What’s On

Exhibitions, events, performances, talks and tours as part of the British Textile Biennial

Exhibitions

Lucy + Jorge Orta

Homo Mondialis

From intricate pieces in embroidery appliqué, to sculpture and immersive video installations, this sweeping survey of the Ortas’ work crosses continents from the Antarctic to the Amazon, reflecting onhumanity’s impact and relationship with the planet.

2/10/25-02/11/25
Wed - Sun
11am - 5pm
Blackburn Cathedral Crypt
Exhibitions

Jamie Holman

Machine Made Fabric

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.

2/10/25-02/11/25
Wed - Sun
11am - 5pm
The Fusebox
Exhibitions

Dhaqan Collective

The Aqal (House of Weaving Songs)

Somali artists and producers, Ayan Cilmi and Fozia Ismail, known as the Dhaqan Collective, present a participatory soundscape using Somali nomadic weaving traditions to connect us to ancient cultural practices that can inspire us to build new futures.

2/10/25-02/11/25
Wed - Sun
11am - 5pm
Blakey Moor
Exhibitions

Godfrey Katende & Salford Slow Fashion

Woven Worlds

Salford Slow Fashion (UK) have worked with Godfrey Katende of IGC Fashion (Uganda) to create a distinctive fashion collection that celebrates bark cloth – an ancient and culturally significant Ugandan fabric.

2/10/25-02/11/25
Wed - Sun
11am - 5pm
Blakey Moor
Exhibitions

Materials Library

The Materials Library explores the origins of fibres that have long clothed and connected us.

2/10/25-02/11/25
Wed - Sun
11am - 5pm
Blakey Moor
Exhibitions

Sairo

Fashion Evolution: 2075

Fashion Promotion students in their final year at University of Lancashire present the future of fashion retail.

25/10/25 - 02/11/25
Wed - Sun
11am - 5pm
Prism Contemporary
Exhibitions

åbäke & Le Cercle du S226erpent bleu

RROOUUBBAAIIXX 2033

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.

2/10/25-02/11/25
Wed - Sun
11am - 4pm
Turton Tower
Exhibitions

Christian Jeffery

Comfort Ye One Another

Christian Jeffery creates beautiful, hand-painted football shirts. Taking inspiration from cult players, iconic kits, fan culture, local traditions and historical artefacts, his paintings often incorporate plants, flowers and architecture associated with a certain team or city.

2/10/25-02/11/25
Wed - Sun
11am - 4pm
Turton Tower
Exhibitions

OOF

100% UNOFFICIAL: The Fabric of Fandom

This exhibition explores how innovative football supporters have subverted textiles to express their individuality and undying dedication.

2/10/25-02/11/25
Wed - Sun
11am - 4pm
Turton Tower
Exhibitions

Porfirio Gutiérrez

Agency

Based in California, Zapotec artist Porfirio Gutiérrez creates work that explores the contemporary and evolving experience of Native Americans.

2/10/25-23/11/25
Wed - Sun
11am - 4pm
(Late on Thu until 8pm)
The Whitaker Museum & Art Gallery
Exhibitions

Melanie Smith & Patricio Villarreal

Tixinda

In this collaboration, the two artists spent time with a Mixtec community in Oaxaca following an age-old, seasonal ritual.

2/10/25-23/11/25
Wed - Sun
11am - 4pm
(Late on Thu until 8pm)
The Whitaker Museum & Art Gallery
Exhibitions

Sarah Rosalena

Red Shift Spiral, Eight Pointed Star and Rose Star

Based in Los Angeles, 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.

2/10/25-23/11/25
Wed - Sun
11am - 4pm
(Late on Thu until 8pm)
The Whitaker Museum & Art Gallery
Exhibitions

Tania Candiani

Centecpanxiquipilli Nocheztl, La ruta de la grana cochinilla and Campo carmín

Based in Mexico City and rooted in specific geographies and territorial histories, Tania Candiani creates work in which body, land, labour and ancestral knowledge are inextricable.

2/10/25-23/11/25
Wed - Sun
11am - 4pm
(Late on Thu until 8pm)
The Whitaker Museum & Art Gallery
Exhibitions

Dhara Mehrotra

Filamentous

Mehrotra’s site-specific installation celebrates mycelium networks that are the circulatory systems of earth.

2/10/25-23/11/25
Wed - Sun
11am - 4pm
(Late on Thu until 8pm)
The Whitaker Museum & Art Gallery
Exhibitions

Emelia Hewitt

As It Happens

Emelia Hewitt undertook a summer residency at the Whitaker to develop work within her photographic and image making practice.

2/10/25-23/11/25
Wed - Sun
11am - 4pm
(Late on Thu until 8pm)
The Whitaker Museum & Art Gallery
Exhibitions

Sally Hirst

Warped

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.

