Bookbinding workshop with Deb Eck, Thursday 10th August

We are delighted to welcome U.S based book artist Deb Eck to Wur Bradford to run a very special bookbinding workshop with us.

Deb is an internationally exhibited book and installation artist who works primarily with paper, text and thread. She is most well known in the book arts community for her translations of historic embroidery designs into functional binding designs. Originally from Essex in the UK, she has lived and worked in upstate New York for over 20 years. Eck received a BFA in painting from the University at Buffalo and an MA in Visual Culture from the University of Northumbria in Newcastle (UK). She teaches as an adjunct at Jamestown Community College and Fredonia State University, and for many other arts and cultural organizations.
She has been the recipient of many grants and awards; most recently she was named the Distinguished Artist for 2017 by Cattaraugus County Arts Council.
http://debraeck.com/

About the workshop

This workshop will cover a series of one, two and three signature bindings, perfect for zine makers, poets and others wanting to make/publish small books. Each technique builds on the one before, to make increasingly complex bindings that can be used on paper or leather covers. The workshop is suitable for those with no previous book binding experience, but experienced binders may find some new ways to approach the simple pamphlet.

Materials are provided, though please feel free to bring anything you would like to use.
The workshop will run from 1pm till 3pm, but please feel free to come at our usual opening time of 12pm, for conversation and a cuppa beforehand. You can find us in Kirkgate Market (above the shopping Centre) opposite Home From Home Cafe.

The workshop is free but we have limited places. Please email us wurbradford@gmail.com to book your place.

The Greatest Show on Earth: Food Walk and Poetry Trail at Oastler Market, Saturday 20th May

‘The Greatest Show on Earth’

Food Walk & Poetry Trail @ Oastler Market

Food Walk
Come to the most talked about market in Bradford with Oastler Traders, Wur Bradford & The Sparrow Cafe as your guide. As Bradford City kicks off so does Oastler Market with its first Urban Food Forage, if you’re an experienced foodie or complete newbie this is the food walk for you. Meet the traders who can show you the true secrets within the market and taste the many foods. After the forage we finish at The Sparrow Cafe with a platter of food and a craft beer. The Sparrow Cafe gets all its food produce from the Market throughout the year, this is absolutely FREE but spaces are limited.

Tour highlights:
– Go around the world through taste, get to try food from the small traders of Oastler.
– Discover the ‘Lost Art of Market Shopping.’ How to shop in a market from your Vegman, Fish monger and Butcher
– Look at seasonal and local produce including exotic produce from around the world and how to cook with them
– Meet the ‘Spice Man’ who happens to be the nicest man on earth!
– Hear The History of Butchers in ‘My first words were 2 pound 17 & 6’ by John Smith and see the Butchers Mile

The Tour will last approximately 1 hour, finishing a The Sparrow Cafe. To book contact Wurbradford@gmail.com

Poetry Trail
Poetry has gone MASSIVE! Can you spot the poetry that will be up on Stalls of Oastler on #LoveMarkets day. Wur Bradford & Traders are inviting you to get lost in the world of the market and the words of local artists who will premier their back catalogue of work including
Steve Lunn
Florence Remmer
Kirsty Taylor
Rob Hall
& Many More

The work will be up 11am- 4pm in Oastler Market on the 20th May
Poetry Reading 2pm Fountains Cafe

Poetry Sharing ‘Bring us your poetry!’

Come to the 1970s iconic ‘Fountain Cafe’ for their FIRST ever poetry sharing hosted by Wur Bradford & Poets of the Trail. There will be Tea & Cake at 2pm as artist read their work. Feel free to bring your own poetry to share, swap and talk poetry.

Self Guided Walks.
Can’t make those times! Self guided walks now available. New work from Jean McEwan will provide you with a map to follow so you create your own self guided walk. Pick up at the front entrance.

This event has been brought to you by Wur Bradford in collaboration with Oastler traders Bradford Markets  and The Sparrow Cafe for Love Your Local Market fortnight a campaign celebrating British markets #LYLM2017

Paper bags and poetry

 

Come and get involved on our new Paper Bags and Poetry project at Wur Bradford this Thursday 13th April!
We are creating images on paper bags and then finding or writing poems inside each bag which responding to each image
We’ll be displaying the bags we have made at the final Wild Woods party at the old Marks  and Spencer this Saturday  4-9pm – event details here!.  This will be a very special event, not to be missed, by the amazing Brickbox – we are delighted to be part if it.

