Thanks to our Horse & Cart project in Bradford, we have had the brilliant opportunity of finding and recruiting 2 Community Advocates from Bradford’s communities.

Our Community Advocates in Bradford – Melissa Ryan-Thomas and Hala Sadaqat
Melissa from Thornbury, and Hala from Bowling, have been an essential and remarkable addition to our team. They have helped us build new partnerships and audiences for dance and cultural activity across Bradford’s communities. Through marketing our shows and spreading the word widely, Melissa and Hala have reached and encouraged those who don’t get much chance to engage with the arts, to come along and give it a go!

Melissa Ryan-Thomas:
“It is a pleasure to be able to work with you and share such a beautiful, rare event! Would love to see more of this type of stuff in the estates, with people that are seemingly hard to reach but that really do want to get involved. Art is a way of expressing yourself, so that itself is so needed in terms of mental health, confidence and self-esteem.”

Hala Sadaqat:
“They don’t usually see many Asian people doing this, you never see an Asian person talking about theatre. A lot of people asked me what it was, they were curious. My community doesn’t really engage much in art and theatre, they may go to Alhambra Theatre if they are interested, but they are not very exposed to theatre, especially in the park, in the area on the doorstep…they might watch on TV. Everything opening up after Covid has helped, and families want activities for children.”

We hope to work more with Melissa and Hala to engage communities across Bradford in the months and years to come!