The BD:Walls team are seeking an artist to work in Britannia Gardens, in Girlington, and create a new mural as part of a community garden project.

ABOUT BRADFORD 2025

Bradford 2025 UK City of Culture (Bradford 2025) runs from January 2025 to December 2025 and is a celebration of Bradford city and district, taking place across its city, towns, villages and greenspaces. It will showcase the rich history of the area and spotlight its dynamic contemporary culture in all forms; dance and theatre, music and film, visual arts and crafts, food and sport.

The City of Culture designation has already brought significant investment to the region and been a catalyst for development. It is set to have a lifelong impact through its reshaping of the local curriculum, skills and training programmes, investment in existing and new creative spaces, and open up opportunities for cultural participation.

You can find out more about Bradford 2025 on our website.

ABOUT BD:WALLS

BD:Walls is a series of murals to be commissioned across the Bradford District over the next two years. Throughout 2024 and 2025 several large, medium and small street artworks will appear on walls across Bradford city centre and neighbourhoods. The project will culminate in a district wide trail of permanent and semi-permanent art works, accessible to all, with a digital map hosted on the BD25 website. 

Animating empty walls with vibrant and meaningful artworks of scale will help to revitalise spaces, celebrate diversity, change negative perceptions about Bradford, and promote pride in the city. This project will take a mixture of approaches to allow for different artistic expression and community ownership, whilst linking artworks with themes relevant to Bradford, it’s people and heritage, or to specific areas of the city. As the murals will be located across the district, they will act as a positive reminder of what the year of culture delivered and meant for people and communities, as well as raising aspirations by showcasing the work of national and international artists in the city.

BD:Walls will provide increased opportunities for local artists through direct commissions and a  Street Artist Talent Development Programme which has been designed to support new and existing talent from Bradford district. Local artists will be mentored by more established street artists to support early career development, promote more diversity in street art, and have the opportunity to showcase their own work in designated areas. As well as commissioned artists, the project will have a strong community engagement element. The public have been asked to nominate walls in their area and selected artists will engage directly in community consultation in the creation of their art works. 

ABOUT BRITANNIA GARDENS, GIRLINGTON

Girlington is an inner-city area in Bradford which is located to the west of Bradford city centre. Girlington is home to many different cultures, communities, and heritages, which makes it an interesting and diverse part of the district.  The mural will be one element of a newly developed community garden project called Britannia Gardens. This garden will provide a much-needed space for local residents of the area to embrace nature, grow plants, relax, and connect with one another.

Girlington is also home to West Park, a community centre, schools, a cricket club, and several listed buildings. 

You can see some historical photos of the area here. 

An interesting fact about the area is that the first Morrison’s supermarket was opened here.

ARTIST BRIEF

The BD:Walls team are seeking an artist to work in Britannia Gardens, in Girlington, and create a new mural as part of a community garden project. 

In partnership with Greener Girlington, Bradford Council are creating a new community garden called Britannia Gardens. This project has been made possible thanks to the support of Britannia Care, as well as funding from JU:MP, Well Bradford, Bradford Council, and the UK Shared Prosperity Fund. The community garden project began in 2023 and has already delivered planting beds, benches, and new paths.

The artist will work with local communities and Greener Girlington across 2 workshop sessions and with the BD:Walls team, to develop the mural design which will celebrate the community garden and local area. The design will draw inspiration from and feature - people, stories and places linked to the area’s communities. 

The artist is then expected to deliver the mural with support from the Bradford 2025 team in areas such as health and safety, project management, and workshop delivery.

Historically street art tends to focus on the city centres. We want to provide opportunities in suburban areas, with a strong character and heritage, to celebrate across the whole of the Bradford District.

This opportunity is open to early career artists, so you may have only been painting murals for a short amount of time but you will have proven experience of some public projects, some experience working with communities and an interest in community art projects. You will need some examples of your work in order to be considered for this opportunity.

We strongly encourage applications from artists with a connection to Girlington, Bradford or any of the communities, cultures and histories that are present in the area. We also strongly encourage applications from artists who are often underrepresented in visual art, street art and graffiti.

You don’t need to have an iPAF qualification but please make us aware if you do have a current, valid license.

ABOUT THE SITE, AND PRACTICAL INFORMATION

Please note: As the wall size is very large, the design is not expected to cover every area of wall surface. You may want to focus your work across the long back wall.

Location – Thorn Street, Girlington, Bradford, BD8 9NU

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Wall surface – Reinforced concrete

FEE

Artist fee: £2500 based on 10 days of  work, at £250 per day

The suggested breakdown for this is:

1.5 days – Planning engagement sessions and session delivery

4 days – Design and amendments

4 days – Painting

0.5 days - Evaluation

Materials covered by Bradford 2025, to be agreed once artist is appointed and design developed.

TIMELINE

17/02/25 BRIEF CLOSES
 

24/02/25 Selection by panel, artists notified, Artist contracting, Engagement planning

03/03/25 Engagement marketing, recruiting participants

10/03/25 Engagement marketing, recruiting participants

17/03/25 Engagement session 1 & 2 delivery

31/03/25 Artist design work / Wall prep

07/04/25 Artist painting

14/04/25 Documentation

21/04/25 Evaluation