Bradford has appointed a full-time Bid Director as it steps up its bid to become UK City of Culture 2025.
Richard Shaw is an experienced arts and media professional who has held positions with organisations including the British Film Institute, the National Theatre, English National Ballet and Lion Television.
The new role will see him return to his Yorkshire roots, having been born in Yorkshire and attended the University of Hull before starting his first full-time job at Hull New Theatre.
In January, following a multi-million pound refurbishment programme at BFI Southbank, he left his most recent full-time role to fulfil a publishing contract and work freelance in independent television production.
Mary Dowson, Interim Chair of the Bradford 2025 UK City of Culture bid, said: “Richard brings a wealth of national experience to help Bradford on its journey and we are delighted to welcome him to Team Bradford.
“We plan to recruit further local expertise and begin a programme of community engagement in early 2020 to get the whole district working together on the bid.”
Shaw, who will head up the Bradford Culture Trust bid executive team, said the bid was “a huge opportunity for Bradford to shout proudly about its extraordinary cultural heritage”.
City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council has already pledged £400,000 towards the bid.
Programme development for the bid will start once the vision and themes are in place later in 2020. The final bid has to be submitted in 2021 and the winning city will be announced in December 2021.
