We invite you to Sowing Connections, a co-created community exhibition celebrating the work of the Rasi // Twine Women’s Group in Bradford. 

Opening : Fri 6th February
Last date to view : Sun 5th April

Join us to view ‘Sowing Connections’, a collaborative exhibition with the ESOL group. The group brings together South Asian women seeking confidence, connection, and creative community. Through 2025 the group explored painting, clay, collage, calligraphy, and embroidery with local artists Claire Wellesley-Smith and Razwan Ul-Haq. Their conversations opened reflections on heritage, identity, and migration, rekindling traditions once set aside after moving to England. Featuring textiles, sculpture and collage, the exhibition celebrates their skills, stories, and the vibrant connections they continue to weave.

Related events

Join us for these special events, inspired by the Sowing Connections exhibition:

• Embroidery Workshop // Saturday 14th March // 10.30am – 3. 00pm: Join us for this workshop where you’ll stitch your own naturally dyed tote bag
• Curator’s Tour // Saturday 14th March // 1pm – 2pm: Join Domino Panton-Oakley, the Programme and Gallery Manager of South Square for a special tour of Sowing Connections

Thanks to our partners Lower Grange Community Centre and Bradford Arts Centre, and our funders DCMS Cultural Development Fund and the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

Plenty at the Square
Running: 6 February – 29 March 2026

An exhibition of enigmatic paintings, by Murniah Skinner, inspired by local landscapes and layered experiences.

Growing up and living in Yorkshire, the landscape of her childhood continues to shape her work, carrying both memory and a deep, spiritual connection to the land. Each painting is rooted in Murniah’s experience of walking through this terrain – translating sensations and atmosphere into colour and form.

She works intuitively, allowing the flow of colour to guide the process. Her paintings become a meeting point between the outer landscape and her inner one – a reflection of how she experiences and responds to the world around us. Layers of memory and shifting impressions gathered over time inform each work, capturing the evolving relationship between place, feeling and spirit. Through colour and form, Murniah hopes to foster a connection with viewers, inviting them to feel, reflect and engage with these places in their own way.

Artist Jennie Crawford presents her solo exhibition.

• Running: Friday 6 March to Sunday 29 March 2026
• The Gallery Upstairs  

I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree

And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made

Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honey-bee

And live alone in the bee-loud glade…

                             (The Lake Isle of Innisfree, W.B Yeats 1888)

Proceeds from any sales will go to Cancer Research UK

As part of the National Lottery Open Week, we invite you to come to the Curator’s Talk for the exhibition Sowing Connections.

• Saturday 14th March, 1pm – 2pm
• Exhibition open: Fri 6th February – Sun 5th April 2026

Book your free place

About the Talk

Join Domino Panton-Oakley, the Programme and Gallery Manager of South Square, for a tour of Sowing Connections, a co-created community exhibition celebrating the work of the Rasi // Twine Women’s ESOL Group in Bradford. 

You’ll explore the exhibition, learn more about the artworks and hear from Domino about how this special show was curated.

This is an event which is part of the National Lottery Open Week. To say thank you for the £32 million raised for Good Causes every week by players, National Lottery funded venues are offering free entry, discounts and special offers throughout National Lottery Open Week. This, plus 10% off anything in the gallery shop, is our offering to you!

Click here to find out more about National Lottery Open Week

About the exhibition

‘Sowing Connections’ is a collaborative exhibition with the ESOL group. The group brings together South Asian women seeking confidence, connection, and creative community. Through 2025 the group worked with local artists Claire Wellesley-Smith and Razwan Ul-Haq, exploring textiles, paintings and photography. The exhibition celebrates their skills, stories, their heritage, traditions and identity.

Thanks to our partners Lower Grange Community Centre and Bradford Arts Centre, and our funders DCMS Cultural Development Fund and the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

Thursday 2nd April 2026, 10:30am – 12:30pm

FREE Kids Craft Drop-In invites you to come and play and get crafty!

We will set up a craft table full of paper, pencils, scissors, glue, cardboard, strings and more, all for you to build, make and create, and let your imagination run wild!

This is a great way for kids to take some time to play and make. And for the adults? Want a coffee whilst the kids are crafting? No problem! You can grab a cake and coffee from the onsite cafe, Plenty at the Square, which you can have served in the Community Room.

All materials are free. Suitable for all ages.

South Square is a charity, so a suggested donation of £3 helps us continue to offer free events and workshops like this.

We’ll be running two sessions, Thursday and Saturday during the Easter Holiday. Feel free to join both!

Please note – a guardian / adult should be with the children at all times.

Book your free place on Eventbrite.

We invite you to see ‘Where are you from originally?’, an exhibition exploring race, identity, belonging and heritage.

