{"id":2352,"date":"2025-07-09T14:32:56","date_gmt":"2025-07-09T14:32:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.deaoli.com\/?p=2352"},"modified":"2025-07-11T17:31:04","modified_gmt":"2025-07-11T17:31:04","slug":"blackburns-national-festival-of-making-celebrates-collaborations-between-art-and-industry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.deaoli.com\/index.php\/2025\/07\/09\/blackburns-national-festival-of-making-celebrates-collaborations-between-art-and-industry\/","title":{"rendered":"Blackburn\u2019s National Festival of Making Celebrates Collaborations Between Art and Industry"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Blackburn’s<\/p>\n

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<\/a>, 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<\/a>\u2019s collaboration with Crown Paints for a vibrant new mural to Liaqat Rasul<\/a>\u2019s partnership with textile producer Herbert Parkinson for an optical installation.<\/p>\n

Locality played a central role in the festival, as artists were paired with manufacturers based in Lancashire. Matter at hand<\/a>, the design practice of Lewis Jones, teamed up with Darwen Terracotta\u00a0and Faience, which focuses on traditional glazed earthenware for home products and restoration (faience<\/a> is a type of tin-glazed pottery).<\/p>\n

\"an
Liaqat Rasul in collaboration with Herbert Parkinson, “Umeed (Oh-meed) \u0627\u0645\u06cc\u062f – Gobaith – Hope”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Titled “Umeed (Oh-meed) \u0627\u0645\u06cc\u062f – 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Rasul and Lewis’s work will be on view through July 12, with Myerscough’s mural intended for long-term display. Find more on the festival’s website<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Matter at hand in collaboration with Darwen Terracotta, “Poured Earth”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"a
Matter at hand in collaboration with Darwen Terracotta, “Poured Earth” (detail)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"a
Morag Myerscough in collaboration with Crown Paints<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"details
Liaqat Rasul in collaboration with Herbert Parkinson, “Umeed (Oh-meed) \u0627\u0645\u06cc\u062f \u2013 Gobaith \u2013 Hope” (detail)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"a
Matter at hand in collaboration with Darwen Terracotta, “Poured Earth” (detail)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"a
Detail of a mural by Morag Myerscough in collaboration with Crown Paints<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member<\/a> today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $7 per month. The article Blackburn’s National Festival of Making Celebrates Collaborations Between Art and Industry<\/a> appeared first on Colossal<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Every year, in the town of Blackburn, Lancashire, a vibrant festival erupts with creativity in a celebration of<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2354,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[14],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaoli.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2352"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaoli.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaoli.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaoli.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaoli.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2352"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaoli.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2352\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2363,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaoli.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2352\/revisions\/2363"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaoli.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaoli.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaoli.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaoli.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}