Fabric’s Emporium of Dreams

Guest post by Albert Freeman

The latest venture by Fabric brings to mind the shark sticking out of an Oxford roof, although whereas the shark is an artistic protest, Fabric’s Emporium of Dreams is intended to inspire people’s own imagination.

If you have spent any time in Bradford city centre over the past couple of years you will know that Fabric has been putting our empty shops to good and creative use. The organisation has transformed the former Zavvi/Virgin store into Hand Made In Bradford, and it has a Pop-Up Art Space in City Park.

Now Fabric has also acquired seven empty shops around the base of Arndale House. It is hoped that Sand In Your Eye (creators of the 2009 Charles Darwin sand sculpture in Bradford will have an indoor sandpit in the former Stead & Simpson shop where they will teach sand sculpture. Two of the premises on Market Street will be available as pop-up shops for people to try using for as little as a week at a time. This is with a view to helping them move their business into more permanent premises.

The idea that really struck me as being of particular amazingness is the Emporium of Dreams, which will be in the former Early Learning Centre. Here it is hoped that a creative, playful use of the interior will stimulate people’s imagination and encourage them to explore different futures for themselves.  Local artists are being commissioned, with a virtually blank canvas, to turn the interior into something fantastical. The centrepiece will be a 2.2m high steel lightbulb created by Craig Dyson of Haworth. Other ideas include an airship coming down through the ceiling, with the shop counter appearing to be its gondola.

Gideon Seymour explains: “The Emporium of Dreams will be an alternative to the often narrow and vocational careers support young people receive in school. Rather than children’s horizons broadening, their ambitions are actually narrowing throughout schooling.  Wouldn’t it be great if we could create somewhere where people could really imagine what it is they want to do, and to express aspirations without people saying ‘be realistic’?”

The Emporium of Dreams is intended to be not just for children, but for people of any age who might want to re-imagine their future. The main target audience is people for whom aspirations are a foreign concept.  Also, it will not just be for people whose ambitions are in the arts. But with regards to this particular sector Gideon decries the insidious “X factor-isation of the arts. There is a focus on being famous rather than being good at something. We want to unpick that teenage aspiration and explore other options and explore something they dream about doing.”

Apart from the visual “why not?” inspiration the Emporium of Dreams will help to germinate, the plan, as Gideon continues is “to populate the area with volunteers with practical skills acting as resource investigators.” They will be on hand to help and point people in appropriate directions to begin to realise their ambitions.

So, what would you put in an empty shop if you had a totally clean slate, no boundaries, and unlimited supply of resources, and you wanted to stimulate the imagination of your visitors?

Albert Freeman is  a musician (Wilful Missing and Our Albert), photographer, cyclist, vegan, radio presenter, employee of Bradford Libraries, and fan of Test cricket. Based in Bradford, West Yorkshire, UK ·

We’re no stranger to Fabric, check out our previous encounter with Gideon Seymor  ‘the estate agent for the arts’