A Journey to Immerse Yourself in Culture - Bradford

Exhibitions in legendary and newly established museums, film and music festivals, and cultural capitals make up an agenda that any traveler should consider throughout 2025. Our correspondents have selected some of the most notable events.

The UK's Culture Capital in 2025 is Bradford, formerly a center for wool manufacturing and distribution. An interesting city rich in museums and cultures, it is the birthplace of David Hockney. Less than an hour away, in Wakefield, lies the Hepworth Gallery, designed by architect David Chipperfield. It explores the stories of Northern England with current influences.

In London, the Tate Britain museum will present an exhibition of Constable and Turner in the fall, on the anniversary of their shared 250th birthday. The Victoria and Albert Museum, headquartered in Kensington, is expanding with the V&A brand across neighborhoods and cities. Its main site, in Kensington which houses other major museums, is a prolific place due to the variety of facets of the arts displayed. Large and dynamic, it has partnered with other museums around the world in a virtual Museum Without Borders, MWNF, to showcase its Islamic art collection at www.discoverislamicart.org. In the new year, the V&A East Storehouse will open its doors, a collections warehouse - including 80,000 objects from David Bowie’s archive, for example - located in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. It has also renovated the former Museum of Childhood in Bethnal Green, also in the east, as Young V&A.

After a 2024 marked by commemorations (the centenary of surrealism and the 150th anniversary of impressionism), in 2025 France will see the renovation of two of Paris's major cultural institutions: the Musée d'Orsay and the Centre Pompidou. In the case of the latter, the renovations will mean it will close from the summer until 2030. The French capital will be without one of the world's most prestigious contemporary art museums for five years.

Before this long hiatus, the Pompidou will host an exhibition on black artists who lived in France during the second half of the 20th century. From mid-March to the end of June, they will display works by painters, sculptors, and other creators who echoed the anti-racist struggle and the decolonization process of Africa. Although black art is a theme extensively studied and exhibited in the last decade in the United States, its European equivalent is much less known. In fact, the exhibition at the Pompidou will be the first time most of these artists are showcased in France.

The new year brings a multitude of cultural activities to Belgium. In February, the Bozar cultural center in Brussels will host a concert by the renowned pianist Mitsuko Uchida, who will perform pieces by Beethoven and Schubert. For lovers of more contemporary artists, Antwerp is the city to visit, with concerts by Ghost, Katy Perry, Dua Lipa, and Lenny Kravitz. Artist Sílvia Pérez Cruz will also perform as part of the Europalia biennial, which runs until January 18 in various cities across the country.

As every year, Rock Werchter will shine in its own right in the festival season, with Iggy Pop, Green Day, and Linkin Park headlining; and Tomorrowland will again be a must-attend event for techno music lovers. Meanwhile, La Monnaie will kick off the season with an adaptation of Georges Bizet's opera 'Carmen'.

The major contemporary art event will be held in the last week of April at the Art Deco Brussels Expo, next to the Atomium, which attracts 25,000 visitors each year. In the city center, at the Grand Place, a retrospective exhibition of photographer Elliot Erwitt will be available, and in dance, the Espacio Magh's proposal stands out, inviting the audience to immerse themselves in the rhythms and dances of Africa with the company Kif-Kif Bledi, performing 'Hafla'.

Florence aims to be more than just the Renaissance. The Tuscan capital, a usual destination for art lovers, is expanding its cultural offerings with the opening of a new museum, the Sant'Orsola Museum, built in a 14th-century former monastery where the tomb of Lisa Gherardini, the model who supposedly inspired Leonardo Da Vinci to paint his most famous painting, the Mona Lisa, is located. Born from a private initiative that foresees an investment of 30 million euros, the Sant'Orsola Museum will focus on promoting contemporary art and will invite international creators, both young and established, to produce original works or those inspired by the features of this ancient convent whose significant artistic heritage will also be highlighted.

It is expected that next September, Sant'Orsola can be visited again thanks to the installation of a temporary exhibition, which will serve as a preview to the definitive opening of the new museum. In recent years, while restoration work was underway, artists such as French Juliette Minchin, Londoner Sophia Kisielewska-Dunbar, and Sicilian Alberto Ruce, who has taken graffiti to a new dimension, have passed through.

2025 is a year of cultural anniversaries in Berlin. In addition to the 75th birthday of the Berlinale, the film festival that annually opens the global season of the seventh art, the German capital celebrates the 200th anniversary of the Museum Island, which houses five historic art exhibition centers and emblematic treasures such as the bust of Nefertiti, the walls of Babylon, and the Pergamon Altar. Both anniversaries will be accompanied by multiple events to celebrate them.

In terms of exhibitions, Wassily Kandinsky will be the protagonist of two major exhibitions that will take place simultaneously at the Barberini Museum in Potsdam, the capital of the state of Brandenburg bordering Berlin, and the Kupferstichkabinett in the German capital, featuring works by other expressionist artists and members of the Blue Rider movement, which the Moscow artist founded alongside Franz Marc.

The Saxon town of Chemnitz assumes one of Europe's cultural capitals in 2025. The city, known during communism as Karl Marx Stadt, has developed a program with more than a thousand events focused on industrial heritage and East German identity. Just on the opening day next January 18, more than 100,000 visitors are expected. Chemnitz thus aims to clean up its image as a xenophobic city and a nest of neo-Nazis.

Cultural activity in Russia continues to be marked by sanctions resulting from the invasion of Ukraine. The lack of exhibitions from other European countries, the end of tours by foreign theater companies, and the absence of exchanges are limiting Russian cultural offerings to the collections of its museums, the country's theater and ballet companies, and its numerous and prestigious orchestras. And that is not insignificant given its deep-rooted tradition in these fields.

In 2025, Russian museums will continue to rely on their collections to organize art exhibitions on any theme, country, or era. The Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow is at the center of the main projects for this year, even above the sublime Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg. The exhibition 'Ivan the Terrible and his son Ivan. The Return' started on December 17 and will remain open until November 2, 2025. It is dedicated to the return, after its restoration, of the painting by Russian painter Ilya Repin about the murder committed by Ivan the Terrible against his own son. It will also host an exhibition of another great colossus of Russian painting, Karl Briullov. 'The Last Day of Pompeii' is among the most outstanding. A significant event promises to be the 22nd edition of the Harlequin children's theater festival, which will take place in April in Saint Petersburg.