{"id":1946163,"date":"2026-05-20T05:15:26","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T02:15:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1946163"},"modified":"2026-05-20T05:15:26","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T02:15:26","slug":"south-asian-show-at-carwright-hall-draws-new-bradford-audiences","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1946163","title":{"rendered":"South Asian show at carwright Hall draws new Bradford audiences"},"content":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/1024\/branded_news\/bf20\/live\/b2b4ccc0-5392-11f1-a6d5-ff84d685a95b.jpg”]<\/p>\n

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\"AshfikaAshfika Rehman<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Organisers said the exhibition spotlights a new generation of artists whose work reflected on “shared histories across South Asia and beyond”<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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A major exhibition of contemporary South Asian art has been credited with helping attract new audiences to a West Yorkshire art gallery.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The work of artists from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka are included in (Un)Layering the Future Past of South Asia, which opened at Cartwright Hall in Bradford in March.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The exhibition was specially adapted for the city, after originally opening in London in 2025.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Co-curator Manmeet Walia said Bradford’s history as wool capital of the UK was behind the exhibition’s inclusion of textiles and had helped increase the number of South Asians visiting the gallery to explore their “shared history”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Walia said artists’ work explored shared histories across South Asia through the use of textiles, film, collage and video, to address “themes ofmigration, environmental change, gender inequality and the legacy of empire”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\"BradfordBradford Council<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
The (Un)Layering exhibition runs at Cartwright Hall Art Gallery until 31 August<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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The co-curator said the exhibition had “resonated in Bradford, which has strong links to South Asian communities”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Walia added: “With Bradford the majority of the population is South Asian and a lot of mass movement happened. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“Those histories carry the stories of migration and that’s the working class population who came as textile mills workers.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“We had to understand how we could connect to those communities. So there’s a lot more textile work in this exhibition.”<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\"ManmeetManmeet Walia<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Exhibition curators Salima Hahsmi and Manmeet Walia in front of Maheen Kazim’s work on display at Cartwright Hall<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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Walia said the exhibitions themes had also drawn visitors who may not otherwise have visited the gallery.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“We know that not everybody goes to the museum, until the time they really understand what’s going on. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“But this exhibition has increased the footfall of South Asians coming within the Cartwright Hall.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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She said part of her preparation for her role as co-curator with Salima Hashmi, had involved chatting to residents.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“Whenever I would go to Bradford I would speak to locals, speak to women, people working in the mall or Uber drivers.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“They would say, ‘yeah, we go to Lister Park, but we haven’t really visited Cartwright Hall’.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“So we’ve been able to convert that into somebody who’s interested to enter in the museum, who’s interested to look at it.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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James Steward, museums and galleries manager at Bradford Council, said Cartwright Hall had seen “a remarkable 40% increase in visitors compared to last year, driven by a dynamic variety of new exhibitions at the venue”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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He said visitor surveys and local consultations had shown the (Un)Layering exhibition had been “particularly significant in reaching new, local audiences”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Listen to highlights from <\/i>West Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest <\/i>episode of Look North<\/i>.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n

[analyse_source url=”https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/articles\/czr2kk6p6v1o”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/1024\/branded_news\/bf20\/live\/b2b4ccc0-5392-11f1-a6d5-ff84d685a95b.jpg”] Ashfika Rehman Organisers said the exhibition spotlights a new generation of artists whose work reflected on “shared histories across South Asia and beyond” A major exhibition of contemporary South Asian art has been credited with helping attract new audiences to a West Yorkshire art gallery. The work of artists from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[35,226],"class_list":["post-1946163","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-bbc-com","tag-crawlmanager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1946163","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1946163"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1946163\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1946163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1946163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1946163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}