In the heart of Saltaire, where the hum of looms once echoed through Salts Mill, a new kind of resonance now fills the air. Ann Hamilton’s We Will Sing - a flagship installation for Bradford 2025 - has transformed the top floor of the mill-turned-art-space into a living tapestry of sound, wool, and shared voices, both local and international.
This marks Hamilton’s first major UK installation in more than three decades, and one of her most expansive to date. Drawing on Saltaire and Bradford’s long, winding and proud textile heritage, We Will Sing incorporates raw and woven wool sourced from local industry stalwarts including H Dawson and William Halstead. These flowing waves of fabric, once the lifeblood of the district, take on new meaning as the physical and metaphorical fabric of a deeply sensory experience.
At the heart of the piece lies a question posed to us all: “What does the future need to know?” Visitors are invited to write their own letters to the future. (can you find ours?!) , contributions that may become part of a printed gallery newspaper, be read aloud in the exhibition space, or live on digitally as part of the work’s evolving archive. You can even send in your own letter here!
Sound is as central as touch in this installation. Emily Eagen, a New York-based vocalist and world champion whistler, has worked with Hamilton to craft an auditory landscape from recordings of local workshops and school sessions. These fragments, layered into the ambient textures of the space, echo both the personal and communal stories that define Bradford’s identity.
The project has also fostered hands-on collaboration with students from Bradford School of Art. Sixteen students from the Foundation Degree and BA (Hons) Textiles Practice courses worked as Fabrication Assistants, helping to construct large-scale woven elements both in college workshops and at Salts Mill itself. Their contribution highlights the spirit of local empowerment that runs throughout the entire Bradford 2025 programme.
We Will Sing is open to the public from 3 May to 2 November 2025, Wednesday to Sunday, 11am to 4pm. Admission is free, and all are welcome to reflect, listen, and add their voices to a growing chorus of hope, memory, and imagination.
Plan your visit or find out more at the official event page:
We Will Sing | Bradford 2025
