Lucy + Jorge Orta
Homo Mondialis
The 2025 British Textile Biennial will host a survey exhibition of the work in textiles by Lucy + Jorge Orta. From intricate pieces in embroidery appliqué, to sculpture and immersive video installations, the work presented crosses continents from the Antarctic to the Amazon reflecting on humanity’s impact and relationship with the planet.
Pioneers of the Material World
From peak to precinct, summit to street
On the 50th anniversary of the 1975 British Mount Everest Southwest Face expedition, this exhibition features original clothing across a century, charting the story of Lancashire’s key role in this clothing revolution right up to present day, including its part in creating space suits and Luke Skywalker’s X-wing pilot outfit.
Aitor Throup
FROM THE MOOR
For BTB25, multi-disciplinary artist and fashion designer Aitor Throup presents ‘FROM THE MOOR’ – a retrospective exhibition showcasing Throup’s groundbreaking designs, sculptures and drawings from the past 20 years.
The Synthetic Revolution
The development of the first polyester Terylene in Accrington seemed to be the stuff of science fiction, inspiring films like The White Suit, while its mass adoption in the 1950s heralded a revolution in fabric composition and production which is captured in this exhibition curated by fashion historian and broadcaster Amber Butchart and artist Claire Wellesley-Smith.
Ivan Forde
Bionic Yarn
For BTB25 Forde will show a new installation in the Billiard Room at Accrington’s Haworth Art Gallery, in dialogue with the gallery’s magnificent collection of Tiffany glass.
Dhara Mehrotra
Filamentous
Mehrotra’s site-specific installation celebrates mycelium networks that are the circulatory systems of earth.
Melanie Smith & Patricio Villarreal
Tixinda
Artists Melanie Smith and Patricio Villarreal have collaborated to make a short film with a Mixtec community in Oaxaca that explores the ancient relationship between them and the plicopurpura pansa sea snail.
Porfirio Gutiérrez
Zapotec artist, Porfirio Gutiérrez is a custodian of the ancient knowledge of cochineal production, maintaining the ancestral practice of processing and dyeing with cochineal insects for his woven artworks.
Tania Candiani
Tania Candiani’s works engage with the pigment’s pre-colonial origins and its transformation through colonial systems of extraction and trade.
Sarah Rosalena
Sarah Rosalena works between traditional craft traditions and emerging technology, breaking boundaries through her hybrid forms rooted in Indigenous cosmologies, re-interpreted through digital tools and her hand.
Crystal Bennes
When Computers Were Women
These four woven pieces were developed from a residency at CERN (the European Organisation for Nuclear Research), the home of the Large Hadron Collider.
Tim Smith
Weaving the Future
This multi-media installation, by photographer and filmmaker Tim Smith, explores how the innovative spirit that powered the textile industry over the last three centuries is driving a new revolution in the 21st century.
Jamie Holman
Netlon
Inspired by the futuristic inventiveness of Brian Mercer, artist Jamie Holman, worked with young people at Blackburn Youth Zone to create a film which is presented on the state-of-the-art screen built into the new extension of the building, The Fusebox.
Christian Jeffrey
Artist/designer, Christian Jeffery was invited to create a football shirt to celebrate the interlocked histories of flax and football through the history of the Kay family at Turton Tower.
åbäke & Le Cercle du S226erpent bleu
From Lancashire to Northern France, åbäke & Le Cercle du S226erpent Bleu from Roubaix, trace the story of a vanished football team in a fictional story that shows the enduring power of collective action in the sport, rather than bitter rivalry.
Re: Fashion Challenge 2025
Re: Fashion Challenge is a collaborative project by Gawthorpe Textiles Collection, UCLan and the British Textile Biennial. Teams of young people collaborate with fashion mentors to develop collections from second-hand clothes, dead stock, discarded and recycled materials.
Ninon Ardisson
Working in partnership with Burnley Creative Spaces and communities in Burnley, Ninon will explore alternative narratives of textile innovation rooted in local ecologies, community knowledge, and material intelligence.
Alexis Maxwell
Memory Fabric
Working in partnership with in Situ and communities in Nelson, Alexis will create an immersive, sci-fi-inspired installation exploring the speculative evolution of textiles, shaped by ecological memory and technological innovation.
Hannah Robson
Transformation
Hannah Robson presents a monumental work that responds to the Harris’s archive of the Courtauld Factory and its production of Rayon in Preston in the impressive newly opened spaces of the museum.
Dhaqan Collective
The Aqal (House of Weaving Songs)
The Aqal is a structure vital to Somali life, built to endure the harsh landscape with limited resources. Constructing one is a communal effort, with women weaving the structure together while singing songs that have been passed down through generations.
IGC Fashion & Salford Slow Fashion
Woven Worlds
Woven Worlds, Salford Slow Fashion (UK) and IGC Fashion (Uganda) have come together to create a distinctive fashion collection. Godfrey Katende of IGC Fashion is leading vital work to revive and modernise bark cloth, helping to reframe perceptions and ensure its continued relevance.
Margo Selby
The Future of Colour
A weekend of practice, talks, workshops and performances exploring the future of colour alongside a presentation of Breathing Colour by Margo Selby, the monumental artwork developed during Margo’s Art in Manufacturing residency.
Emilia Hewitt
Emilia Hewitt undertakes a summer residency at the Whitaker to develop work responding to the ‘Learning from the Land’ theme within her photographic and print making practice.
Sally Hirst
Sally Hirst presents a solo exhibition at Helmshore Mill exploring histories of disability within mill worker communities & the luddite movement, contrasted with contemporary relationships with AI technologies.
Sarah Lee
Sarah Lee presents an epic embroidery work exploring histories of fabric companies producing high performance fabrics and making techniques.
Materials Library
An exhibition of the materials and fibres that constitute our man-made world.
Future Fashion Landscapes
Future Fashion Landscapes showcases the outcomes of a 12-month collaboration between Centre for Sustainable Fashion, University of the Arts London and the South East England and South West England Fibresheds.
The Textile Study Group
A new group exhibition from the Textile Study Group a group of nationally and internationally recognised textile artists and tutors.
Textile Culture Net
For BTB25, TCN partners and guest curators Caroline Kipp (USA), Bukola Oyebode (Nigeria / The Netherlands), Zoe Yah (Taiwan) and Hilde Skancke Pedersen (Norway / Sámi) respond to the themes of BTB. Presented as an online exhibition via Instagram.