Festival of Making pairs artists with manufacturers

A festival in Lancashire is pairing artists with local manufacturers through its annual residency programme.

The Blackburn-based National Festival of Making, which became an Arts Council England National Portfolio Organisation in the 2023-26 round, is working with five local manufacturers.

These include suppliers of workwear and jeans, a cardboard box maker, and a company that specialises in garage doors and roller shutters.

Pairings for the Art in Manufacturing programme, now in its fifth year, include Ibukun Baldwin with clothes maker Cookson & Clegg, Stephanie Jefferies and Sarah Marsh with textile manufacturer Herbert Parkinson, and sculptor Steve Anwar with garage door specialists SWS UK.

Programme curator and festival co-director Elena Jackson said: “2023’s commissioned artists have hugely ambitious practices with individual focus on audience experience, access and imagination.

“We can’t wait to see the ideas that have been crafted by artists emerging from these residencies – ideas that will be at the heart of a packed programme of thought-provoking exhibitions, workshops and interventions for our audiences to experience.”

This year’s festival takes place 8-9 July.