Cartwright Hall is the civic art gallery in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England, situated about a mile from the city centre in the Manningham district. It was built on the former site of Manningham Hall using a gift of £40,000 donated by Samuel Lister and it is named after Edmund Cartwright. The gallery which opened in 1904 initially had a display of artworks loaned from other galleries and private collections until it was able to purchase a permanent collection of Victorian and Edwardian works using money raised by the 1904 Bradford Exhibition. [1]
Cartwright Hall stands in Lister Park and enjoys scenic views of the city. Cartwright Hall has been held to represent "Bradford Baroque", a style of architecture typical of Bradford. It is however designed by the same architects as Glasgow's Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum ( Sir John W. Simpson and E.J. Milner Allen), also in the Baroque style. [2]
The purpose-built gallery is home to a collection of permanent works, from Old Masters to 20th-century British paintings and sculpture. [3] Cartwright Hall also has a biennial open exhibition and contemporary and historical exhibitions by local, national and international artists. [4] Since the mid 1980s the Bradford museum group has collected works that are associated with the cultural background of many post-war migrants to the Bradford area. [5] Acquisitions include contemporary South Asian Art - Islamic calligraphy, phulkari style illustrated textiles and items of contemporary Sikh art, including a portrait of Guru Nanak. [6]
In 1983 Cartwright Hall was briefly used as part of the musical number Every Sperm is Sacred in the Monty Python film, The Meaning of Life. [7]
In 2003 an Unreal Tournament map was created featuring the inside of the hall as part of a contest for PC Format Magazine. [8]