Kully Thiarai
Kully Thiarai is creative director and CEO of Leeds 2023 – the city’s international year of culture. Kully has worked with arts organisations across the UK during her 30-year career. She lives in Chapel Allerton.
What’s your first Yorkshire memory? I was born and raised in Smethwick, in the Midlands, and the very first time I came to Yorkshire was to study at Bradford University, for a degree in Applied Social Studies – I wanted to have a career as a social worker. I remember walking up to the campus along streets that looked vastly different to home, because there were so many stone buildings, instead of the brick I was used to. Not long after, I was taken by some friends to Malham Cove and the countryside around it, and I was just stunned by the beauty of it all.
What’s your favourite part of the county – and why? I’m still in love with Malham, and the Yorkshire Dales in general. There are so many places to choose from that you could unload me anywhere, and I’d be happy in that countryside.
What’s your idea of a perfect day, or a perfect weekend, out in Yorkshire? Getting together with a whole group of friends and meeting up at Bettys in Harrogate for a long and very leisurely lunch, something that I haven’t done for far too long, and which I very much missed when I moved away from Yorkshire for a while. I’d be quite happy to stand in the queue to get in, believe me.
It was there that I discovered the delight that is brown bread ice cream – it is totally delicious.
Do you have a favourite walk – or view? It would be starting off in Cullingworth, just outside Bradford, and walking up on to the moor tops, particularly when the heather is fully in bloom. You can find some lovely and lonely spots up there, looking down on communities like Keighley and Haworth.
Which Yorkshire sportsperson, past or present, would you like to take for lunch? Nicola Adams, for her formidable (and enviable) energy, and her infectious smile. She’s an inspiration and a role model for so many young women, and she has that rare thing – integrity.
Which Yorkshire stage or screen star, past or present, would you like to take for dinner?
She is incredibly talented, and has a mischievously naughty twinkle in her eye, so who else could it be but Dame Judi Dench? I’ve always admired her, she’d have a fund of stories and, if I were ever lucky enough to work with her, I’ll bet that she would be such fun in the rehearsal room.
If you had to name your Yorkshire ‘hidden gem’, what would it be? Well, it isn’t very well “hidden” but it’s a place that I love, and where I always take visiting friends to – Yorkshire Sculpture Park. It’s so big that out in the open air if you bump into another soul it’s a bit of a surprise.
What do you think gives Yorkshire its unique identity? It’s a combination of charm and grit, tenacity and a “can do” attitude. It’s very welcoming, and also diverse, and that is true of both the people and the landscape.
Do you follow sport in the county, and if so, what? I always keep an eye on developments at Leeds United, and how they are doing. I’m absolutely delighted in the way that women’s involvement in sports like football and rugby is developing so quickly, and becoming more popular by the day.
Do you have a favourite restaurant, or pub? Currently Red Chilli, near the Carriageworks in Leeds.
Do you have a favourite food shop? Not one shop, but scores of them – at Kirkgate Market, in Leeds. It’s the sheer variety of it all that impresses me, and the quality that you get. I believe that we have an absolute duty to support our local
markets and independent traders. I try to avoid supermarkets as much as I can.
How do you think that Yorkshire has changed, for better or for worse, in the time that you’ve known it? The county and the country in general have been hit hard by austerity, and then this awful pandemic, and some places have been hit far harder than others. When I was at university in Bradford, the arts were thriving in so many ways, and it had a joyous atmosphere. Then came the cutbacks and everything just shrivelled away. Now, maybe we see the genuine roots of recovery? Leeds, however, just went from strength to strength in certain fields.
Who is the Yorkshire person that you most admire? Betty Boothroyd, for her forcefulness, resilience and the ability to take no nonsense. Can you imagine her as the Speaker of the House of Commons today? She’d be as wonderfully formidable as ever, and she’d certainly not let them get away with half of the rubbish and untruths that are spouted daily.
Has Yorkshire influenced your work? Yes, very much, in that I went to uni intending to go into social work, and I was taken by a friend to see a dance company and I saw what vigour they had, and I started checking out the other arts and became really interested. Then, after I’d attained my degree, Red Ladder Theatre Company came knocking, and they said that they were looking for someone to develop their work in the community, and not necessarily in theatre buildings themselves. That was definitely my “fork in the road” moment.
Name your favourite Yorkshire book/author/artist/performer.? There’s a whole list here. David Hockney for his recent paintings of trees, and that wonderful portrait of his mother, in which she looks so vulnerable; Kaiser Chiefs for their song Ruby, which we used when we had the Bollywood Oscars in Sheffield; and the crime novels of AA Dhand, all of which are gritty, full of inter-communal challenges, and set in Bradford.
If a stranger to Yorkshire only had time to visit one place, it would be? I’d take them around all the Leeds arcades and then we’d pop over to Salts Mill to look at the art, and all the other wonderful treasures under that one roof.