November Blog
Kala Sangam’s November Blog
Welcome to the November edition of the Kala Sangam Blog! We can’t believe we are nearly at the end of 2024!
Capital Update
As we move into December we’re now halfway through our building redevelopment!
This last month has seen more steelwork being installed in the building, creating the framework for all the new studios we’ll have available for artists, communities and school groups when we reopen.
The roofers have also been hard at work finishing the reroofing on the Northern end of the building too – soon you’ll be able to get an amazing view of this new roof from the Cathedral grounds as the scaffolding starts to come down.
A lot of our planning has now turned to fixtures and fittings. This month we’ve been choosing carpets, light fittings and toilet cubicle colours! We’ve also been working out where all the plug sockets are going to be in the building – It doesn’t sound very exciting, but its very important!
Archive Assistants Announcement
We are delighted to introduce the four Archive Assistants, who will be working on the creation of our archive. As we look ahead to our reopening as Bradford Arts Centre, Ella Barrett, Emma Illingworth, Farhana Khan Pushpa and Nathan McGill will be supporting Archivist Alex Wilson to document and preserve our history.
The Archive Assistant positions were created specifically to help students and early career archivists gain value experience working on a real archive. Their input will help shape the Kala Sangam archive, ensuring that it reflects of our work over the last 30 years and our home at St Peter’s House.
You can read the full news post here
Past Performances
No Dress Code
We had a fantastic time at Yorkshire Dance for the No Dress Code Scratch Night. It was especially good to see Zoe Katsilerou’s new work in progress, Voices and we are looking forward to bringing the finished work home to Bradford next year.
“It was brilliant to be able to partner with Yorkshire Dance again as part of our off-site series of performances during our building works. By working together, we’re able to offer so much more to our local dance artists and it was great to be able to provide an opportunity for Bradford-based Zoe Katsilerou to present a work in progress of her new piece to a packed house. I can’t wait for Bradford audiences to see the finished piece once Bradford Arts Centre opens next year!”
Alex Croft – Creative Director of Kala Sangam
Superchefs
At the start of this month, Programming and Education came together for the performance of Maya Productions new show, Superchefs at Marshfield Primary school, 360 students from year 1 to year 6 got to experience this amazing theatre show in their own school hall. Focusing on how food brings people together, Superchefs had us all singing along and let everyone in on the secret to making delicious guacamole!
“Thank you so much for the opportunity to host this incredible performance. We’re truly grateful for the dedication and hard work from everyone involved in bringing this to Marshfield – it was such a valuable experience for our school. The children absolutely loved the performance, and the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive from both students and staff alike. It’s a privilege to partner with Kala Sangam.”
Zara Kearns, Headteacher at Marshfield Primary school.
What Have Our Staff Been Up To
This month Claire attended Slaithwaite Brass Band’s annual Remembrance Day Concert in their bandroom, supporting her friends and family who play in the band. She also went to an 18th birthday party. Her highlight for the month was going to see the new Wicked movie with Kala Sangam’s Jess and Fay and Keighley Creative’s Lauren!
Our freelance technician Dave has been working with his partner Cath on her Christmas retreats package to Ephesus, he has been editing films and tweaking images to help with their promotions and website. He also set up a Sneaky Experiences – Santa Adventure over in Liverpool last week for PLS and spent the weekend in Kent running sound for a conference at the largest medical cannabis farm in the UK.
A few weeks ago Steve and his wife had an autumnal visit to North Wales in a camper van. They travelled all around Snowdonia, staying overnight in 4 different places. They saw lots of castles, mountains and sea. Oh yes, and sampled the local fish and chips – with a view!
Alex Corwin was down in London for her annual theatre trip with her Dad – they went to see What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank which was both very funny and thought provoking about modern Jewish identity and experiences. She also went to the V&A to see the Great Mughals exhibition and the Design Museum to see the Barbie exhibition – which was a bit of a clash of cultures!
