Bradford Visual Arts Festival
OUR TURN is designed and led by artists and delivered by South Square Centre in collaboration with Bradford 2025 UK City of Culture, Yorkshire Contemporary and Bradford Producing Hub. The festival is supported by Arts Council England, Yorkshire Visual Arts Network and commissioned by Bradford 2025.
We’ll be TURNing up and TURNing out the best of Bradford’s visual arts in the first Bradford Visual Arts Festival.
OUR TURN brings together new and established artforms, and supports artists and audiences at all stages of their creative journeys.
From print to paint, sculpture to stitch, district-wide, emerging and established, OUR TURN is an ambitious new artist-led festival designed by Bradford artists, organised by South Square Centre in collaboration with Bradford 2025 UK City of Culture, Bradford Producing Hub and Yorkshire Contemporary.
OUR TURN expects to be bold, experimental and authentically Bradford.
OUR TURN takes place between 26th September – 28th January 2026 in venues and unusual spaces across the city. This festival will enable artists to be more ambitious, provide training for a new generation of culture makers and inspire a range of people to be excited by art which is ‘Made IN Bradford’. The festival will celebrate Bradford’s rich counter cultural scene and create an accessible platform which will reach new art goers in Bradford, underserved communities and loyal arts audiences.
The South Square team aims to include in this festival a series of events, commissions, learning opportunities, exhibitions, workshops and more, all across the Bradford district. By working closely with artists in and from Bradford, OUR TURN will be shaped and led by the artists themselves.
The OUR TURN programme aims to support Bradford’s visual arts sector by:
■ Trialling the first district wide visual arts festival in Bradford, with the aim to become a Biennial event.
■ Creating a series of commissioning opportunities for visual artists to develop their practice, increase ambition and learn new skills.
■ Showcasing the quality and talent of the visual arts sector, demonstrating the need for greater investment.
■ Promoting and enhancing audience engagement with the Bradford’s visual arts community through active participation, conversation and sharing.
■ Developing freelancer, co-operative, and organisational relationships within the local creative sector.
■ Developing a talks and training offer for Bradford’s visual arts sector.
■ Working with Bradford 2025 UK City of Culture to spotlight and amplify artists from the region.
■ Optimising a time when the world’s visual arts community will look to Bradford, as it hosts Turner Prize 2025
About South Square Centre
South Square Centre is a collection of 19th Century Grade II workers cottages in the old Yorkshire village of Thornton just 5 miles from the City of Bradford.
Renovated as a community arts and heritage centre in 1982, South Square Centre is now home to ten studio spaces for a variety of artists, an art gallery, community spaces, archive, fine art framers, bar, and cafe.
South Square Gallery plays an important part in the cultural life of Thornton by providing community exhibitions, events, and workshops alongside a contemporary arts programme; it is committed to providing a platform and opportunities for new artists and curators.
In March 2020, South Square Centre received £1.3m investment from the National Lottery Heritage Fund, Arts Council England and Garfield Weston Foundation to undertake a capital refurbishment and a three-year programme of heritage activities which will highlight local industrial heritage, Thornton as the birthplace of the Brontë’s, and South Square’s own history as a grassroots cultural arts centre.
About Bradford 2025
Bradford 2025 UK City of Culture (Bradford 2025) runs from January 2025 to December 2025 and is a celebration of Bradford city and district, taking place across its city, towns, villages and greenspaces. It will showcase the rich history of the area and spotlight its dynamic contemporary culture in all forms; dance and theatre, music and film, visual arts and crafts, food and sport.
Bradford 2025 is created for, with and by the people of Bradford – and it has young people at its heart. With more than a quarter of its population aged under 20, Bradford is one of the UK’s youngest cities. Bradford 2025 is proudly reflecting this youth across all aspects of its programme, from education, skills and training projects to new artistic commissions centred on the lives, concerns and ambitions of young people today.
Bradford 2025 UK City of Culture is delivered by Bradford Culture Company, a charity supported by public investment from HM Government, Bradford Metropolitan District Council, West Yorkshire Combined Authority and through National Lottery funding from Arts Council England, The National Lottery Heritage Fund, The National Lottery Community Fund, Spirit of 2012, British Film Institute and a number of trusts, foundations and corporate sponsors.
About Yorkshire Contemporary
Yorkshire Contemporary is an arts organisation based in Leeds. We work across the region creating exciting opportunities for people to experience ambitious and inspiring contemporary art for free, through exhibitions, commissions and public programmes. Artist-centred in all we do, we provide professional development activities for early career artists, creating national and international networks. We champion art and play, supporting our communities to be creative. Between 2013 and 2023 we were known as The Tetley, where we supported over 1200 artists including co-commissioning Tai Shani’s Turner Prize winning exhibition Semiramis.
About Bradford Producing Hub
Bradford Producing Hub (BPH) is a charity and arts development organisation on a mission to create a fairer, more representative arts ecology in Bradford. They support artists, creative freelancers and micro-organisations across the district through funding, training and development, mentoring and care.
In 2023, they were appointed Cultural Capacity Partner for Bradford 2025 to help the sector's continued development before, during and after our UK City of Culture year.