Opening: Friday 3rd April 2026
Last date to view : Sunday 31st May 2026

‘Where are you from originally?’ takes its title from a question that is often framed as casual curiosity, yet carries the weight of assumption, belonging, and exclusion.

For many, it is a question that refuses a simple answer. The artists in this exhibition respond not by offering fixed origins, but by revealing identity as layered, shifting, and deeply personal. Here, identity is explored through race, religion, language, memory, and lived experience. Some artists draw on ancestral histories and inherited traditions; others examine migration and the spaces between cultures. Heritage appears not as a single point of origin, but as something negotiated, shaped by family stories, faith practices, and colonial histories.

‘Where are you from originally?’ invites viewers to reflect on how questions of origin are asked, and who is expected to answer them. Who gets to belong without explanation, and who is repeatedly asked to justify their presence? Through textiles, sculpture, photography, moving image, and painting, the artists explore their relationship to this question and its significance to their own identities. 

Curator Domino Panton-Oakley assembles Yorkshire-based artists of mixed global identities, all of which use identity as a theme in their work. Featuring Penny Moe, Saira Baig, and including newly commissioned and never-before-seen work by Shaun Connell, Saba Siddiqui and Zainab Hajab, rather than resolving the question “where are you from originally?”, the artists ask us to listen more closely, to sit with complexity, and to recognise that identity is not a destination but an ongoing process. 

Please also take with you a ‘Where are you from originally?’ zine, developed by artist and facilitator Mussarat Rahman, and designed by Kelvin Chan. The zine includes responses from those who have experienced this question, had their identity questioned, or questioned their own identity. It includes honest responses to the questions and offers new insights into the exploration of identity.

Plenty at the Square
Running: Friday 3rd April 2026 February – 24th May 2026

Caroline is an artist based in Bingley known for her captivating detailed drawings of local townscapes.

Inspired by her surroundings, she is drawn to, and loves to draw, the unique architecture and landmarks that shape the places around her. She likes to capture the contrast between old and new buildings that tell a story about a town’s history and its current day life.

Before beginning a drawing Caroline visits each place and takes her own photographs, this way she can identify key features and get close ups or different angles of anything that interests her. Then using these images as reference she drafts each composition in pencil before filling in the details freehand in black pen to form her unique townscapes.

Exploring this style she has built up a collection of drawings featuring towns across Bradford and Yorkshire. 

See more of her work at:

carolinerilatt.co.uk

@carolinerilattart

Thursday 9th April 2026, 10:30am – 12:30pm

FREE Kids Craft Drop-In invites you to come and play and get crafty!

We will set up a craft table full of paper, pencils, scissors, glue, cardboard, strings and more, all for you to build, make and create, and let your imagination run wild!

This is a great way for kids to take some time to play and make. And for the adults? Want a coffee whilst the kids are crafting? No problem! You can grab a cake and coffee from the onsite cafe, Plenty at the Square, which you can have served in the Community Room.

All materials are free. Suitable for all ages.

South Square is a charity, so a suggested donation of £3 helps us continue to offer free events and workshops like this.

We’ll be running two sessions, Thursday and Saturday during the Easter holidays. Feel free to join both!

Please note – a guardian / adult should be with the children at all times.

Book your free place on Eventbrite.

Thursday 16th April 2026
6:00 pm – 8:00 pm

Still life drawing is back at South Square!

Join us in looking closely, slowing down and coming together to draw a collection of objects that carry their own histories. Either passed down, found, or collected, the subjects on display connect to our heritage and different traditions.

You are encouraged to bring in objects that resonate to the theme, which can be added to the composition.

This workshop is led by artist Zoe Maxwell, who will guide you through different techniques and approaches to sketching from observation. Suitable for beginners or experts alike, as this workshop will give you time to practice your skills or if you are just starting out come along to find a bit of mindfulness. All materials are provided, from easel to paper, however if you would like to use your own materials you are more than welcome to.

The workshop is 2 hours long, starting with short and experimental sketches, using a range of materials, gradually growing to longer sketches that build on the techniques developed throughout the session.

This workshop will take place in the community room, this is on the first floor. There is a step free access if you require this please let us know ahead of the session.

Book your tickets via Eventbrite HERE

• Saturday 25th April, 11am – 12pm
• Exhibition open: Fri 3rd April – Sun 31st May 2026

Book your free place

About the Talk

Join Domino Panton-Oakley, the Curator and Programme and Gallery Manager of South Square, for a tour of Where are you from originally? This exhibition invites viewers to reflect on how questions of origin are asked, and who is expected to answer them. Who gets to belong without explanation, and who is repeatedly asked to justify their presence? Through textiles, sculpture, photography, moving image, and painting, the artists explore their relationship to this question and its significance to their own identities. 

Where are you from originally? is a personal exhibition project for curator Domino, as she too has been asked this question many times. You’ll explore the exhibition, learn more about the artists and artworks featured and hear from Domino about how this exhibition came together.

