Bradford's Impressions Gallery has posted a notice on its website announcing that it 'is now closed to visitors as we prepare to leave Centenary Square when our lease ends in March. We are relocating to another city-centre venue while we work towards developing a new permanent home in Bradford. Following an incredible year, we are busy working behind the scenes and will be announcing our plans and programme for 2026 soon.'
BPH understands that more information will be made available as soon as some minor details around its new home are resolved.
Join Impressions mailing list on its website or follow it on Instagram @ImpGalleryPhoto Look out for updates there and on BPH shortly.
BPH adds historical background to Impressions Gallery and its long standing Director Anne McNeill below:
Impressions Gallery, was founded in York in 1972 by Val Williams and Andrew Sproxton, just a year after London's Photographers' Gallery. It was one of Europe's first specialist photography galleries and started in a room above a shop at 39a Shambles. It moved to York's Colliergate in 1976 where it remained until 1992 then moving to the city's Castlegate. Anne McNeill took over as director in 2000. At the invitation of Bradford City Council the Gallery moved from York to the city opening in August 2007 as part of a strategic decision to align with Bradford's urban regeneration, and proximity to the National Media Museum. It shared a a new purpose-built space - the first purpose built public funded photography gallery in the UK - with Bradford 1 Gallery in Centenary Square. With the later move of Bradford's library into the same building it lost part of its space. The musuem, now the National Science and Media Museum, has housed Impressions Gallery's archive since 2013.
At the time of its tenth anniversary in Bradford the Gallery claimed visitors of 55,000. In 2024 the Gallery reported attracting15,500 annual visits which it expected to double to more than 36,000 by the end of 2025 during Bradford's year as City of Culture. In the year to 31 March 2025 it recorded 27,338 gallery visitors and reached over one million through its outdoor, digital and touring programmes. For many years it has had a significant programme of touring exhibitions and close links to the United Kingdom's regional photography galleries. and the tours reached 28,111 in the year to 31 March 2025. It is an Arts Council England National Portfolio Organisation receiving £206,000 in 2024/25.
Impressions director Anne McNeill has played a central role in British photography as a curator, editor and writer in a career spanning nearly four decades. She began in the darkrooms at Camerawork in 1984, became founding Director of Photoworks in 1995, and was the Artistic Director of Photo 98, the UK Year of Photography. Since 2000, Anne has directed Impressions Gallery, a charity that helps people understand the world through photography and acts as an agent for change. She received the 2022 Royal Photographic Society Curatorship Award.
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