The Leap: Community-led Heritage

heritAgE cOmmunity-Led

people powered projects

introdUction

also about recording the lived experiences of our communities in the present - and inspiring future generations. The sheer breadth of projects you’ll read about here demonstrates the enormous pride that communities in Bradford District have in their individual and collective heritage.

Helen Featherstone Director, England, North, at The National Lottery Heritage Fund

I am pleased to present this showcase of projects supported by The National Lottery Heritage Fund in partnership with The Leap and Bradford Council, as part of Bradford District’s Community-Led Heritage Grants programme.

Celebrating community heritage is one of the cornerstones of our ambitions at the Heritage Fund. Shining a light on these unique and often very personal stories can help bring people together, to feel pride in where they live, and to help make sense of the world by linking important chapters of local, national and international history. Heritage is not just about preserving the physical past, it’s

This programme received a huge number of applications, reflecting the big appetite in Bradford District for grassroots heritage storytelling, and allowing more people to become engaged with heritage as a result.

The Heritage Fund was proud to partner with The Leap and Bradford Council for this work, because they are the people who already live, work and play here, and who share your passion for your place, and for its endless possibilities.

I know that when it comes to heritage in Bradford District, this is just the tip of the iceberg.

And as we all look forward to Bradford 2025, I and the Heritage Fund hope to see many more ideas come to life through the Heritage Fund’s support – and for Bradford District’s communities to keep telling their heritage stories, their way.

Photo by: Roth Reed

ovErview

1. bradford book project

2. any old rag ‘n’ bones

5. scones and samosas

6. pitch and pair: freedom series

The Leap - empowering people to define what heritage means to themand tell THEIR heritage stories THEIR way.

3. special histories of bradford

4. bussing out

7.

palay dey khan: minority proverbs in a new land

8. commonwealth contribution memories

brAdford boOk projEct

30 pupils from Bowling Park Primary School created a unique and immersive picture book telling the heritage story of Bradford through young eyes.

The school sits in a hugely diverse community with families from across the world. However many of these groups feel they are underrepresented and underserved by the mainstream cultural and heritage sectors, and they traditionally engage very little with them. This project aimed to change that, by making young people the inspiration, the instigators AND the creators of the project.

Leading and shaping the project themselves, with guidance from teacher Fiona McCrudden - the children first visited key city heritage sites in the district. For many of them, it was their first up close experience of it. They combined this learning with revisiting their own family heritage, and interviewing family members.

heritage is… for all of us, no matter how old (or young) we are!

Fiona McCrudden, teacher, explains: “We wanted the book to connect to and represent every child in Bradford. Whether their families have lived here for generations, or they’ve travelled from far away… we wanted all children to see themselves and their histories in the book.”

With the help of a local author, an illustrator and a historian, the children then used all that learning to plan the content and images for the book, and worked together on the final product. Five free copies of the completed book will now be given out to every primary school in Bradford, ensuring even more children can engage directly with heritage for years to come.

any Old rAg ‘n’ Bones

Holmewood in Bradford is home to the largest population of ‘Rag n Bone’ people in the country (scrap metal collectors, some with Gypsy and Traveller heritage), who still use horses and carts.

Mostly young white working-class/low-income men, they’re growing up in one of Bradford’s most economically disadvantaged areas and have very low engagement with the heritage sector, and with mainstream services and settings generally.

heritage is… pride and passion for the places and people that helped shape us.

2/8

The ‘Any Old Rag n Bones’ project challenged all that by empowering young people from the community itself to tell their own story.

Sarah Shead, project co-lead: “The project has been a true exchange of skills, ideas and culture, helping both the participants and the organisers to better understand one another, and share aspects of our work and lives to enrich our knowledge and relationship. ”

This community-led project was co-conceived by a former scrap-metal collector from Holmewood, Robert Myers-Priestley, who used his unique access to the community, and his passion for his own heritage, to jump start a series of conversations and workshops. Robert also worked with local artist Sarah Shead, as well as a local researcher and an award winning photographer, to upskill local youngsters. It all culminated in a celebratory exhibition which will now tour Bradford libraries, schools, and community centres as part of a wider project - a dance music show telling the tale of a young traveller girl from a ‘Rag n Bone’ family who makes musical instruments out of found materials.

Photo by: Karol Wyszynski

Photo by: Karol Wyszynski

Photo by: Karol Wyszynski

spEcial hiStories of Bradford

Special Histories has been a journey of collaboration, exploration and celebration, of our pasts and presents - and of our hope for our futures.

Over the course of six intensive days, ten participants with learning disabilities worked with an archivist, a writer, a dancer and a visual artist to explore historical and modern accounts of life with a learning disability in Bradford. These were potentially challenging topics for the whole team, but the project sensitively investigated them; creating a safe place to explore ideas and employing a project counsellor to ensure the whole team was looked after.

The participants led and shaped the delivery of the project and the team worked collaboratively to produce the final artworks. The project culminated with an exhibition of mixed-mode work produced by the team and the creation of a brand new, living archive with very personal, immediate accounts of lived experience of life with a learning disability.

heritage is… history and truth, identity and representation.

