Science and Media Museum reopens ahead of Bradford’s year as City of Culture

Bradford’s year as UK City of Culture 2025 begins this week, promising an exciting line-up of exhibitions and installations that showcase the city’s diverse communities.

RISE, an outdoor theatrical event featuring aerial performers, acrobatics and magic, will take place in City Park and Centenary Square over the weekend to officially launch the year-long programme.

A key partner in the festival, the National Science and Media Museum reopened on Wednesday 8 January following an 18-month renovation. 

The updated galleries include the Kodak Gallery, which explores the history of photography and features the world’s first moving colour film, and Wonderlab, an interactive scientific experience.

The museum will celebrate its reopening with A Grand Day Out this Saturday, in partnership with Wallace & Gromit animation studio Aardman. The day’s offerings will include clay model-making workshops and cinema screenings of the much-loved franchise. 

A new temporary exhibition celebrating the photography of Bradford-born artist David Hockney will open at the museum next week. Pieced Together highlights Hockney’s use of technology in his art, including videos and photo collages, showcasing another dimension of the artist best known for his paintings.

DRAW!, a yearlong art project inspired and supported by Hockney, will invite people across the UK to creatively reflect on their everyday lives. Further details will be announced soon. 

Opening at the Impressions Gallery this weekend is Nationhood: Memory and Hope, a photography exhibition featuring new work from the acclaimed Ethiopian artist Aïda Muleneh and seven UK photographers. Exploring themes of cross-cultural identity and forgotten histories, its central feature, The Necessity of Seeing, presents images captured in Bradford, Glasgow, and other cities across the country. 

Cartwright Hall Art Gallery will round off January’s openings with Fighting to Be Heard, an exhibition examining the connection between boxing and calligraphy. Featuring rare items from the Arabic and Urdu collections of the British Library, the common ground between the two will be explored through the eyes of British South Asian Muslim men in Bradford. 

Later this spring, Marshmallow Laser Feast will open at the National Science and Media Museum. The experiential artist collective, known for blending art and technology, will present an immersive look at the universe and the connections that bind us all.

In May, Wild Uplands will transform the moors of Penistone Hill Country Park into a site of contemporary art, showcasing a series of outdoor works, from sculptures to installations, that drawn inspiration from the landscape.

A partnership with the British Museum will bring a radical new exhibition to Cliffe Castle in the summer, featuring art from thousands of years ago. Ice Age Art Now will look at how creativity thrived millennia before traditional art history begins, with some pieces dating back 32,000 years. 

Ten of the city’s budding creatives will curate a major photography exhibition at the Impressions Gallery in September. New Focus: Bradford Young Curators is the culmination of 18 months of work by the artists as part of the Bradford Young Curators mentorship programme. The exhibition will feature a series of curated works celebrating local communities. 

Also arriving in Bradford this September is the Turner Prize exhibition. Shortlisted artists are due to be announced in spring and their work will then go on display at Cartwright Hall Art Gallery, with the winner revealed in December.

Bradford 2025 will announce further exhibitions and details throughout the year. The full programme can be found on the festival website.

The West Yorkshire city won the City of Culture title in 2022, seeing off competition from a record number of bids after the UK-wide programme was opened up to local areas for the first time.