2 weeks Ago
SHANAZ Gulzar, co-leader of Bradford 2025, and Dan Bates, co-leader and executive director, are confident that the UK City of Culture title will have benefits for Bradford beyond the end of 2025. Key elements of the year that are merging is the pride that Bradfordians are showing in their area, how the perception of Bradford is changing as a city, how confidence is growing from people within the city and how the UK City of Culture can help the citizens of Bradford become more active via projects such as Easy on Foot. When comparing it to culture and the arts in terms of a legacy, Gulzar said: “I don’t think that it is more difficult.
It is not just about what we will deliver. It is not just about one thing, one organisation, one person. “It is about taking in the success of this year - I am staying on that positive message and we are doing well - and seeing how sport can navigate and bring in more investment, more opportunity.
“Confidence attracts confidence and this is a confident City of Culture and I am hoping that everyone will benefit from that.” Bates added: “We have a vast number of impacts and things that we will be assessed against, but the one that we believe in most is pride and perception - pride in the district, and the perception of Bradford and the Bradford district . “Sports plays a great part in pride via professional and non-professional teams, grass-roots activities.
The more people who enjoy the City of Culture year, be that coming to an exhibition or participating, the better, and also we have a large amount of people volunteering. “It is also about, for example, young people playing in a tournament, and that is going to make a huge difference and that should continue.” Gulzar revealed: “One of the great stories to come out of RISE (the City of Culture launch event in January) was that all different abilities were part of it aerially, even those performing in a wheelchair.
“It involved young people, old people, everyone in the circus aspect, and at the start of that event a lot of the participants had never done anything like this. They were a bit nervous and they may have said ‘I will go three foot off the ground’, and by the end of it they were swinging their right arms. “Their level of confidence on their physicality - what their bodies could do from where they started to where they finished - was huge, and we have a show that we are devising at the moment and we did a call-out for people who are interested in learning aerial skills.
“We were looking for about 15 performers and we have had over 100 applicants, and that just goes to show the opportunity to bring different forms together. People may have thought ‘I don’t want to do that’, but now they want to do it and be a part of it. “We have a hell of a task on our hands now, and it won’t just be able-bodied people who we bring through.
It will be across generations, across abilities and it will be about what stories they want to tell. It won’t just be for the young people.” Looking at the City of Culture overall in its fourth month, Gulzar said: “I am really proud of how Bradfordians have taken it to their heart, and not just Bradfordians as it feels like we have a fan base across the UK.
“It feels like Bradford have always had champions, but now it feels like it has been multiplied, and everyone is brighter, louder, their backs are straighter, there is pride, and long may that continue. “We are the agitators of that pride but we want that to continue beyond 2025.” Bates added: “It is all of that, but there are some big things coming that we haven’t been able to announce yet, and the announcement that Bradford Live opening is a huge relief and a wonderful opportunity for the district.
“We’ve been on the hills of Ilkley and Haworth and all over the place, and there is great stuff happening. I know that we thinking about sport, but there is also thinking about fitness as well - getting people walking out on the hills.” Gulzar revealed: “The project is called Easy on Foot, which is 25 walks that have been chosen, selected, shared by schoolchildren, walking groups, older people.
It is the people of Bradford saying ‘these are the walks that we want everybody in Bradford and all over the UK and the world to do’. “That is a knowledge of Bradford that a lot of people don’t have and we are so lucky and grateful that we are so close to rural - fell runners, hikers, walking, the moors - and we don’t always understand the power of walking when it comes to strengthening and strength training, and also what marathons, long-distance runs - what it does to your body, what it does for your health. “But it’s also the friendship, the camaraderie that comes from being outdoors or laughing at each other because you have sideways rain across the moors.
“It is all of that, and the City of Culture is about creating opportunities to bring people together, and that is what sport, the arts and culture can do.”.
