{"id":197977,"date":"2026-09-06T09:52:21","date_gmt":"2026-09-06T09:52:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/197977\/"},"modified":"2026-09-06T09:52:21","modified_gmt":"2026-09-06T09:52:21","slug":"award-for-exhibition-on-citys-1904-somali-village","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/197977\/","title":{"rendered":"Award for exhibition on city’s 1904 Somali Village"},"content":{"rendered":"

A project telling the story of how members of a Somali community moved to a park in Bradford and went on public display has been recognised with an award.<\/p>\n

The Somali Village exhibition at Cartwright Hall explores how a group of 57 Muslim men, women and children from the Horn of Africa came to live and work in Lister Park in 1904 as part of the city’s Great Exhibition.<\/p>\n

The project has won the Cultural Knowledge Exchange Project of the Year Award at the Future Icons of Culture Knowledge Exchange Awards.<\/p>\n

Co-curator Abira Hussein said it was a “nice surprise” it had been presented with the award and \u00a31,000 funding, which will be spent on further research and community engagement.<\/p>\n

“We’re hoping that some of this can be more permanent and that there’ll be a permanent presence and a way for people who come to Cartwright Hall to be aware of this history,” Hussein said.<\/p>\n

“This is a starting point. We’ve had a lot of engagement with workshops, with exhibition tours, and a lot of schools being involved.”<\/p>\n

Hussein said it had been a challenging story to tell, but was “necessary” and had received positive feedback from visitors.<\/p>\n

“Initially, I had some concerns and worries. This is not an easy history to tell, particularly what’s been happening politically,” she explained.<\/p>\n

“But actually, a lot of people have said it’s important this history has been told.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Items from the exhibition at Cartwright Hall will be on display until 1 November [Bradford Council]<\/p>\n

The award recognises projects that translate academic research into cultural, creative or public outcomes and celebrates collaborations between higher education institutions and the arts and culture sectors.<\/p>\n

The exhibition is a partnership between Bradford Council, Bradford 2025 UK City of Culture, the University of Leeds and the University of Bradford.<\/p>\n

Hussein said the collaboration between academics and the living Somali community was vital to the project’s success.<\/p>\n

“I think it’s the way forward with these histories because they affect different communities,” she said.<\/p>\n

“The materials are dispersed, so I think the knowledge exchange was essential between the academics, between Somali cultural knowledge with community archives and with creative practice.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The Somali Village project team is hoping to share the story with new audiences in West Yorkshire and further afield [Aisha Iqbal\/BBC]<\/p>\n

The research included an archaeological excavation in Lister Park, which uncovered evidence of daily life in the village.<\/p>\n

The Bradford Great Exhibition in 1904 drew 2.4 million visitors, with one of its most visited attractions being the Somali Village.<\/p>\n

During their time living and working in the park<\/a>, the villagers were watched while undertaking ordinary daily tasks, performing cultural rituals and battle recreations.<\/p>\n

The exhibition runs at Cartwright Hall until 1 November.<\/p>\n

Listen to highlights from West Yorkshire on BBC Sounds<\/a>, catch up with the latest episode of Look North<\/a>.<\/p>\n

More on this story<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A project telling the story of how members of a Somali community moved to a park in Bradford…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":197978,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[5252,4179,17,62035,62037,10095,62034,62036],"class_list":["post-197977","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-bradford","tag-bradford-council","tag-canada","tag-cartwright-hall","tag-hussein","tag-somali","tag-somali-village","tag-the-bradford-great-exhibition"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197977","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=197977"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197977\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/197978"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=197977"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=197977"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=197977"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}