A MAJOR new exhibition explores the stories of communities who have made Bradford home.

Above the Noise: 15 Stories, at the National Science and Media Museum from March 15 to June 19, explores the motivation and activism of communities in Bradford to improve their representation, respond to negative perceptions and create their own cultural environments.

Bringing together more than 250 objects and images, the exhibition is part of a research project launched by the Museum, working with Bradford Museums and Galleries, University of Leeds, Bradford Community Broadcasting (BCB), Alchemy, Tim Smith Photos and reading project Kahani.

It shows how people have recorded their histories, created new spaces and made political and social change. One section looks at how photography was used before many people had cameras. Images from the Belle Vue Studio, on Manningham Lane from 1926 to 1975, shows how communities settling in Bradford posed for formal portraits representing their new lives to families they left in other countries, and looks at how people communicated through cassette tape recordings rather than letters or phone calls, changing the nature of conversations across the world.

The exhibition also tells stories of Bradford’s Polish and Ukrainian communities, including those displaced by the Second World War who broadcast anti-Soviet radio programmes and smuggled literature across the Iron Curtain. Also displayed are works from the Bradford Heritage Recording Unit, run by Bradford Council 1983-2001 to create oral and photographic records of memories and everyday life; promotional material from Asian film clubs and Bhangra daytime discos, which led to the UK’s first mela in Bradford in 1988; and interviews with people approached to be ‘voices’ of Bradford when national media stories break. They include Dr Martin Baines QPM (Queen’s Police Medal), appointed Bradford’s first race relations officer from 1996. The exhibition also looks at the Asian Youth Movement - formed in the 1970s in response to racism - and the ‘Free the Bradford 12’ campaign of 1981.

Director of the National Science and Media Museum, Jo Quinton-Tulloch, said: “While these examples are unique to Bradford, themes of standing up for your identity, creating positive representation, or wanting to share your own stories are universal. As well as finding out more about this district and its people, the exhibition invites visitors to join the conversations and add their own stories of Bradford.”

Accompanying the exhibition are two artworks: Moon Sighting by Basir Mahmood, exploring Bradford as seen from Mirpur, Pakistan, and artist Amar Kanwar’s A Season Outside, a “personal and philosophical journey” through Pakistan and India border outpost Wagah-Atar.