Live music, dementia friendly show, and food festival given funding

The Leap, a creative programme funded by Arts Council England and Bradford Council, has been working with the community to decide how to spend the cultural pot of cash. 

The latest recipients of grants have been chosen by local people, bringing celebrations of art, culture, and heritage to different BD postcodes. 

Reaching across the Bradford and Keighley area, around 140 individual projects will now receive support anywhere between £250 and £10,000.

It marks a milestone moment as a total of £1 million in funding and support is invested into grassroots communities.

Among the brand new ideas being supported to be brought to life in the coming months are a children’s food festival, where youngsters can sample a diverse range of culinary delights. 

Jayne Webster of Bradford's School of Rock (Image: Asif Ahmed)

Bradford’s ‘School of Rock’ hopes to put on a music festival and fun day, where young people will showcase their talent on the stage.

Meanwhile an audio-visual exhibition and performance by Ato Atme is hoped to explore young people’s mental health through music and interstellar space.

Artist and musician Ato Atme (Image: Asif Ahmed)

Dr Andrea Capstick, who works with people with early onset dementia, will be supported to co-create and perform their own improvisational, dementia-friendly show.

“I think that people who have dementia are often excluded from the arts and culture sector, not deliberately,” said Dr Capstick.

“They are often less involved in creating art. Or if they do create art, it’s not put out into the public arena so people can see what they are doing and what’s still possible following a diagnosis of dementia.”

Dr Andrea Capstick, pictured (Image: Asif Ahmed)

Dozens of smaller projects will also be created and developed via The Leap’s newest cohort of fourteen Creative Place Partners.

These are voluntary and community organisations who will work with groups and individuals in their own neighbourhoods to promote and nurture new ideas.

Zulfiqar Ahmed, director at The Leap, says: “We had an extraordinary response to our mass callout for community-led culture project ideas. 

“This million-pound injection of help will be a stepping stone for some great community-led  ideas to be developed with The Leap’s help - and to ultimately have a chance to truly shine. We can’t wait to see so many new, fantastic, creative ideas come to life.”

Osman Gondal, operations director at The Leap, said: “We’ve had the community at the heart of every decision we have made. Our panels were made up of community members, the decisions were made by the community, and that’s the thing we pride ourselves on - that these are decisions made by the community for the community.

“It’s really community-led culture - we’ve always kept that at the heart.”