Kala Sangam’s February Blog

Welcome to the February blog! Things are getting very busy here at Kala Sangam, with us getting closer to becoming Bradford Arts Centre and moving back into St Peter’s House! We have just announced our Spring events which you can find out about below, as well as what we have been up to, what’s been going on in our building and more… 

Capital Update

The builders have REALLY been building this last month with walls flying up everywhere! This last month has seen the creation of our new Faith Room, BCB’s studios and a brand new accessible toilet. The brand new stairs at our old front door have started to go up this week too, ahead of our new public lift being installed. There’s also been lots of ‘behind the scenes’ stuff happening with air conditioning and ventilation going in throughout the building. It really does feel like things are starting to come together! 

Upcoming Performances

Arts Iftar | Thursday 13th March | 5pm | Kala Sangam, Bank House, 41 Bank St, Bradford BD1 1RD | Pay What You Decide 

Join us to celebrate Ramadan with our annual Arts Iftar. This year we will have performances of Nasheeds by the Feversham Girls School Choir and live calligraphy by artist Razwan Ul-Haq.  

Book your tickets here

Amritha Jayakrishnan: Madhavi | Friday 28 March | 7.30pm | Mind the Gap Studios, Silk Warehouse, Patent Street, Bradford, BD9 4SA | Pay What you Decide 

Madhavi is the lesser-known tale of ultimate female rebellion from the Mahabharata, the most popular work of Indian Mythology. It is the tragic and heroic tale of one woman’s plight and fight for a freedom so simple – her freedom of choice. Inspired by the work of her Grandfather, celebrated poet ONV Kurup, Amritha’s telling of Madhavi’s story, through Bharatanatyam dance, is an act of solidarity with woman across the world as they struggle for their own freedom. 

Book your tickets here

Disco Queen by Ella Tighe | Thursday 10th April | 7:30pm | The Alhambra Studio, Morley Street, Bradford, BD7 1AJ | Pay What You Decide 

Step into the high-speed, full-throttle world of competitive disco freestyle with Disco Queen! Inspired by competitive disco freestyle, a form of dance born out of the iconic 1970s film Saturday Night Fever, this captivating show brings to life the fierce determination, jaw-dropping athleticism, and glittering spectacle of freestyle dance, practised by more that 46,000 young dancers in village halls and studios up and down the country. 

Book your tickets here

What Have Our Staff Been Up To

Jess spent a weekend in Dublin visiting her friend Celina. They managed to pack plenty of activities in, including a visit to The National Gallery of Ireland, The Book of Kells Experience, a tour of Trinity College Dublin including The Oscar Wilde Centre. They even got chance to celebrate Lunar New Year with a huge street parade! 

Alex Corwin went to Rome to watch Wales play Italy in the Six Nations… The less said about the rugby the better but fortunately all the amazing food and history in Rome more than made up for the terrible Welsh performance. Highlights included the Synagogue and Jewish Museum (featuring an amazing rainbow dome and incredible stories about outsmarting the Nazis), a food tour (with 7 stops including 3 different pasta and 2 different pizzas) and a visit to the catacombs (spooky but fascinating).  

Phil took some time off work and Visited Manchester. He went to the Manchester Museum, Science and Industry Museum and the Football Museum. He has also been out on plenty of walks recently and sharing his wildlife photos with the team along the way. 

This month Haider been hard at work developing his film festival/showcase. Toothless film festival will be taking place on April 15th at the Pictureville. Leading up to the event, they are going to be hosting some workshops which will allow young people to have access to free basic training in cinematography, acting and writing workshops. They would like to encourage young people to explore if pursuing a career in film/tv is something that they would be interested in and to show them that it is possible even in Bradford. 

Archive Adventures

In our brand new video series Archive Adventures, our marketing officer Jess will be exploring all the interesting things our Archivist and his archive assistants are finding from the history of Kala Sangam. Each week, we will be presenting a new video based on something they have found and sharing photos, videos, audio and the stories behind them. Expect familiar faces, great memories and part of the Kala Sangam history you didn’t even know existed! Check out our first video here, where we went all the way back at the very beginning to 1993…

You can also find the videos on our Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Youtube and now TikTok!

