The BD:Walls team are seeking an artist to work in Buttershaw and create a new mural based on the area’s communities, heritage and culture.

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. 

The project is part of the wider Heritage programme for BD25 and will aim to address key areas through the different commissions – see below.

ABOUT BUTTERSHAW

Buttershaw is a residential area of Bradford, West Yorkshire. It is bounded by Horton Bank Top to the north, Wibsey to the east, Woodside to the south and Shelf to the west. Buttershaw is in the Royds ward of Bradford and is part of Bradford South.

Buttershaw is often known as the place where writer, Andrea Dunbar, grew up - although there are lots of other interesting things to know about the area.

Buttershaw consists mostly of 1940s council housing with the building starting in 1947 and continuing until the 1960s. Since the 1980s, many of the older homes around Buttershaw (including some of the blocks of flats that appeared in several of the film Rita, Sue and Bob Too's scenes) have been demolished to be replaced by new homes.

Buttershaw has several listed buildings, including the large Buttershaw Mills.

Buttershaw has links to Traveller communities.

A lot of young people in the area play for different Rugby teams, such as Wibsey rugby club and Wibsey warriors.

The area has two parks - Wibsey Park and Harold Park.

There is a community group called the Sandale Trust, and the Buttershaw Youth Centre (where the mural is located) that work together to put on fun days and activities. There is also Buttershaw Baptist church that do a lot of community work.

Director Clio Barnard has made two films in the area.  Brafferton Arbor, a street on the Buttershaw estate was used as the backdrop for The Arbor, and Buttershaw was one for the filming locations for her 2013 film The Selfish Giant.

You can view some images from the Telegraph & Argus archive of the area here.

ARTIST BRIEF

The BD:Walls team are seeking an artist to work in Buttershaw and create a new mural based on the area’s communities, heritage and culture.

The artist will work with local communities, across 2 workshop sessions, and with the BD:Walls team, to develop the mural design. The design will draw inspiration, and feature, residents, stories and places linked to the area’s history. This could be a mural celebrating Andrea Dunbar, the films made in the area, people who contribute to life and activities on the estate now, or the different cultures that come together to make Buttershaw what it is today.

The artist will then deliver the mural with support from the Bradford 2025 team in areas such as height access, 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 all artists to apply, you may have only been painting for a small amount of time or might be an established national artist. We will need to see a proven track record of delivering mural projects and experience in working in community, engagement or participatory settings. An interest or track record in heritage and/or community projects would be ideal. You will need some examples of your work in order to be considered.

We strongly encourage applications from artists with a connection to Buttershaw, 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

Wall size –

Height to apex - 7.2m

Height to eves - 4.6m

Width - 10.5m

Area - 61.95m2

Location – Buttershaw Youth Centre, Reevy Road West, Buttershaw, Bradford, West Yorkshire, BD6 3PU ///input.apple.played

Wall surface – Brick

TIMELINE

17/02/25 BRIEF CLOSES

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

03/03/25 Engagement development with BD25 team and artist

10/03/25 Engagement development and recruitment - all sessions booked, attendees invited, external comms shared

14/04/25 Engagement session 1

21/04/25 Engagement session 2

28/04/25 Artist design work

05/05/25 Artist design work / Wall prep

12/05/25 Artist painting

19/05/25 Documentation, audiences

26/05/25 Evaluation

FEE

Artist fee: £3000 based on 12 days work, at £250 per day.

The suggested breakdown for this is:

2.5 days – Research, planning engagement sessions and session delivery
4 days – Design and amendments
5 days – Painting
0.5 days - Evaluation

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