BD is LiT

City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council, in partnership with Bradford 2025, to fund the creation of innovative new light art projects and installations to be displayed in Bradford City Centre as part of BD:is LiT 2025.

The Festival returns for its third iteration in 2025 with the ambition to light up the city centre streets, celebrating the Bradford in its City of Culture year. BD:is LiT launched in 2021, celebrating the Bradford District in all its glory. Since 2021, BD: is LiT has welcomed over 50,000 people to incredible light installations across the District.

As part of this year’s BD:is LiT, we are looking for a range of artists to respond to the theme of “The Colour of Light” to develop projects that are unique to Bradford and with national relevance. There are three to four commissions available, each worth £7,500, to light up our new public realm work within the city. We want to see innovative ideas of how we can celebrate the new look of Bradford, and know that our local artists are best placed to do just that.

We hope that applications will feature a range of projects that include other partners, local communities and unique ways of celebrating the rich arts, culture, architecture, and heritage of the Bradford District.

Projects may be new or already in development, but they must be ready to be displayed at this year’s BD: is LiT on Friday 7 and Saturday 8 November. Your project can go on to tour after BD: is LiT or be a one off installation.

Proposals can be for:

  • a single installation
  • a series of smaller installations in multiple sites across the City
  • a touring / moving project
  • a performative work that uses light, taking place in public spaces or site specific locations

We hope to support a range of projects that are interactive, fun, playful or something beautiful that can be viewed by a range of audiences.

Locations

We are focusing on the following areas of the city centre:

  • City Park
  • Centenary Square/City Hall
  • Norfolk Gardens
  • Bradford Interchange
  • Market St
  • Bridge St
  • Broadway
  • Hall Ings

Ideas

We are interested in the broadest range of exciting and imaginative ideas that will help light up our City and celebrate the transformative year we have had. We want to encourage artists to present us with ideas we may never have thought of. Your idea has to involve light and should be available to general audiences for a reasonable duration, within the funds available. Ideas could be (but not limited to):

  • Indoor installation within a public space
  • Projection from internal to external, e.g. using empty retail or business window displays
  • Outdoor installations (with appropriate safety measures and durability), e.g. laser, LED, projection mapping
  • Interactive/Performative installations
  • A single installation in a fixed location
  • Tour-able / able to be moved / shown in multiple locations

Duration

Your installation must be ready for BD: is LiT on 7 and 8 November. It must be visible and effective as a light installation which is active at night, but please also consider what the installation looks like during the daytime.

Safety and delivery

All successful applications will be asked to provide suitable risk assessments and other documentation relevant to their project, ensuring they abide by relevant Health and Safety laws. If successful it will be the responsibility of the applicants to ensure they have all necessary insurances, licenses, and technical plans in place as relevant to their project to ensure it is delivered safely. Fixed Installations must be weatherproof, be secure, able to be left safely in place (there will be 24-hour security from the initial build in the City).

The BD:is LiT programme will be supported by a production team. If your application is successful we will be in contact to discuss:

  • Risk Assessments and other safety documentation produced for the project
  • Advise the successful project on safety issues and the activation of contingency plans
  • Provide any connections to local regulations, licensing and health and safety requirements

Successful projects will meet with our production team, and work together to agree the timetable of works including any install and de-install elements.

Budget

There is a budget of £5,000 to £7,500 including VAT available for each installation/project. All submissions must be achievable within the budget submitted, as well as time constraints and artist ability and experience.

We welcome applications that have multiple partners, allowing our work to reach more people across the region and nationally.

The budget should be inclusive of all artist time, materials, travel costs, construction, installation, de-install, etc. The installation must also have adequate health and safety and infrastructure factored into the installation and its budget. We support fair pay principles and will consider scalable ideas or requests for reasonable additional support for equipment or artist fees.

We are open to applications for larger scale projects in the City Centre that are judged to be exceptional and retain the right to reduce the overall number of funds available accordingly, if a larger proposal is selected.

Please only put forward submissions you are confident can be achieved.

We also welcome applications that have multiple partners and are exploring additional funding opportunities to scale the project.

Key dates

Application deadline: Tuesday, 26 August 2025, 9.00am

Notification date: Friday, 5 September 2025

BD:Is LiT Festival: Friday, 7 and Saturday, 8 November 2025

How to apply

All applicants must complete the BD: is LiT application form, which can be downloaded below.

Along with the application form applicants must include:

  • Budget - showing income and expenditure and balanced outcome for the activity (mandatory)
  • Governance documents such as articles of association (if you are an organisation) (mandatory)
  • Project Plan – if you want to share more detail than you have been able to in answer to Q3 (optional)
  • Further information on the artistic idea – example images etc (optional)
  • Web links to examples of creative work (optional)

Applicants who do not submit the additional mandatory information, will not be taken to the assessment stage of the application processes.

This funding is only available to those who live and/or work in Bradford. Successful participants are required to deliver their project by 6 and 7 November and may be at risk of clawback if this date is missed.

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