As Kala Sangam looks to the future, the company appoints Memory Dance Ltd to protect the past
As part of the major developments currently underway at Kala Sangam, the company is delighted to have appointed Memory Dance Ltd to create an archive that will reflect and preserve the organisation’s thirty-year history and document the stories, memories and history of the company’s home, St Peter’s House.
Central to the project will be protecting Kala Sangam’s existing archive of print and publicity materials, which have been at serious risk of deterioration, to protect them for future generations. The project will also see the company reaching out to collect and digitise physical materials relating to Kala Sangam and St Peter’s House that aren’t currently housed in the archive.
The creation of an archive will see archivist Alex Wilson capturing oral histories from both people involved with organisation – including former staff, artists and audiences – and members of the public who have special memories of using Bradford’s former General Post Office. During the project, there will be a series public events where people will be able to have their stories recorded or filmed and have their artefacts scanned for digitisation.
The role of archivist has been created thanks to funding from National Lottery Heritage Fund, with the project happening alongside the company’s current transformational redevelopment of St Peter’s House. Work is well under way to expand and improve the venue, including creating a new 200 hundred seat theatre, 5 new studio spaces for artists and community groups to use and the installation of a new lift to ensure all floors of the building are accessible for the first time. The building will reopen to the public in summer 2025, as part of the City of Culture celebrations, as Bradford Arts Centre.
The archiving project will see the creation of three paid archive assistant placements for people from West Yorkshire from backgrounds that are currently underrepresented in the cultural and heritage sector. As well as providing training and valuable work experience, these placements have been designed to help give more power to communities to record their own stories for future historians to learn from.
Alex Croft, Creative Director of Kala Sangam said, ‘Whilst 2025 will see us change our name to Bradford Arts Centre, we will still be the same organisation at heart, and we remain immensely proud of our rich 30-year history. This project will ensure that those founding years are properly preserved and stored for the future, so they can be accessed and inspire artists for years to come. We’re delighted to be working with Alex Wilson and Memory Dance. Alex has a wealth of experience delivering similar projects to this and we were all really excited by his plans to capture the stories and histories connected to us. ‘
Alex Wilson said, ‘I am thrilled to be given the opportunity to help shape this archival project for Kala Sangam as it stands on at the crossroads of an exciting moment in its history.
Since moving back to Yorkshire, after a decade in London, my commitment to representing and championing unsung voices in the region has increased tenfold. This project, then, comes at a great time to bring my experiences to Kala Sangam and develop an archive collection that speaks both to the traditions of the organisation and to the brilliant creative community of Bradford. We can help forge a living archive that represents the past of Kala Sangam and St. Peter’s House but also the future of the new development, the arts centre, and all the exciting things going on across the city in 2025.
I look forward to announcing the various strands of this project and I can’t wait to get started, to learn more about this fascinating place, and to build an archive collection that the community can use, re-use, study, and have fun with.’
More information about how to get involved with the archive project and how to share your stories, images or other artefacts connected to Kala Sangam or St Peter’s House will be revealed soon.