Arts and Heritage Update
Grace and Ellie from Bloomin’ Buds
Our groups have loved exploring new things, trying new artwork and making a mess this month. The highlight of the month has to be our expressionist paint-throwing workshops with the Youth Group and our Mindful Art group. How fabulous are these splattered, emotional, and abstract pieces of work! We love trying new and fun ideas with our fabulous groups and we can’t wait to see what else they create! Our other two groups, Messy Play for Mums and Babies, and Gardening Group have been creating their own fun with new activities each week. Gardening Group have been busy prepping for their Willow Weaving Workshop with Camille Thomas in the new year. They love learning about all of their fruit and vegetable gardening knowledge. Messy Play have been focusing on imaginative Storytelling, and shared literature and cultural exchange to create memorable experiences between parent and baby. We’ve now got more of an idea of what the groups are wanting to try and are learning more and more about them each week.
Lauren from Keighley Creative
This week at Keighley Creative we held our exhibition preview sharing event- ‘ Art On The Cart’ -featuring all the artwork made by our community groups and local residents throughout the year, and of course The K-Town Cart! In the lead up to this Highfield and One In A Million have been busy at our workshops making artwork and getting it ready for display. One In A Million completed a fantastic food project, and Highfield have been exploring their relationship to walking/nature and trying out different artforms like Arabic calligraphy.
The event was fun and lively, with 60 people taking part in another K-Town Cart workshop, looking round the exhibition and getting to see the artwork on display, and meet the talented artists who contributed to a beautiful show. And of course, eat some delicious food, thank you to Caterpillar Catering!
Who Has Been Using Our Space
Zoe Katsilerou
We had the first week of research and development of my new work, Voices, in the Kala Sangam studio! It is such a beautiful space to dance and sing in. Voices, is a new work around the experiences of singing and dancing together with others and with(in) the landscape, and the individual and collective stories that emerge from this. Working with Tanya Richam-Odoi, Bobak Champion, Aine Reynolds and Alex McCabe, we begun to explore how songs from each collaborator’s cultural heritage can offer a staring point for choreography, and the significance of those in our daily contemporary lives. We asked questions around intervals, their stories and impact on our relationships with others. We taught each other songs, dances and created new material inspired by each other’s offerings. On our final day, someone popped their head in to ask what we were doing. They ended up joining us for some of our afternoon research. At some point, as we were singing and they were listening to our improvisations, their eyes widened and glowed. Before they left, they said that they will try to sing more in their lives, and that being in this room inspired them to share songs and dances with others. As we continue the research and development of this work, I am hoping that audiences will feel empowered to being singing and dancing with others again, and that we will continue to share stories that connect us to our past, to the land, to each other.
Ella Tighe
During my two weeks at Kala Sangam, I’ve been working on my new show – Disco Queen. It’s creation phase so it’s really been about making the work at this stage, choreographing, writing, making music, thinking set and lights. I’ve had collaborators join me to bring their expertise and played a lot of hardcore donk-y music.
School’s Takeover Video
In October, we had our 4th annual school’s takeover with 11 local primary schools majority from the BD3 area of Bradford attending. We saw over 700 Key stage 2 children participate in a range of arts activities from Disco Freestyle to Rap. To celebrate this year’s takeover we have created not one but two small videos to showcase all the creative activities that happened this year.
To see the Schools Takeover Rap by Lence, click here
To read all about how we got on at schools takeover, click here
To watch our full School’s Takeover video, click below
What to get involved with next year’s school’s takeover? For more information contact fay@kalasangam.org or sign up to our Education Newsletter here
Café Call Out
In Summer 2025, following a multi-million-pound capital redevelopment, Kala Sangam’s City Centre venue will reopen to the public as Bradford Arts Centre. As the company plans for this milestone event in Bradford’s year as UK City of Culture, we are inviting applications from local, reputed, and experienced Café operators/Restauranteurs to manage and run a new Café within this flagship arts venue. Read the expression of interest call out here
Volunteer Call Out
The Arts and Heritage project is a partnership between Kala Sangam, Keighley Creative, Bloomin’ Buds Theatre Company and South Square Centre. Each hub has a dedicated Arts and Heritage Officer, who is working directly with communities to build programmes of activities inspired by their heritages. As the groups explore their heritage and culture, we are looking for volunteers to support the delivery of workshops throughout the duration of the project, this may involve setting up, supporting participants throughout and if applicable leading sessions, admin (filling out forms, registers etc) shadowing, meeting with diverse community groups. You can find out more about volunteering here
