Thoughts on Bradford's culture (and why, as it stands, we won't be 2025 City of Culture)

 Bradford's culture could be this...

Or Bradford's culture could be this...

What it isn't is this...

I want, as Mary Dowson the bid chair says, to feel that me and my neighbours are, in some way, part of the Bradford’s bid to be City ofCulture in 2025. And for this sentiment is felt by lots of other people from across the city. Yet when I look at the material and the presentation so far for the city’s bid, I feel underwhelmed.

We’ve always argued that Bradford has a better cultural infrastructure than Leeds – from theatre and museums through to community-based arts we punch above our weight and this could form the basis for a successful celebration of culture in the city. The problem is that, when you look at the message coming out from Bradford 2025 there’s nothing at all that hints at any uniqueness for the city. Even worse the idea seems to be that the reason for celebrating culture is primarily economic. The home page for Bradford’s bid pretty much starts with this:

The UK City of Culture title has had a transformational impact on previous host cities, securing millions of pounds of investment and acting as a catalyst for creative place-making and culture-led regeneration.

The home page then goes on to list all the great organisations already operating within the arts sector within Bradford. Tell me, is this what we really mean by culture? The list is dominated by organisations that barely register for most residents, a set of events and activities that appeal to a narrow audience and can’t be said to represent, in any substantive way, Bradford’s culture. Even worse there seems to be a repeat of past mistakes as we focus on elite arts and a sort of muddled, rose-coloured portrayal of Bradford’s heritage (except for stuff like brass bands and choirs which seem to have been missed).

What’s unique about Bradford? What sets the city apart from its competitors in this bid? Is it simply that we have X or Y institution, or should we be looking beyond the list of local arts great and good presented so far by the bid? Is the profile of those involved just too predictably middle class and probably too white? Are the small numbers of arts professionals the material seems to stress truly representative of Bradford’s culture?

Bradford has Britain’s biggest Kashmiri community making up between a quarter and a third of the population. Yet we don’t hear the words ‘Pakistani’ or ‘Muslim’, let alone ‘Kashmiri’, ‘Punjabi’ or ‘Mirpuri’ any where in the bid material. The leading faces are two middle class, white women and a middle class, white man. It’s not that these people can’t represent the city but that there seems to be no sense that, in developing the bid, we’ve explored the culture of the city’s biggest communities. We’re told that Bradford has a young population but get no sense of these young people’s cultural lives.

When I look into Bradford, my first cultural impression isn’t theatre or dance or even the listings for concert halls. Instead I see cars, cricket and desi grills, fancy puddings and sharp haircuts. Dig a little further and you’ll get the ubiquitous influence of Islam, not just the realities of its worship but the symbols, sayings and styles Muslims brought to Britain from Kashmir, imported from Saudi Arabia and mixed with stone and rain to make for a uniquely Bradford feel. Bradford is the centre of British Muslim culture – this, far more than stone buildings and a national museum, is the City’s uniqueness.

If we produce a bid that simply ticks the box of diversity without seeming to feel the reality of Bradford, then it deserves to lose. Using Bradford to signal that being brown and Muslim is as much a part of today’s British culture would not only be strong and positive but would set Bradford’s offer apart from the other places bidding to be City of Culture. Right now, nothing the Bradford bid offers looks any different, beyond the images of places, from any other bidder – the same boosterism, the same middle class white women talking about the vital importance of culture, the same platitudes and presumptions that a list of organisations and a bunch of celebrity endorsements is all that constitutes culture in a city of half-a-million people.

Preparing a bid like this should be an opportunity to get under Bradford’s skin, to appreciate things like young Asian’s obsession withcars and to find out about the real Bradford curry. Then maybe, for a break from all that Asian and Muslim culture, try some bassline from the likes of the Bad Boy Chiller Crew. There’s so much – I’d say most - of Bradford’s culture that takes place outside the “arts sector” and if we’re serious about putting culture bang at the centre of the city’s future we should maybe lock those arts folk in a large room and take to the streets looking for our real culture.

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