more and develop our own Bradford district based Open Sourced Circular Economy solutions.There will be talk and toast about all things circular and open sourced! The Canteen is one of the growing number of Real Junk Food cafes dedicated to ending food waste and poverty and is such is brilliant of example of how thinking differently. By combining a Pay As You Feel model with using good food that would otherwise be dumped, Real Junk Food Cafes are demonstrating that different values can operate successfully on the high street and solve problems.

 
Thursday  16th and 23rd June
12-3pm
Exploring ideas of COMMUNITY

Join us in making a collective ‘zine on the theme of ‘Community’ which will be part of  a Wur Bradford  zine stall at the ‘Printing Communities‘ event and exhibition at South Square Gallery  – event on Friday 1st July. (5-8pm, all welcome – posters,zines,  printmaking, workshops and pizza!)

 
Saturday 25th June
Tales of Transformation writing workshop with Bradford writer Elizabeth Hopkinson
1pm – 2.30pm

Join Elizabeth to hear the traditional Breton tale of Bisclavret, a medieval knight with a strange secret – he’s a werewolf!  Then have a go at writing your own tale of transformation, using Bisclavret’s story to help you.  We’ll be thinking about guilty secrets, unpunished crimes, and the changes we all go through in life.This workshop is suitable for all abilities, from beginners to experienced writers.
NB The workshop is free but places must booked in advance – email wurbradford@gmail.com to book your place

Elizabeth Hopkinson is a local writer of over 50 published short stories, many of which are inspired by traditional tales.  She is currently working on a novel series set in a fantasy version of 18th-century Italy

Wur Bradford is a collective,  inclusive arts and social space open to the public and to anyone who wants to connect, explore and imagine how we can make Bradford a better place. Wur Bradford is supported by Bradford Council, Bradford Markets and Two28.

 

Open Ideas sessions at Wur Bradford

Over the next couple of weeks, on Thursday 25th May and Thursday 2nd June, we will be running two Open Ideas Sessions at Wur Bradford to share ideas for events, activities and workshops for the coming months.

Our theme for Spring/Summer is Season of Change, looking at how through imagination, creative action and coming together we can make changes we want to see personally, locally in Bradford, and globally in the world.

If you have an idea for something that could happen in our vibrant market stall space, come down anytime between 12-3  on Thursday 26th May or Thursday 2nd June and share it with us. We are open to any and all ideas that explore change in some way – it could be a skill you want to share or learn, a discussion you would like to have, a subject you would like to talk about or find out about, an exhibition, a performance, a project idea or just an opportunity to chat and connect with other people in an inclusive and diverse space open to all.

Together we can talk about your ideas and see if we can make them happen. Everyone is welcome, come along and be a part of a growing  group of  friendly people  exploring imagination, community and change!

The Wur Bradford  stall is at the back of Kirkgate Market, opposite Home From Home Cafe, near the Westgate entrance to the market.

Wur Bradford is  an art and social space situated in a market stall in Bradford’s Kirkgate Market, exploring connections between creativity, community and change. The project is generously supported by Bradford Council, Bradford Markets and  Two28

Blake and Cake: a Birthday Party for William Blake

Blake and Cake: a Birthday Party for William Blake
In honour of his 258th birthday

SATURDAY 28TH NOVEMBER, 12-3PM

Featuring:
Mini exhibition
Commemorative publication
Readings
Performances
Blake Sound Box
Dark Satanic Mills cake
Giveaways

Wur Bradford art stall
Kirkgate Market (opposite Home From Home Cafe)
Above Kirkgate Shopping Centre
Bradford BD1 1QX

FREE ALL WELCOME FULLY ACCESSIBLE

Blake and Cake is co-ordinated by Wur Bradford in collaboration with artists Terry Greene and Jean McEwan. Event poster by Terry Greene.

Blake and Cake is part of a creative markets events programme at Wur Bradford, supported by Bradford Council and Bradford Markets.

CUT N’ PASTE: A Day of collage at Wur Bradford, Saturday 26th September

A day celebrating all things collage at the Wur Bradford art stall in Kirkgate Market.

SATURDAY 26TH SEPTEMBER: 12 – 3PM:

MINI EXHIBITION

LIVE COLLAGE

ALTERED IMAGES

Come along, alter a postcard, photograph, or album cover, make your own collage, or contribute to a collaborative wall collage.

FREE, ALL WELCOME. FAMILY FRIENDLY

Feel free to bring your own materials, though we will have plenty.

Making, sharing talking and giving: Last week in the stall

The stall is getting busier by the week, with lots of people coming by to make things, chat, share their creative skills and donate to our Bradford Metropolitan Foodbank donations box.

We are really delighted to have so many visitors and so many different kinds of people getting involved and getting to know each other.

Here’s just some of the things people did in the stall last week.

David Cameron, by Graham Binns

Local artist Bernie Perfitt
came on Thursday to do kids art sessions. They were a big hit, and she has kindly offered to come every Thursday.

Kids doing painting and pastelling with Bernie

Regular visitor Ian made this thoughtful piece

Aysha and her sister dropped in – their parents run a stall in the market. Aysha made this great page for our collective zine

Ann Marie is making a zine about her experiences as a disabled person and the barriers she faces in people’s attitudes and getting around.

Our Bradford Met Foodbank donations box is filling up but we need more donations!

Good news – the project continues till the end of September!

We are delighted to announce that the Wur Bradford project will be extending to the end of September! There are so many great things happening in the market stall we are delighted to be able to continue – many thanks to Bradford Markets and Bradford Council for their support making this happen.

We’ll still be open on Tuesdays and Thursdays – but from next week (the 11th August) we’ll be opening 11am – 3pm until the end of September.
Come down and get involved or pop in for a chat – all are welcome!

Today at the stall

Adding some text to the windows.. writing backwards is hard!

Artist and all round fine fellow Edward came to visit, bringing coffee and good cheer. He entertained us with stories of his art adventures in Cleakheaton, and drew us lots of pictures for the wall.

A lady I recognised from my residency last year at Oastler Market, Jackie, passed by the stall. She came in for a sit down and a chat. Jackie is doing a course in photography and she told me and David about a photographic project she did recently at The New Beehive Inn, a historic Bradford pub, parts of which are still lit by gaslight. She is going to bring is some of her photographs and drawings to put on the wall

Lovely to see Ann Marie again. She had time to make a quick collage before going off to do some shopping

After the stall closed I popped up to BCB Radio (Bradford Community Radio) to record a chat with Uzma and Carl from The Catalyst Collective for their programme on austerity. We talked about some examples of ways people were responding to and resisting austerity in Bradford, and I talked about my hope that the Wur Bradford stall could be a space for that. Carl talked about the football team he runs with a group of Bradford based asylum seekers – I was really moved by some of the stories he told.

As I was going for the bus, I bumped into Chris and Jan from the Caravan Gallery who are in Bradford for the month, with their exhibition at Impressions Gallery and their Bradford Pride of Place participatory project which is hosted by the lovely folks at Fuse Arts Space. Here’s Jan at Fuse where they are putting the exhibition up ready for the opening on Thursday. Glad to say there will be some Wur Bradford art there too!