Blackburn’s National Festival of Making Celebrates Collaborations Between Art and Industry

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Blackburn’s National Festival of Making Celebrates Collaborations Between Art and Industry

Every year, in the town of Blackburn, Lancashire, a vibrant festival erupts with creativity in a celebration of art, craft, and industry. This year marked the seventh edition of the National Festival of Making, organized along the theme of “Art in Manufacturing.” Acclaimed artists and designers teamed up with industry leaders to create works using a variety of materials, from Morag Myerscough’s collaboration with Crown Paints for a vibrant new mural to Liaqat Rasul’s partnership with textile producer Herbert Parkinson for an optical installation.

Locality played a central role in the festival, as artists were paired with manufacturers in Lancashire. Matter at hand, the design practice of Lewis Jones, teamed up with Darwen Terracotta and Faience, which focuses on traditional glazed earthenware for home products and restoration (faience is a type of tin-glazed pottery).

an installation view of an artwork made of various pieces of fabric and found objects, suspended from the ceiling to create a face when viewed straight-on
Liaqat Rasul in collaboration with Herbert Parkinson, “Umeed (Oh-meed) امید – Gobaith – Hope”

Matter at hand created a large-scale installation titled “Poured Earth,” which takes an architectural approach to materials in the northern transept of Blackburn Cathedral. The piece invites visitors to walk through an archway of wooden crates and around cast elements in various shapes and sizes, emphasizing the timelessness and continuity of earthen building materials and styles.

Morag Myerscough transformed a corner building into a characteristically vivid, geometric floral mural with complementary garden boxes and a water tank. Rasul’s piece, a multifaceted textile assemblage suspended in the Blackburn Cathedral crypt, features a friendly face made of independent elements that merge into a full visage when viewed from the front.

Titled “Umeed (Oh-meed) امید – Gobaith – Hope,” the piece was created from scraps salvaged from Herbert Parkinson’s factory floor in addition to the artist’s own archive. Rasul tenderly embroidered the Urdu, Hindu, and Welsh words for “hope” amid various found elements like cord and safety pins.

The National Festival of Making features a program of more than 100 workshops, performances, artist talks, markets, and more across more than 20 Blackburn venues. Emphasizing the power of collaboration, cross-disciplinary exploration, and community, the festival aims to empower people of all ages to lean into curiosity and get making. Find more on the festival’s website.

a detail of a sculptural installation with numerous plaster and stone objects on tables and pedestals
Matter at hand in collaboration with Darwen Terracotta, “Poured Earth”
a detail of a sculptural installation with numerous plaster and stone objects
Matter at hand in collaboration with Darwen Terracotta, “Poured Earth” (detail)
a vibrant floral and geometric mural around the corner of a brick building
Morag Myerscough in collaboration with Crown Paints
details of fabric and various textile elements, with the word "hope" written in Arabic, Welsh, and Hindi
Liaqat Rasul in collaboration with Herbert Parkinson, “Umeed (Oh-meed) امید – Gobaith – Hope” (detail)
a detail of a sculptural installation with numerous plaster and stone objects
Matter at hand in collaboration with Darwen Terracotta, “Poured Earth” (detail)
a detail of a vibrant floral and geometric mural
Detail of a mural by Morag Myerscough in collaboration with Crown Paints

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