Drop in any time on Thursday between 12-3pm to the Wur Bradford art space to make your own paper bag  – We are in Kirkgate Market, the stall opposite Home From Home Cafe.

Bring a poem/poetry books for inspiration or have a look through ours. All are welcome, including small people!

About us

Wur Bradford (Wur means ‘we are’ or ‘our’  is an independent grassroots arts project which is about exploring how we can make our city and our world better through imagination and collective action.  Run by artists Jean McEwan, Chemaine Cooke and  Uzma Kazi,  Wur work with people to explore how creativity might be used to make empower us and connect us.
Our activities are led by the people who we work with, and have included a wide range of things from  workshops, events, projects, campaigns and discussions. We ran regular weekly sessions in a stall in Kirkgate Market for 2 and a half years from 2015 – 2017,  and we also work in  public spaces and venues throughout the city. We regularly work in partnership with and for other organisations Bradford and have done projects in collaboration with Bradford Council, Impressions Gallery, South Square Gallery, The Brick Box, University of Bradford, Bradford Civic Society, Purple Patch Arts to name but a few.

In 2017 we also ran a year long action research project ‘Power Up Creative Resistance’, exploring creative responses to social and political shifts, in collaboration with University of Bradford’s Peace Studies ‘Thinkspace’ groups, funded by Joseph Rowntree Foundation.

In 2018 we ran a project in Oastler Market called WE ARE HERE, which was celebrating it’s unique history, communities and stories,  working with market traders, members of the public and BCB community radio to tell the stories of the Market and its people through guided walks, printed ‘zines and sound. We shared this work at an exhibition at arts space Kala Sangam after the project.

To get an idea of some of the things we have done ( everything from creative  workshops to bannermaking to art parties to zine-making , self publishing fairs and guided walks) watch the slideshow below, and you can also watch a short video about Wur Bradford, made in late 2015 here at our space in Kirkgate Market.

We are currently looking at how how we can put our respond best to the challenging times we are living in. A new website is coming soon, which we will be updating soon with our plans. In the meantime, take care of yourselves and each other, and stay safe.

With love

Jean, Uzma and Chemaine, July 2020

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Responding to Regression – Time to tool up!

Responding to Regression – Time to tool up!

Saturday 3rd December

12pm – 4pm
WUR Bradford, Kirkgate Market (Above Kirkgate Shopping Centre opposite Home From Home cafe)

In response to the Trumpifcation of America and Brexit we are in need of solidarity and skills to ensure and overcome the regression taking place cross the world.

Bradical collective  together with Wur Bradford would like you to come along to a day of solidarity and action.

We want you to share your thoughts, ideas and turn them in to action.

Share ideas of how to:

• Combat islamophobia

• How do we talk to people, friends and family who align themselves with proponents of hate.

• Responding to macro and micro aggressions in daily life

• Reporting hate crime

• Self-care – y’know, staying sane and avoid getting blue.

 

We will compile our ideas in to a collective zine which we hope to print on the day so you have copies to take away and share with others afterwards

 

There will be tea and floor cushions, accompanied by snacks, awesome snacks..’cos its winter and we need this!

 

All are warmly welcome, children too!

 

Make a birthday card for William Blake

On 28th November,  we are hosting a celebration for Britain’s best loved poet-artist- visionary -revolutionary, William Blake, who was born on that day in 1757.
The author of Songs of Innocence and Experience and Jerusalem,  and a rebel in thought and art, Blake was largely unrecognised in his lifetime and considered mad by his contemporaries, but his genius has since been acknowledged and he is now considered one of the greatest artists of all time.
We will be celebrating his influence and contribution through  Blake inspired performances, readings of his poems, an exhibition, a commemorative publication,  library, and cake. There will also be  creative activities for people to get involved in .
We invite you to make William Blake a birthday card for the event, which will be shown as part of the mini exhibition and collected into a special commemorative limited edition publication to be available on the day.
Cards can contain text, image or be a combination of both. They need to be A5 in size (ie a folded A4). Send your original cards to us at

Wur Bradford
℅ Jean McEwan
63 Nelson Street
Cross Roads
Keighley
BD22 9EA

by Monday 23rd November. Please include an SAE for  the return of your card.
For any queries, contact  us via email at Wurbradford@gmail.com

This event is coordinated by Wur Bradford in collaboration with artists Terry Greene and Jean McEwan

Grateful thanks to Bradford Council and Bradford Markets for their ongoing support of Wur Bradford