3/8

This unique project was initially designed by producer Lucy Dix and artist Tim Curtis from Summat Creative CIC, and is managed with Tessa Lightowler and Robert Thomson.

Since securing the support of the CLHG programme, the project has gone on to win further match funding from the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

Lucy Dix: “A learning disability does not mean an inability to engage with your present, past and future. It may mean that these histories and ideas will have to be presented in different and accessible ways. Learning disabled people have an equal right to feel joy at their own successes, to feel anger at their past treatment and to have control over their futures.”

Bussing Out

Bussing Out is a powerful audio-visual installation – all taking place in a replica school bus – which aims to capture, record and educate about a little known moment in Bradford’s political history which has shaped the personal and collective heritage journey of a large part of the district’s South Asian diaspora community.

The controversial ‘Bussing Out’ education policy of the 1960s and 1970s affected a whole generation of immigrant Bradford children. Many of those it affected feel it’s time for that impact to be truly understood and acknowledged.

This community-led heritage element of the wider Bussing Out project used authentic oral histories collected from some of those who were bussed out as children, to examine the lived experience and residual impact on that generation and their descendants. A group of Bradford South Asian-heritage families who home school their children, helped by artist Shabina Aslam, researched history and learnt to use new technologies to ultimately remake the journey of ‘bussed out’ children in their own voices. This was about heritage as

reclamation of personal history and the immigrant narrative.

The bus installation will soon be taken on an educational tour, and the community-created content plays an integral part in it.

heritage is…. facing up to difficult truths, and our (often) problematic shared past.

4/8

Ivan

Mack, Bussing Out team:

“The important thing is that the people at the heart of the stories have control of how those stories are told. People have come in [to visit the installation] who we then found out have family members who were bussed out, and so there’s been growth in the content, because people are bringing in more takes on this. It’s creating a form of co-collaboration with the community.”

scOnes and saMosas

Scones and Samosas was born out of grassroots community work already being done by a churches network in inner city Bradford, in one of the most diverse areas of the country.

Weekly meetings brought together people from various backgrounds through weekly community cooking sessions. Many came from areas of Bradford with high poverty and health inequalities. Some were asylum seekers or refugees. Many spoke little English, making it hard for them to engage in other heritage projects. This creative opportunity united them through the international language of food. The Community Led Heritage Grant funded a ‘special memory’ recipe book, created and led by the community. Participants first shared their personal heritage stories about much loved recipes from everywhere from Pakistan to Iraq, Somalia to Poland.

This was a truly community led project giving people - who normally don’t - the chance to participate in a heritage project; to learn new skills and to preserve a much valued part of their personal heritage. Group members did everything from putting the book together, to recording the stories, to taking pictures and choosing the layout.

The Scones and Samosas book will be officially launched with a celebration in the summer of 2023.

heritage is…food for thought.

5/8

Michelle Moyle of St Paul’s Church in Manningham is co-leading the project.

“We hope this is a book that the community will be proud of and can be used in people’s homes as a recipe book but also a photographic record of our collective heritage.”

pitCh and pAir: frEedom series

heritage is…owning your story, and telling it your way.

'Pitch & Pair' was a creative mini-series project led by a women-led community collective. It paired people with a heritage story to tell – with those who have the skills to empower them to tell it.

The project was launched at the 2022 Bradford South Asian Heritage Festival with a series of creative sessions with local artists specialising in portraiture, calligraphy, puppetry, poetry, map-making, living archives/interviews and more. The overall theme of the Festival was marking 75 years since the partition of India and the creation of Pakistan in 1947. Festival guests were invited to explore the idea of ‘freedom’ through that lens of partition.

The support from the CLHG programme also funded a series of ideas sessions at community settings across Bradford

district, and especially targeting inner city areas with large South Asian diaspora populations. These sessions helped cement artist/community group pairings to work together on new performance or exhibition pieces rooted in heritage.

This project allowed for new ideas to flourish, and for participants to gain confidence and skills. Crucially, it helped people who might never normally go to a theatre or a museum to become co-creators, storytellers and archivists –and to engage in living, breathing heritage storytelling.

Rahila Hussain, Bradford South Asian Festival: “It’s been a journey of discovery rather than a process. It’s been an eye opener engaging people within the community, and witnessing how excited they are to realise that their voices and stories are important”.

pAlay dey khan: minOrity proverbs in a nEw land

Did you know that “it will continue to rain for eight days if it starts on a Thursday”? Apparently it will in Punjabi. (Jummeraat di jhari, ath din di khari).

Or ever been told that you are ‘better having a sparrow in hand than a pigeon on the roof’? That’s what our Polish friends tell us anyway. (Lepszy wróbel w garści niż gołąb na dachu).

Palay dey Khan was about exploring the beauty, hilarity and idiosyncrasy of our language heritage. This completely unique project captured cultural and traditional proverbs and idioms used by people in many of Bradford’s diverse and multilingual Global Majority and diaspora communities, and used them to engage people with creative wellbeing projects.

