509 Arts

509 Arts 509 Arts is a Bradford‐based creative production and consultancy company. We also supply a range of strategic consultancy services to the cultural sector.

509Arts is a Bradford‐based creative production and consultancy company, founded by theatre maker Alan Dix. 509 Arts has over 25 years of experience that embraces many art forms and creation on many scales.

18/08/2025

💬 “Trying to bust the stereotypes about ageing and what it's like to be old”

That’s just one of our brilliant chorus members, sharing why being part of Life Class means so much.

Come and see for yourself what they’ve been creating — you’ll laugh, maybe shed a tear, and definitely leave uplifted. Don’t miss it!

🎭 Life Class
📍 The Loading Bay, Bradford
📅 3–12 October
🎟️ Book now by using the link below in the comments

🖋️ Book & Lyrics: Alan Dix with Mike Kenny
🎼 Music: Richard Taylor
🎵 Chorus Director: Em Whitfield Brooks
🎹 Musical Director: Mark Goggins
🎨 Set & Costume Design: Hannah Sibai
🎥 Projection Designer: Paul Slater aka Fabric Lenny

🟡 Commissioned by Bradford 2025
🟢 Supported by Bradford Arts Centre, Theatre in the Mill, Arts Council England, Bradford Council

(Video: a glimpse of the interview 🎥✨)

16/08/2025

is working in the studio on images, movies and sequences for LIFE CLASS - How exciting 😁

🔦 Spotlight on Richard Taylor 🔦Richard Taylor composed music and lyrics for Flowers for Mrs Harris (Crucible Theatre, Sh...
13/08/2025

🔦 Spotlight on Richard Taylor 🔦

Richard Taylor composed music and lyrics for Flowers for Mrs Harris (Crucible Theatre, Sheffield, Chichester Festival Theatre, Riverside Studios), and The Go-Between (West Yorkshire Playhouse, Apollo Theatre West End, starring Michael Crawford) both of which won Best Musical Production at the UKTheatre Awards.

Other work includes The Moon Is Listening (Garsington Opera, Grange Opera, Masquerade Opera, Italy); The Man Who Planted Trees, for orchestra and narrator, and Services No Longer Required (BBC Philharmonic Orchestra); Ludd and Isis (Royal Opera) and Royal Philharmonic Society Award-winning productions Confucius Says… (Hackney Empire) and Calderland (Halifax Piece Hall, for 509 Arts).

Music for plays includes Rock, Paper, Scissors, Coriolanus, Julius Caesar, Macbeth, Afterplay, Pride and Prejudice, Sheffield Mysteries (Sheffield Theatres); The York Realist (Donmar Warehouse); King Lear, Yerma, Twelfth Night, David Copperfield, A Doll’s House, Single Spies, Medea, Electricity (West Yorkshire Playhouse), and over 50 other productions regionally and West End.

08/08/2025

We’ve been singing, laughing and swapping stories.

Getting older brings its surprises, but also so much joy, beauty and connection.

🎥 Watch this for a peek into our beautiful rehearsals — and a taste of what’s to come. We can’t wait to share Life Class with you.

📅 3–12 October 2025
📍 The Loading Bay
💷 Pay What You Feel – from just £2

Book and Lyrics by Alan Dix with Mike Kenny
Music by Richard Taylor

Chorus Director –
Musical Director – Mark Goggins
Set and Costume Designer –
Projection Designer – Paul Slater aka

Commissioned by UK City of Culture

Supported by , , &

Our friends over at Diaspora by Design are doing a great new project🧵✨: Migration, Mills and InteriorsIt's a new communi...
07/08/2025

Our friends over at Diaspora by Design are doing a great new project🧵✨: Migration, Mills and Interiors

It's a new community research project in Bradford exploring how histories of migration, labour and domestic life intersect.

📍 Join the workshop on Sat 30 Aug 11am-3pm at MiMind the Gaptudios (Lister Mills)
🎨 With artist Rehana Zaman
🍪 Food by Sonia Sandhu at Edible Archives

📸 Bring a personal photo or object to connect memory, place & identity.

More info: [email protected]

ViVisit Bradford

🔦Spotlight on Alan Dix 🔦Alan Dix is the Artistic Director of 509 Arts and has worked in the creative sector for over 35 ...
04/08/2025

🔦Spotlight on Alan Dix 🔦

Alan Dix is the Artistic Director of 509 Arts and has worked in the creative sector for over 35 years. He has directed touring theatre, new plays and community events in mills, parks, schools and castles. He ran the £4m Greenwich Millennium Festival, created My Last Car (‘car love meets climate change’) for the 2012 Cultural Olympiad and Directed Bike Story for the Tour de France Grand depart in Yorkshire.

He has directed large-scale community opera, music-theatre cabarets, gallery exhibitions, heritage projects and imaginative children’s shows. He collaborates with talented artists to build a response to communities and their testimony, using music, digital projection and contemporary storytelling. Life Class is one of two new pieces of work for Bradford 2025 City of Culture, the other being Unspun Stories, an immersive installation that explores Bradford’s recent textile history.

🔗 Follow us for more behind-the-scenes insights as Life Class comes to life for Bradford 2025!

Hit the link in the comments to find out more.

