Spotlight on new NPOs: Festival of Making

We had been working on regeneration projects with artists and communities across the North West for several years – as Deco Publique, our Lancashire-based culture company – when we first visited Blackburn. 

The local authority invited us to explore the potential for a festival with artists and makers at its core as a catalyst for reanimating the town centre. We discovered two important things: people were keen to get involved; and the town’s history of manufacturing. 

The industry remains a significant employer locally and we saw its potential as a starting point for a programme – rooted in place – that would make a positive difference.

The home of UK manufacturing

We spent a year researching Blackburn, working alongside the local authority, getting to know the community, listening to artists and local factories and developing ideas with organisations including ACE’s Creative People and Places programme: Super Slow Way. 

We wanted to investigate what scope there might be to create a focus point in the year, a moment with impact that was nationally relevant. As Blackburn is re-making itself as the home of UK manufacturing, there was an appetite to celebrate that. 

As plans developed, we wanted the festival to feel truly embedded and to connect with the broadest audience. So it was critical to engage the making sector and for the industrial community to have a generative role in the creation of new artistic work. 

It was this dialogue between our Festival of Making and the manufacturing sector that informed the development of Art in Manufacturing, our headline commissioning programme. 

As we introduced the idea to factories, we found energy and enthusiasm for the idea of an artist working with the manufacturers’ workforce. Factories wanted to become actively involved with rather than simply supporting the event. 

Seeing things differently

Partnerships were key to what we would create, a genuine co-development. The Art in Manufacturing strand has now become a series of new commissions in which artists work in collaboration with a factory, developing ideas jointly to create original work. 

This year’s festival takes the number of Art in Manufacturing residencies to 32, taking place in 21 factories, some of which have repeated their involvement through the years, like long term partners Darwen Terracotta and the Cardboard Box Company. 

After the residency, the resulting work is featured in the festival, taking on a new dimension as audiences engage with the work. 

By this point, the initial willingness to help the artist has transformed into a deeper connection, with the factory workforce feeling a sense of co-ownership and co-creation with the artist. 

Factories reflect that they feel a sense of pride in their involvement and having an artist present at times enables them to think or see things differently.

Cookson & Clegg Textiles, the Festival of Making 2022.

A model of working between local authority and the cultural sector

Feedback from the factories about the collaboration is positive. As they are often hidden away in mill buildings or on industrial estates, they value being more visible. The recognition of their skills and showcase of their work is widely appreciated.

One of the most powerful parts of the whole project is our fantastic working relationship with Blackburn and Darwen Borough Council. They are exemplary in their support for local cultural development. 

Their officers are committed, collaborative and resourceful with a ‘yes’ approach enabling quick decision making and empowering cultural organisations like ours to do our best work. Their ambition and enthusiasm for long term change is inspiring: their positivity makes a huge difference and ensures we can make a meaningful impact, now and into the future.

It's a model of working between local authority and the cultural sector that reaps rewards for all partners and provide a model for the development of stronger cultural ecologies elsewhere. 

Disregarded spaces as cultural assets

Blackburn is becoming well known for its culture and creativity. Three other Blackburn-based organisations were also awarded ACE funding this year. British Textile Biennial, Blackburn Museum and Cultrapedia along with National Festival of Making are set to share £2m of new funding for the borough over the next three years. 

Together we are changing perceptions, building on the phenomenal heritage of the town as a contemporary centre for arts and industry. We present work that speaks to everyone, throughout the year, alongside education and talent development programmes that generate opportunities and employment.

An important element for us is to use the festival to bring unused spaces to life, reimagining them beyond their original purpose. By working practically to develop the infrastructure of buildings, we shine a light on the potential of disregarded spaces as cultural assets. 

Becoming an NPO means we can better map out our longer-term relationships with manufacturers and the many partners who contribute to making the festival. We want to expand the residencies so that artists and factory workers have ample time to create more ambitious and outstanding work. And we want to work with many more manufacturers, beyond Lancashire, to further position the festival as an inspiring, beautiful coming together of manufacturing skill and contemporary art.

Elena Jackson is Artistic Director and Co-Founder of the National Festival of Making.
www.festivalofmaking.co.uk/
@festofmaking | @ElenaKates
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