2/10/25-02/11/25
Thu - Sun
11am - 4pm
Helmshore Mills Textile Museum
Exhibitions

Textile Culture Net

Future Past

Future Past is an online exhibition via Instagram presented by Textile Culture Net (TCN) that brings together artists from across the globe whose work explores the often conflicted relationship between humans and the universe through textiles, along a sliding scale of power and resistance TCN is an international network of four textile institutions

ON INSTAGRAM
Exhibitions

The Synthetic Revolution

Curated by academic and artist Claire Wellesley-Smith and fashion historian and broadcaster Amber Butchart, The Synthetic Revolution explores the origins of this story, tracing it back to 1941 when the drawing of a polymer into the first polyester fibre went on to position it at the heart of the modern textile industry.

2/10/25-19/12/25
Wed - Sun
12 - 4.30pm
Haworth Art Gallery
Exhibitions

Ivan Forde

Bionic Yarn

Aligned with textile company Bionic Yarn’s repurposing of plastic waste from coastal communities and marine ecosystems to create high performance textiles, artist Ivan Forde uses this material to depict new poetic visions of fictional and real bodies of water across the world.

2/10/25-19/12/25
Wed - Sun
12 - 4.30pm
Haworth Art Gallery
Exhibitions

Clayton Creatives

Why We Wander Over Yonder

Produced by The Clayton Creatives, a group of local residents in Clayton-le-Moors, this exhibition celebrates and explores their shared stories, personal triumphs and losses, journeys and explorations.

9/10/25-18/10/25
Wed - Sat
11am - 4pm
Accrington DOME
Exhibitions

Pioneers of the Material World

From peak to precinct, summit to street

The exhibition shows how performance clothing that emerged at the beginning of the last century for survival in the most extreme environments, clothing pioneers from Amelia Earhart to Edmund Hillary, from the Antarctic to the Himalayas, was later redefined by northern climbers, giving rise to brands like Berghaus and Rab, all rooted in northern ingenuity and material expertise.

2/10/25-25/12/25
Wed - Sun
12 - 4.30pm
Towneley Hall
Exhibitions

Aitor Throup

FROM THE MOOR

Internationally renowned artist/designer, Aitor Throup, presents an immersive multi-media event on the Biennial’s final weekend,

30/10/25-02/11/25
Thu - Sun
The Empire Burnley
Exhibitions

Ninon Ardisson

LOAM

Artist and games designer, Ninon Ardisson, speculates how textile production in the 20th century might have developed differently if informed by local environments rather than military and industrial demands and how biological materials could shape a different trajectory for innovation.

2/10/25-02/11/25
Wed - Sun
12 - 4pm
The Salon
Exhibitions

Re:Fashion Challenge 2025

The idea of creating Utopia fuelled the future visions of the last century, feeding the realms of science fiction and, in turn, being inspired by its creations.

2/10/25-12/10/25
Wed - Sun
12 - 4pm
Exhibitions

Sarah Lee

Riding a Bike in a Flight Suit

Sarah Lee presents an epic embroidery work exploring histories of manufacturing companies in Lancashire who produced high performance fabrics using innovative techniques.

2/10/25-12/10/25
Wed - Sun
12 - 4pm
OneTwoThree
Exhibitions

Sarah Rosalena

Standard Candle and Expanding Axis

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.

2/10/25-02/11/25
Wed - Sat
12 - 4pm
Queen Street Mill Textile Museum
Exhibitions

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.

2/10/25-02/11/25
Wed - Sat
12 - 4pm
Queen Street Mill Textile Museum
Exhibitions

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.

02/10/25-02/11/25
Wed - Sat
12 - 4pm
Queen Street Mill Textile Museum
Exhibitions

Alexis Maxwell

Memory Fabric

An immersive, sci-fi-inspired multimedia installation based on an imagined fabric that holds the memories of local people and the land around Pendle.

2/10/25-02/11/25
Thu - Sun
11am - 4pm
The Technology Centre
Exhibitions

Future Fashion Landscapes

Future Fashion Landscapes is a collaboration between Centre for Sustainable Fashion, University of the Arts London and the South East England and South West England Fibresheds, focusing on fibre production and biodiversity enhancement.

2/10/25-02/11/25
Tue - Sun
10am - 4pm
Pendle Heritage Centre
Exhibitions

Anna Clough

Fold Anew

Anna Clough’s outdoor sculpture, based on the traditional sheep fold, celebrates sheep farming and fleece that have a long legacy in Lancashire.

2/10/25-02/11/25
Tue - Sun
10am - 4pm
The Cruck Barn
Exhibitions

Kate O'Farrell and Rob St John

Are You Lost?

Are You Lost? Is a multimedia installation from artists Kate O’Farrell and Rob St John.

11/10/25-12/10/25
Sat & Sun
10am - 4pm
Pendle Heritage Centre
Exhibitions

Hannah Robson

Transformation

Hannah Robson presents a monumental work that responds to the Harris’s archive of the Courtauld Factory in Preston in the impressive newly opened spaces of the museum.

