Above the Noise closed on 19 June 2019. For details of our current exhibitions, take a look at our what’s on page.
What happens when the mainstream media doesn’t speak for a community? How do people react when they feel their home town is misrepresented?
For years, people in Bradford have been recording their own histories, forming cultural networks, and creating social change. Their stories show how established media can be bypassed or adapted.
Above the Noise brought together 15 stories from Bradford in a variety of forms—from words and photographs to sound installations and new artworks. We collaborated with people who live and work in the district to explore how communities can shape their experience of the place in which they live.
Poster marking the acquittal of the Bradford 12, 1982
Bradford’s Polish community celebrating the Catholic feast of Corpus Christi outside the Church of Our Lady of Czestochowa, 1987
Tim Smith
Belle Vue Girls Academy students
Nabeelah Hafeez
Drummonds Mill, 1991. Bradford Heritage Recording Unit
Tim Smith
In the studio at Bradford Community Broadcasting (BCB) Radio
Courtesy of BCB
Wedding couple at Belle Vue Studio, 1920s
© Bradford Museums & Galleries
Centenary of Tyersal Primary School, Bradford, oral history session, 1986. Bradford Heritage Recording Unit
Tim Smith
Belle Vue Girls Academy students
Nabeelah Hafeez
Belle Vue Studio exterior
© Bradford Museums & Galleries
Radical Sister DJing at a daytimer in Bradford in the late 1980s
Tim Smith
Weaving shed at Lister’s Manningham Mills, 1989. Bradford Heritage Recording Unit
Tim SmithAbove the Noise was part of the Bradford’s National Museum research project, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council.
Project partners
