Gallery

Tuesday - Saturday
10-30am - 3pm
Sundays
12 - 3pm

Plenty at the Square

Cafe
Tuesdays - Sunday
09.30am - 3.30pm

The Watchmaker

Wednesday - Fridays
From 4pm
Saturday & Sunday
From 3pm

Phone

01274 834747

Address:

Thornton Road, Bradford, BD13 3LD

Exhibitions Policy

South Square Centre is a vibrant creative hub at the centre of the community of Thornton, Bradford. The gallery has been established for 40 years as a grassroots exhibition space providing development opportunities for emerging artists and exhibiting high quality visual art.

South Square Centre is a place to test out new work, audiences, or methods of working. The domestic spaces are moderately sized enabling a perfect setting for artists to experiment with something they have not tried before. We would encourage artists to approach us who have not exhibited their work before, or who may have an idea of a project they are interested in starting.

South Square plays an active role in Thornton, listening to its residents and providing creative opportunities for the community. Exhibitions are favoured which are relevant to the local community of Thornton and Bradford.

South Square is interested in programming exhibitions which address our aims and priorities as an organisation:

Contemporary Visual Art – Championing new and exciting art forms.

Fun – People of all ages will benefit from exhibitions that approach art in playful ways.

Education – Art should teach us about the world, different perspectives, our heritage and encourage us to be curious in our everyday lives. 

Authentic Heritage – Using heritage as a springboard for creative activity.

Inclusive – Making and showing art in a non-hierarchical way in which all members of the local and wider community are represented.

We are lucky to have an onsite archive run by volunteers, dedicated to preserving the history of Thornton Village. The archive focusses on many strands of Thornton’s heritage including oral accounts of life in Bradford, social history, Thornton Gala, the textile industry and its legacy, the local landscapes and its heritage.

We foster an open and collaborative working process and happy to support artists to create new works, provide curatorial guidance, as well as welcoming submissions from non-artists and people from underrepresented backgrounds or those with protected characteristics.

In April 2022, the main gallery space will be brought down to the ground floor, creating a space to exhibit which is accessible as well as the introduction of fully accessible facilities and large baby change / family room facilities. We hope that this enables new audiences to access South Square.

Each exhibition has an opening evening on the 1st Friday of the month. These events must be open to all, and free to attend. South Square will programme music, performance, workshops/ activities which attract an intergenerational audience. Proposals which consider this will be looked on favourably.

Artists who are looking to sell their work can exhibit in the Café gallery, where there are bi-monthly exhibitions. This work is 2D / wall space only and can be solo exhibitions

Applications to Exhibit

If you would like to present your artwork at South Square Centre, please write proposal using the following form as a guideline:

  • Please provide a short description of your practice.
  • Please provide a description of the exhibition / work that you intend to present at South Square. Please give information about how this work support’s South Square’s artistic direction.
  • South Square considers how all audiences will access the work on display, when curating its programme. How can the exhibition you are proposing be adapted so that it may be accessible to people? Please think about neurodiversity and disability, as well as those from non-art backgrounds.
  • Our programme includes add-on events such as talks, workshops and events. Please note if there any additional opportunities for add-on events or outreach activities.

Submission

Please submit proposals to info@southsquarecentre.co.uk and include any images and/or links to a website or online portfolio.

If the work has already been widely shown in the Bradford district, it is possible that this will not meet the guidelines for exhibiting work. We do not often consider touring shows as part of our exhibition programme.

We welcome proposals in an alternative format such as visual essays or video format (3 min max)

The team at South Square is small and our gallery programme is just one of the things we do.

Proposals to exhibit will be reviewed twice a year so please be aware that there may be a delay in a response from us.

Terms and Conditions

Artworks sold in the gallery incur 35% commission to South Square Centre. Funds raised go back into the running of the gallery.

Interpretation and Promotional images are subject to sign off from South Square’s curatorial team.

Artists are responsible for their own marketing and promotion for exhibitions and events. South Square Centre will provide opportunities for marketing through placement in our newsletters, notice boards, website and social media.