Textile Futures Roundtable

Conversations in Creativity

In these Roundtable sessions for British Textile Biennial moderated by Josie Warden, we explore more ethically and environmentally responsible ways of creating the textiles of the future with the help of some of the BTB23 artists from Africa and the UK.

This important conversation focuses on the dilemmas posed by the over-consumption of textiles and fashion in the global north and proposes some alternatives that we might explore and exhibit in BTB25, with themes of invention and innovation.

Artist contributors included Sunny Dolat from Kenya and Thierry Oussou from Benin who are showing work at BTB this year, alongside other innovators from East and West Africa, as well as UK-based professionals striving for ethical and eco-friendly textile production.

For BTB25, the plan is to focus on invention and innovation, with some projects and commissions that look back at what brought us to our present state and others that point forward to a more sustainable future. We want to consider these themes with an international group of people who are working in the field and looking at ways of building an equitable circular textile economy on a global scale.

Josie Warden was the moderator for these discussions. Formerly Head of Regenerative Design at the Royal Society of the Arts, with a background in textile design, Josie is interested in sustainability, manufacturing, making and economic democracy.

This event was part of the Conversations in Creativity series in collaboration with Creative Lancashire.