About the exhibition

‘Where are you from originally?’ takes its title from a question that is often framed as casual curiosity, yet carries the weight of assumption, belonging, and exclusion.

For many, it is a question that refuses a simple answer. The artists in this exhibition respond not by offering fixed origins, but by revealing identity as layered, shifting, and deeply personal. Here, identity is explored through race, religion, language, memory, and lived experience. Some artists draw on ancestral histories and inherited traditions; others examine migration and the spaces between cultures. Heritage appears not as a single point of origin, but as something negotiated, shaped by family stories, faith practices, and colonial histories.

Featuring Yorkshire-based artists of mixed global identities, all of which use identity as a theme in their work; Penny Moe, Saira Baig, and including newly commissioned and never-before-seen work by Shaun Connell, Saba Siddiqui and Zainab Hajab, rather than resolving the question “where are you from originally?”, the artists ask us to listen more closely, to sit with complexity, and to recognise that identity is not a destination but an ongoing process. 

Book your free place

We invite you to see ‘Where are you from originally?’, an exhibition exploring race, identity, belonging and heritage.

Opening: Friday 3rd April 2026
Last date to view : Sunday 31st May 2026

‘Where are you from originally?’ takes its title from a question that is often framed as casual curiosity, yet carries the weight of assumption, belonging, and exclusion.

For many, it is a question that refuses a simple answer. The artists in this exhibition respond not by offering fixed origins, but by revealing identity as layered, shifting, and deeply personal. Here, identity is explored through race, religion, language, memory, and lived experience. Some artists draw on ancestral histories and inherited traditions; others examine migration and the spaces between cultures. Heritage appears not as a single point of origin, but as something negotiated, shaped by family stories, faith practices, and colonial histories.

‘Where are you from originally?’ invites viewers to reflect on how questions of origin are asked, and who is expected to answer them. Who gets to belong without explanation, and who is repeatedly asked to justify their presence? Through textiles, sculpture, photography, moving image, and painting, the artists explore their relationship to this question and its significance to their own identities. 

Curator Domino Panton-Oakley assembles Yorkshire-based artists of mixed global identities, all of which use identity as a theme in their work. Featuring Penny Moe, Saira Baig, and including newly commissioned and never-before-seen work by Shaun Connell, Saba Siddiqui and Zainab Hajab, rather than resolving the question “where are you from originally?”, the artists ask us to listen more closely, to sit with complexity, and to recognise that identity is not a destination but an ongoing process. 

Please also take with you a ‘Where are you from originally?’ zine, developed by artist and facilitator Mussarat Rahman, and designed by Kelvin Chan. The zine includes responses from those who have experienced this question, had their identity questioned, or questioned their own identity. It includes honest responses to the questions and offers new insights into the exploration of identity.

Plenty at the Square
Running: Friday 3rd April 2026 February – 24th May 2026

Caroline is an artist based in Bingley known for her captivating detailed drawings of local townscapes.

Inspired by her surroundings, she is drawn to, and loves to draw, the unique architecture and landmarks that shape the places around her. She likes to capture the contrast between old and new buildings that tell a story about a town’s history and its current day life.

Before beginning a drawing Caroline visits each place and takes her own photographs, this way she can identify key features and get close ups or different angles of anything that interests her. Then using these images as reference she drafts each composition in pencil before filling in the details freehand in black pen to form her unique townscapes.

Exploring this style she has built up a collection of drawings featuring towns across Bradford and Yorkshire. 

See more of her work at:

carolinerilatt.co.uk

@carolinerilattart

Saturday 9th May 2026
1:00 pm – 4:00 pm

Explore the art of traditional glass painting in this workshop led by South Square Studio holder, Samantha Yates

This hands on workshop running from 1-4pm introduces the techniques of traditional glass painting used in medieval and historic stained glass. Participants will explore tracing, matting and shading with vitreous paint working directly onto glass.

Work can be fired in the kiln and collection/postage arranged for a later date. The focus is on the process and material understanding giving you the opportunity to develop confidence through making.

Suitable for beginners. All materials and equipment provided . Please note access to the studio is down a flight of steps.

To book your space, click here

Wednesday 15th July 2026
1:00 pm – 4:00 pm

Explore the art of traditional glass painting in this workshop led by South Square Studio holder, Samantha Yates

This hands on workshop running from 1-4pm introduces the techniques of traditional glass painting used in medieval and historic stained glass. Participants will explore tracing, matting and shading with vitreous paint working directly onto glass.

Work can be fired in the kiln and collection/postage arranged for a later date. The focus is on the process and material understanding giving you the opportunity to develop confidence through making.

Suitable for beginners. All materials and equipment provided . Please note access to the studio is down a flight of steps.

To book your space, click here