💬 “Some of us older residents might feel that Bradford 2025 City of Culture events are mainly aimed at young people – bu...
31/07/2025

💬 “Some of us older residents might feel that Bradford 2025 City of Culture events are mainly aimed at young people – but Life Class is different.”

Huge thanks to Mike, one of our fabulous Chorus members, for sharing such kind words about Life Class in his local group. He and his partner Jackie are just two Bradford residents aged 60+ who’ve been rehearsing to bring this moving and thoroughly human production to life.

🎵 Life Class is full of humour, original songs, and poignant reflections on ageing – performed by ordinary people with extraordinary stories.

Come and see us this October at The Loading Bay (former M&S warehouse). Tickets start at just £2.

🎟️ More info & booking 509arts.co.uk/life-class/ (link in bio)

🎭 🎶 Join us at The Loading Bay, Bradford for an unforgettable show combining music, theatre, digital animation, brought ...
30/07/2025

🎭 🎶 Join us at The Loading Bay, Bradford for an unforgettable show combining music, theatre, digital animation, brought to life by a professional cast and a community chorus of 35 local older people.

This bold and beautiful performance is a joyful look at the ageing body and its many stories, a moving and magical event that’s not to be missed.

🗓 October 3–12
📍 The Loading Bay, Bradford
🎟️ Ticket link in our bio

Come and be part of something special ☺️

🎭 🎶 Join us at The Loading Bay, Bradford for an unforgettable show combining music, theatre, digital animation, brought ...
30/07/2025

🎭 🎶 Join us at The Loading Bay, Bradford for an unforgettable show combining music, theatre, digital animation, brought to life by a professional cast and a community chorus of 35 local older people.

This bold and beautiful performance is a joyful look at the ageing body and its many stories, a moving and magical event that’s not to be missed.

🗓 October 3–12
📍 The Loading Bay, Bradford
🎟️ Ticket link in the comments below
Come and be part of something special ☺️

27/07/2025

✨ More lovely rehearsal moments from Life Class 🎭

Our new show celebrates ageing — with real stories, real people, and a lot of heart.

Book and Lyrics by Alan Dix with Mike Kenny
Music by Richard Taylor
Chorus Director –
Musical Director – Mark Goggins
Set and Costume Designer –
Projection Designer – Paul Slater aka

Commissioned by UK City of Culture.

Supported by





👀 Don’t miss your chance to experience it.
🎟️ Dates & details: www.509arts.co.uk/life-class (link in bio)

24/07/2025

Rehearsals are beautiful!

Such a joy to be in the room with this wonderful group – lovely people, sounding amazing, and bringing so much heart to every note. What a pleasure to watch it all coming together.

We can’t wait to share it with you. Come and experience it for yourself:

🎭 Life Class
📍 The Loading Bay, Bradford
📅 3-12 October
🎟️ 509arts.co.uk/life-class

(Video: a little glimpse behind the scenes – so lovely.)



Supported by Arts Council England Bradford Arts Centre, Bradford Council, Theatre in the Mill

19/07/2025

🎭 LIFE CLASS - A joyful look at the ageing body and its many stories

🎶 A live performance with music, theatre, digital animation, a professional cast and a community chorus of 35 local older people.

📍 The Loading Bay, Bradford
📅 3–12 October 2025
🎟️ https://bradford2025.co.uk/event/life-class/ Life Class | Bradford 2025 (link in bio)

🤩 Commissioned by Bradford 2025, Book and Lyrics by Alan Dix with Mike Kenny
Music by Richard Taylor
Chorus Director – Em Whitfield Brooks
Musical Director – Mark Goggins
Set and Costume Designer – Hannah Sibai
Projection Designer – Paul Slater aka Fabric Lenny

Join us to celebrate ageing—real, raw, and radiant. ✨

Address

8 Sherwood Grove
Shipley
BD184EB

Opening Hours

Monday 9am - 8pm
Tuesday 9am - 8pm
Wednesday 9am - 8pm
Thursday 9am - 8pm
Friday 9am - 8pm
Saturday 9am - 8pm

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509 Arts

Founded by theatre maker Alan Dix and based in Bradford, 509 Arts has worked for over 25 years as both a production and consultancy company. It aims to create inspiring and accessible routes for communities and artists through exemplary productions that are relevant to their experiences and life stories. Programmes that have access, participation and engagement at their core frame much of the company’s work.

Since 2011, 509 Arts has often used testimony to shape creative thinking about subjects that resonate: My Last Car (‘car love meets climate change’) for the Cultural Olympiad, Bike Story (‘life on two wheels’) for the Tour de France Grand Depart (11 outdoor locations, audiences of 2,500) and Landlines & Watermarks (‘a landscape and people shaped by water’) in response to the Calderdale floods.

509 Arts is deeply committed to producing work in Yorkshire and the North of England to create projects that capture the public imagination and uses the very best teams to make this happen.

Our latest project is Bradford Revealed, every object tells a story and Bradford Revealed is a way of telling Bradford’s story. Together we will build a very special online gallery with pictures and stories about your precious objects. Every one of them will be submitted by people with a connection to Bradford. Our online exhibition Bradford Revealed will be live from the beginning of July and is created in partnership with Bradford Museums and Galleries and Bradford2025.