It culminated in the creation of an exhibition and an anthology book of multi lingual proverbs with translations. Community-led workshops explored the roots of the proverbs and how they have been passed down. Audio recordings of interviews at these sessions formed part of the final exhibition, which was taken to community centres across Bradford district.

The community group leading this project works with people with mental health support needs. The book and exhibition therefore had a real therapeutic as well as a creative focus.

heritage is…a language we all speak.

7/8

Mohammad Shabbir of Inspired Neighbourhoods:

“There’s been a lot of thought, a lot of fun and joy in this project. It helped participants find positivity and creativity through memory, through proverbs that their grandparents or parents used to say to them in their heritage language, which they then translated literally and turned into a piece of art. This was about revisiting lived experience of heritage in a very safe way.”

cOmmonwealth contribUtion Memories

The Commonwealth Contribution Memories project created an exhibition and archive resource documenting the contributions of many people from Bradford’s diaspora communities – and those with heritage in the Commonwealth, as soldiers fighting for Britain in major conflicts.

Millions of people from the Commonwealth fought in the world wars, but for many people whose heritage is in those countries, the perception is that stories told about the British/Allied war effort all but erase that contribution. It’s perceptions like that which add to the disconnect many communities feel from the mainstream heritage sector. This community-led project aimed to redress that balance. Community archivists collated stories and memorabilia from veterans and/or their descendants and turned them into a shareable exhibition and learning tool. These recorded stories, films and artefacts will now be stored online and offline, and made available free of charge to museums and schools.

The archive project sits alongside a wider campaign for a proper CommonweaIth Contributions War Memorial in Bradford. It is hoped excerpts of recordings and interviews gathered from this project will be played at the unveiling ceremony of that memorial, and will feature at future events marking Armistice Day, Armed Forces Day and Commonwealth Day.

heritage is…a letter from the front, a war medal hidden away in the attic – and a different perspective?

8/8

Naz Hussain, project lead: “For people who may lack a sense of belonging to the UK or the city of Bradford, they will feel more proud knowing that their family/ancestors have contributed and will feel more part of British society. For those who were previously ignorant of the Commonwealth contribution, the project will have changed their mind-set.”

wHat we leArnt

0ur award winners’ top tips for applying for and managing a community-led heritage project

Be mindful of what you can realistically fit in within the time you have. Lots of great things can be achieved with just a few key actions!

Involve the people who you want to benefit from your project in designing it with you to find out what will work best for them.

Think creatively to draw out participants’ heritage stories, particularly if they don’t usually engage in heritage projects. Keep trying different ideas if one doesn’t work. For example, we kept conversations in small groups, and used a guessing game to get people talking and thinking about the topic.

Think carefully about your outreach format when trying to engage communities with your heritage idea. Whatever format you choose, make it a very safe and collaborative space.

Be mindful that your group of participants may change over the course of the project, key participants may come or go or the size of the group may increase or shrink. Leave some flexibility so your project can adapt.

Take advantage of the support and guidance that is available, for example from The Leap’s community development and heritage managers. They will help you build confidence in writing your bid, and help you bring out the idea that was in your head and put it onto paper.

Work with key organisations involved with heritage such as libraries and museums. They can and want to help.

our award winners shared how heritage organisations and funders can better reach communities

Don’t have too many complicated rules and criteria. This discourages people without experience from applying.

Provide opportunities for us to speak to you about our ideas as part of your decision making and provide help to shape a project before applying for funds.

Consider carefully the extra access costs associated with harder to reach communities, or those groups who need extra time and support to become involved. It is more expensive to run projects that are truly accessible.

Provide extra resources for explaining what heritage is in multiple languages. This could be something simple like multilingual information sheets or video as a standard practice.

Actively support and encourage more collaboration and openness between the heritage sector and grassroots projects.

Invest time and energy in building relationships with communities on an ongoing basis.

Make the application process simple – and actively encourage, guide and reassure those who have never written a funding bid.

Create and facilitate a network of community-led heritage projects for sharing best practice and learning, and creating collaborative tools and resources.

Ackn0wledgeMents

Bradford Council

National Lottery Heritage Fund

Born in Bradford

France-Leigh Hadrysiak

Lauren Kelly

Penny Green

Saira Ali

Zulfi Hussain

And...thanks to the wonderfully diverse, creative and proud communities of Bradford district. Keep believing in the power of your story – and keep helping us to help you tell it.

about tHe leAp

The Leap is the Creative People and Places programme for Bradford District. We increase leadership and participation in arts and culture in Bradford and Keighley. We do this by reaching out to grassroots communities, identifying and supporting passionate individuals and groups who are motivated to lead and grow cultural and creative activity. We are led by Born in Bradford and a consortium made up of Bradford Eid Festival, Mind the Gap, Keighley Association for Women and Children Centre, Bradford Moor PASS and Outloud.

get in touch

https://www.the-leap.org.uk/ @theleapBD

@theleapbd

The Leap Bradford info@the-leap.org.uk

The Leap