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Ann Hamilton, one of America’s most distinguished visual artists, is creating a powerful new installation for Bradford 2025 inspired by the district’s extraordinary textile heritage.

We Will Sing is the first major work created by Hamilton in the UK for more than 30 years, and the first time all three spaces on the vast top floor of Salts Mill have been combined to present a single artwork.

We Will Sing is a work of memory and imagining. Drawing on the origins of the textile processes that once filled this huge space, Hamilton’s site-responsive installation weaves together voice, song and printed word in a material surround made from raw and woven wool sourced from local textile companies H Dawson, based at Salts Mill, and William Halstead, which celebrates its 150th anniversary in 2025.

Curated by June Hill and Jennifer Hallam, We Will Sing also features a new film created by Bradford-based filmmaker Ali Hobbs that contextualises Hamilton’s practice and documents the making of the installation. A major engagement programme will include tours, readings, special events and an open invitation for us all to write a letter to the future, addressing the question at the heart of We Will Sing: What does the future need to know?

>> Explore more events in the UK City of Culture as part of the #Bradford2025 celebration.