‘It was empowering’: Bradford considers the legacy of its city of culture year

Organisers hope its hyper-localised ‘levelling up’ agenda will translate into sustainable, long-term uplift

Shanaz Gulzar is taking stock the day after Bradford’s city of culture year officially wrapped. There’s a lot for the creative director to reflect on: more than 5,000 events have taken place and £51m has been spent during a year that was by far the biggest city of culture since the project started in 2013.

Her personal highlights include the opening ceremony Rise in January, when temperatures got as low as -8C; seeing 600 people turn up to the start of The Bradford Progress – Jeremy Deller and Charles Hazlewood’s sprawling musical epic with the Paraorchestra; and the exhibition of Victor Wedderburn’s photographs that captured Black Bradford in the mid-1980s.