VICTORIOUS VOICES x SURVIVORS WEST YORKSHIRE

Challenging the Silence: Bradford, 2026

On 6th March 2026, the eighth Victorious Voices exhibition was presented at Bradford Arts Centre as part of Challenging the Silence: Male Survivor Needs. Following the first seminar in Leeds, Bradford was the next stop in a series taking survivor-led portraiture, specialist practice and research across West Yorkshire.

The exhibition placed black-and-white portraits and first-person testimonies alongside a programme focused on improving understanding and support for male survivors of childhood sexual abuse. Together, the images showed people of different genders and backgrounds who had chosen to make their experiences visible. Each testimony remained individual, resisting the idea that there is one way to survive, disclose or heal.

The seminar brought attention to the needs of men who can spend years without being recognised as survivors or knowing where to turn. Survivors West Yorkshire shared its experience of providing specialist support through Ben’s Place, while research presented by Dr Stacey Maher helped connect lived experience with recommendations for change. Victorious Voices gave visitors another way into that conversation: through encounters with people whose lives could not be reduced to a finding or a service category.

Presenting the work at an arts centre mattered, too. The portraits were part of a cultural space as well as a professional discussion, inviting attendees to consider how public representation can challenge the shame and isolation that often surround childhood sexual abuse.

Bradford carried forward the question at the heart of the series: what needs to change so that a survivor who speaks is met with understanding and meaningful support? The exhibition made that question personal, while leaving each participant’s voice and story their own.