Arts and Heritage Update

Claire at Kala Sangam

This month Kala Sangam’s groups have been starting to develop their final artistic pieces and have enjoyed experiences to inspire their creativity. u3a enjoyed a trip to the newly re-opened National Science and Media Museum, WomenZone visited the Fighting to Be Heard exhibition at Cartwright Hall and the Roma Voices group had an exclusive Q&A session with Ella Tighe whose show Disco Queen will be performed as part of Kala Sangam’s Spring programme. 

Lauren from Keighley Creative

In Keighley this month, Lauren has spent a lot of time in Bracken Bank, meeting local groups and residents out on the street, to introduce them to the newly refurbished St Michaels Centre! What once was an active community centre in the area is now back and ready for community use. In collaboration with Word Up North and the Neighbourhoods team, Lauren hosted two workshops at the centre, decorating pebbles and plants pots, to work towards creating a community green space in the area. They also explored making a sign for the building, and had young people create designs of what they would like it to look like! 

Who Has Been Using Our Space: Raimu Itfum

As I reflect on my week’s residency at in Bradford as part of the Samãnatã Comission by Kala Sangam Arts and Jaivant Patel Company- Gratitude is the main word that comes to the forefront. On my first day, I had a wonderful meeting with Alex Corwin who encouraged me to just be. Loosely paraphrasing but she said, ”Artists aren’t often encouraged or given the nourishment or the space to just lie on the floor, recover, explore and do so without any expectations. Regardless of the outcome, be that a reflection or a presentation-art will come”.  

I did just that! I got to breathe in the space, connect with the wonderful team, explore my play through text and tactile form, explore the intricacies of movement and language, see the new building, experience some wonderful architecture and connect in an unexplainable way with my essence of me that I had been running from. I got to massively connect with my past, a lot of which works itself in my play but rather than being a victim of it or running away from it, I embraced it. I walked to Akbar’s on Leeds road and on the way back got to see two Brown Boys holding hands and in a very quick instance, things just clicked. I saw several perspectives of culture, religion, art and a lot of which I am sure I will unpack. But to have that week to just be a paid artist and create work out of an authentic place, given the license to do so was a privilege. Often a lot of us don’t get and in return struggle to give others. It was as if the building, the work and the city were all going hand in hand at that very specific moment.  

I do wish I could write more on the work and what the organisations gave me but this is all I can emphatically capture. The rest is a feeling which I will unpack for the coming days and who knows perhaps the opening night of my work will be in the new building with a Q&A on the entirety of the experience before it goes on tour and get’s the next breath that it deems so.  

Kathak Sharing

On Saturday 15th of February Rhythmosaic held a sharing at Bank House, this consisted of their students from Bradford, Morley and Leeds City Centre. The sharing was a way to bring the students together but also showcase the teaching of Rhythmosaic and highlighted how far the students how come from just September this year. 

It was a lovely event and great to be a part of the sharing, over 60 people attended. 

If you would like to attend the Kathak classes on a Saturday morning 10am – 11am at Bank House, please email Rhytmosaic@gmail.com 

Tenant Update

Just before Christmas, Dance United Yorkshire wrapped up an incredible 5.5-week intensive project in partnership with Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures. Working with an inspiring group of young people from Bradford, they explored and reimagined the iconic Swan Lake, culminating in a powerful 25-minute performance at The Riley Theatre, Leeds on Friday 13th December 2024. Their dedication, creativity, and passion shone through every step of the journey, and DUY couldn’t be prouder of what they achieved! 

Volunteer Call Out

Looking for volunteering opportunities to put on your CV? Or wanting to work with local arts organisations, community groups and professional artists? We have the perfect opportunity for you! 

Kala Sangam, South Square Centre, Keighley Creative and Bloomin Buds Theatre Company are looking for volunteers to help with our Arts and Heritage project! 

More information here

Booking Spaces

Its nearly March, isn’t 2025 flying by! But don’t worry, you still have another 6 months to take advantage of our unique spaces at Bank House. We’re here until the summer, before we reopen as Bradford Arts Centre at St Peter’s House in September. So, if you’re looking for a meeting room, training space or conference hall in the heart of the city centre, please steveoconnell@kalasangam.org Our building is accessible and all rooms have a projector, flipchart and fast Wi-Fi. Don’t forget, we also have in-house catering offering refreshments and food throughout your session.