Cartwright Hall Art Gallery

A short mile outside Bradford City centre, the beautiful Lister Park is home to the Cartwright Hall Art Gallery. Built on the former site of Manningham Hall, Cartwright has now been a fully functioning Gallery for over a century. 

Having originally displayed loaned artwork, Cartwright Hall used funds from the 1904 Bradford Industrial Exhibition to acquire its own collection of Victorian and Edwardian works to solidify its artistic and historical roots deep within Bradford’s gallery heritage. 

beautiful old building is the perfect place to meander around on a lazy afternoon,

Cartwright displays paintings, drawings and sculptures from the district’s own world class art collections. These include artworks by Lowry, Warhol, Lichtenstein and Anish Kapoor. This beautiful old building is the perfect place to meander around on a lazy afternoon and absorb the culture and history hung from the walls.

Luckily for all you David Hockney fans, Cartwright has dedicated a gallery to the Bradford born artist. The Hockney Gallery tells the story of Hockney’s life and art with a particular focus on Yorkshire and Bradford. From his early life through to his colourful iPad experiments, you can see it all.

The exhibition explores the theme of identity by utilising works from the Government Art Collection.

Cartwright Hall also holds a number of events and exhibitions. The most regular being ‘Play and Growth’ sessions for children aged 0-5. The free drop-in sessions are held every Friday of the month and the little ones get the chance to explore the art gallery, learn something new, all while having a fun time. 

There is also a new exhibition running until May this year featuring the views of 125 young people from the Bradford District. The exhibition explores the theme of identity by utilising works from the Government Art Collection.

If you do visit the Cartwright Hall Gallery, be sure to make a day of it. Lister Park has an adventure playground, a boating lake and the Mughal Gardens. The Park also recently won another Green Flag award due to being one of the best maintained parks in the country. Now if that isn’t worth a drop by, I don’t know what is.