Young Creative Shares Experience with Bradford 2025 and Museums
December 1, 2025Insight into a unique arts and culture placement in Bradford
Isabelle, a participant in the Bradford 2025 Young Creatives programme, has shared her experiences working within the city’s cultural sector. The programme, linked to Bradford’s year as UK City of Culture, offers young people opportunities to develop skills and gain practical experience in arts and cultural organisations across the district.
Role and background
Isabelle is one of ten young creatives placed across various departments at Bradford 2025. She works within the Evaluation team, where her background in illustration, gained from Leeds Arts University, has been particularly valuable. Her design skills have helped create visually engaging evaluation materials to increase public engagement at events. One notable project is the ‘Story of Change’ graphic, which visually explains Bradford 2025’s intended impact on the local community.
Creative Enterprise qualification and live illustration
Alongside her placement, Isabelle is undertaking a Level 4 qualification in Creative Enterprise. This course equips participants with knowledge and skills to build careers as creative professionals. Through her role, she has discovered live illustration—a method of taking visual notes during meetings and events. Isabelle explains that traditional meeting minutes can be lengthy and difficult to engage with, whereas visual notes provide a concise, accessible summary that helps people understand and remember information better.
Placement at Bradford District Museums and Galleries
As part of the Young Creatives programme, Isabelle spends one day a week on placement at partner arts organisations. She has been working with Bradford District Museums and Galleries (BDMG), which operate across four sites in Bradford. Her tasks have included:
- Accessioning and cataloguing museum collections
- Digitising photographic negatives and supporting archive inquiries
- Assisting the learning team during family play days
- Designing site-specific logos and live illustrating meetings
Future ambitions and reflections
Isabelle notes a growing demand for human-centred visual resources, especially as AI-generated notes can be formulaic and overwhelming. Live illustration, by contrast, captures key themes creatively and accessibly. She plans to continue developing her live illustration practice, aiming to help organisations communicate complex ideas through engaging visual summaries.
To learn more about Isabelle’s work and the Young Creatives programme, visit the original blog post on the Bradford Museums website.
