Bradford Space Service

The Brick Box and Leeds-based arts charity East Street Arts forged an exciting new partnership to find high quality creative uses for empty spaces in Bradford city centre.

The collaboration saw The Brick Box coordinate the use of empty city centre space for creative charitable use. This included things like exhibitions, theatre rehearsals and performance events, all of which have been successful in Bradford’s empty spaces since East Street Arts first came to the city in 2016.

Previous examples in Bradford include The Wild Woods in the former department store on Darley Street, which attracted more than 5,000 people across eight events and brought thousands of pounds of extra spend into the city centre.

Immersive theatre show This Space is Occupied rehearsed in an empty space on Ivegate to get ready for the performance in a separate empty building on the same street. Likewise, young female-led organisation Speakers Corner has taken over a space at the bottom of Ivegate for meetings and social events.

The Brick Box matched up creative practitioners with available spaces, finding the right home for each project and giving them an introduction to the city and local arts scene. 

Highlights included a full studio space and new artist community in a former Post Office, and there is now 100% occupancy across all East Street Arts managed spaces.