Big plans for Bradford city centre arts venue - including new theatre

Kala Sangam will undergo a major refurbishment in time for 2025, making it a central part of Bradford’s City of Culture year.

The changes, revealed today, will see the Little Germany building “become a bigger, more welcoming and accessible space” – as well as developing a new archive to celebrate the centre’s 30-year history.

Work will be partly funded by a £295,000 grant from the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

Specialising in South Asian arts, Kala Sangam is based in the grand St Peter's House building, opposite the Broadway Shopping Centre.

The Grade II listed building dates back to the 1880s, when it was built as Bradford’s General Post Office.

It hosts numerous arts events and performances, but is currently hampered by the awkward layout and a small entrance.

Announcing the plans, a spokesman for Kala Sangam said: “Our ambitious plans will see the company take over the ground of our building, putting in a new 200 seat theatre, creating four new studio spaces, opening up a new prominent, easy to find front entrance and installing a new lift to give access to all floors.

How the ground floor of Kala Sangam could look (Image: newsquest)

“We hope to begin work on our building in January 2024 and the reopen in 2025 as a major milestone in the City of Culture programme.

“We are delighted to have received £295,758 from The National Lottery Heritage Fund to begin the development phase of this project. This funding will enable us to secure planning permission and support us in the creation of an archive celebrating our 30 year history.

"Funding will also support us to employ our new Head of Community Engagement to work with communities in the city to explore their own heritage, and that of the building, and empower those communities to co-programme and shape our future delivery.”

Last week, the arts organisation was told that its annual funding from the Arts Council would be rising from £100,000 a year to £362,000.

Kala Sangam (Image: newsquest)

The organisation said this extra funding "will allow us to programme more dance, theatre, music and poetry and increase our support for artists, focusing particularly on Bradford based artists and those working in South Asian Artforms.”

Creative Director Alex Croft said: “At a time when our audiences have been increasing each and every year we know that, for some, our building is just not accessible, particularly as our public lift is too small and very unreliable. This crucial funding is the first step on the road to us changing that, creating a bigger, more open and accessible space for all communities in Bradford.”