British Textile Biennial

Tony Attard OBE DL

Tony is the founder and Group Chief Executive of Lancashire-based Panaz Limited. Formed in 1986, the company today exports to 60 countries, operating worldwide through subsidiary companies in Europe and the USA and a global network of distributors.

Tony’s activities and interests extend far beyond the Burnley boardroom among other things he is also currently a member of the Court of the Furniture Makers’ Guild and Charity and member of the Manchester University Department of Material Science Industrial Advisory Group and Chair of Marketing Lancashire.  Tony was made an OBE by Her Majesty the Queen in the 2010 New Year’s honours, bestowed a Deputy Lieutenant of Lancashire in 2016 and appointed The High Sheriff of Lancashire for year 2018.

Lubaina Himid

Lubaina Himid is the 2017 Turner Prize winner and Professor of Contemporary Art at the University of Central Lancashire. During the past 30 years she has exhibited widely, both in Britain and Internationally, with solo shows that include Tate St Ives, Transmission Glasgow, Chisenhale London, Peg Alston New York and St Jorgens Museum in Bergen, Lubaina represented Britain at the 5th Havana Biennale and has shown work at the Studio Museum in New York, Track 17 in Los Angeles, the Fine Art Academy in Vienna and the Grazer Kunstverein.

Himid’s work can be found in public collections including Tate, the Victoria & Albert Museum, The Whitworth Art gallery, Arts Council England, Manchester Art Gallery, The International Slavery Museum Liverpool, The Walker Art Gallery, Birmingham City Art Gallery, Bolton Art Gallery, New Hall Cambridge and the Harris Museum and Art Gallery Preston.

Patrick Grant

Patrick’s career in fashion has spanned over a decade when in 2005, after leaving a career in Engineering, he took over as Director at Savile Row tailor Norton & Sons. 

In 2015 Patrick purchased the ailing Blackburn clothing manufacturer Cookson & Clegg, saving the factory from closure. This was followed in 2016 with the launch of social enterprise Community Clothing in response to the extreme challenges facing the British clothing and textile manufacturing industry earning him support and praise from across the political spectrum. 

Patrick is a regular on television and radio as a commentator on the British fashion, clothing and textile industries. He has been a contributor to several major television but is best known for his role in the BBC2 Series The Great British Sewing Bee. 

In 2018 Patrick was named Co-Chair of HRH The Prince of Wales’s charity ‘Future Textiles’, an organisation working to sustain skills and create jobs in the UK’s garment making industry.

Ruth Raban

Ruth works as an Enterprise Fellow at Manchester Metropolitan University Business School facilitating workshops and peer learning for business MD’s and Directors from across the North West.

For 9 years Ruth was Director of Creative Lancashire, building a large network of creative and cultural businesses, freelances and artists. The Creative Lancashire service delivered a range of business support, events, consultancy, and training, working collaboratively with regional and national organisations including: NESTA, The Design Council, The Arts Council, D&AD and the Queens Award Office. Through developing some successful collaborations and securing funding Ruth has built some strong strategic partnerships with a range of public and private stakeholders.

Providing leadership and board level experience Ruth worked for six years as a charity trustee for Northwest organisation Curious Minds, to provide children from all backgrounds with creative opportunities Previously Ruth worked in the media industry and ran two TV production companies working for some of the major broadcasters including the BBC and Channel 4.

Dr Christine Checinska

Dr Christine Checinska is the Senior Curator of Textiles and Fashion Africa and Diaspora at the Victoria and Albert Museum and Lead Curator of the Africa Fashion exhibition, 2nd July 2022 – 16th April 2023.

Prior to joining the V&A, Christine worked as a womenswear designer, academic, artist and curator. Her creative practice and research explore the relationship between fashion, culture and race. Christine’s recent exhibitions include an intervention for Makers Eye: Stories of Craft, July-October 2021, Crafts Council Gallery, and Folded Life February 2021, Johanne Jacobs Museum, Zurich, Switzerland. Her recent publications include ‘Re-Fashioning African Diasporic Masculinities’ in Fashion and Postcolonial Critique, Elke Gaugele and Monica Titton (eds.), 2019. In 2016 she delivered the TedxTalk Disobedient Dress: Fashion as Everyday Activism.

In industry for over thirty years, Christine has created womenswear collections for iconic British brands such as Margaret Howell, where she was a Senior Designer, during the late 1990s.

Laurie Peake

Laurie Peake is the Director of Super Slow Way, working with artists in communities along the Leeds & Liverpool Canal in East Lancashire, using its rich environmental and heritage assets to support community led regeneration and climate action.