2/10/25 - SPRING '26
Mon-Sat, 9am–5pm
Thu, late until 9pm
Sun, 11am–4pm
The Harris
Exhibitions

The Textile Study Group

Seven Bags Full

A new group exhibition from the Textile Study Group a group of nationally and internationally recognised textile artists and tutors.

2/10/25-02/11/25
Thu - Sun
11am - 4pm
The Birley
Exhibitions
Margo Selby's Breathing Colour installed at Blackburn Cathedral.

Margo Selby

Breathing Colour

BTB reaches Lancaster for the first time with Margo Selby’s beautiful textile hanging, Breathing Colour, a celebratory textile installation, immersive in colour, form and sound, joyful and uplifting.

 

16/10/25-19/10/25
Thu - Sun
10am - 5pm
Workshops

Weaving Workshop

with Caitlin Binks

Come and explore our North West history by trying your hand at weaving, with artist and heritage machinery technician Caitlin Binks.

04/10/25
11am-3pm
Darwen Market
Workshops

Alternative Weaving

with The Bureau

Join artists at The Bureau every Saturday in October to experiment with creating new fabrics from different combinations of discarded materials.

04/10/25
11am-3pm
The Bureau - Centre for the Arts
Workshops

Wadi Hanifah Flower Making

with Bev Lamey

Inspired by Lucy Orta’s artwork, join Bev Lamey to create handmade flowers

10/10/25
11am-3pm
Prism Contemporary
Workshops

Wadi Hanifah Flower Making

with Bev Lamey

Inspired by Lucy Orta’s artwork, join Bev Lamey to create handmade flowers

11/10/25
11am-3pm
Prism Contemporary
Workshops

Woven Wool Bracelet Workshop

with Helen Davies

Join knitting artist, Helen Davies for a fun filled workshop creating woven woollen bracelets.

11/10/25
11am-3pm
Blackburn Market
Workshops

Weaving Workshop

with Caitlin Binks and Julie Whitehouse

In the amazing, industrial setting of Queen Street Mill, students will learn about different hand-powered looms and make their own coaster or wall hanging using their own cardboard loom that they can take home.

11/10/25
11am-3pm
Queen Street Mill Textile Museum
Workshops

Re-Cut the Future

with Emily Tonge

Re-Cut the Future is a drop-in collage workshop where visitors creatively reimagine iconic garments from the Pioneers of the Material World exhibition.

11/10/25
11am-3pm
Towneley Hall
Workshops

Cyanotype Workshop

with Orrin Saint-Pierre

Come and learn how to make Cyanotypes, one of the oldest photographic printmaking processes.

11/10/25
11am-3pm
Helmshore Mills Textile Museum
Workshops

Alternative Weaving

with The Bureau

Join artists at The Bureau every Saturday in October to experiment with creating new fabrics from different combinations of discarded materials.

11/10/25
11am-3pm
The Bureau - Centre for the Arts
Workshops

Embroidering Bark Cloth (Lubugo)

with Salford Slow Fashion

Come and experience stitching into Lubugo (bark cloth) during BTB25.

12/10/25
11am-3pm
Blakey Moor
Workshops

Natural Dyeing

with Kirsteen McGregor

Join Heritage Textile Specialist, Kirsteen McGregor and experiment with natural dyes and botanical pigments on a range of fibres and material mediums

18/10/25
11am-3pm
The Whitaker Museum & Art Gallery
Workshops

Alternative Weaving

with The Bureau

Join artists at The Bureau every Saturday in October to experiment with creating new fabrics from different combinations of discarded materials.

18/10/25
11am-3pm
The Bureau - Centre for the Arts
Workshops

Origami Workshop

with Sharon Brown

A colourful origami butterfly workshop taking inspiration from the work of British Textile Biennial artist Margo Selby.

18/10/25
11am-3pm
Ashton Memorial
Workshops

Origami Workshop

with Sharon Brown

A colourful origami butterfly workshop taking inspiration from the work of British Textile Biennial artist Margo Selby.

19/10/25
11am-3pm
Ashton Memorial
Workshops

Surface Pattern Workshop

with Fawziyah Raja

Inspired by the curated artwork on display, participants will be guided to identify shapes and patterns that resonate with them, culminating in the creation of a primary motif stamp, cut from a foam sheet to create a stamp effect.

25/10/25
11am-3pm
Haworth Art Gallery
Workshops

Alternative Weaving

with The Bureau

Join artists at The Bureau every Saturday in October to experiment with creating new fabrics from different combinations of discarded materials.

25/10/25
11am-3pm
The Bureau - Centre for the Arts
Workshops

Willow Workshop

with Cherry Chung

Join willow weaving artist, Cherry Chung for a willow workshop at Darwen Market.

25/10/25
10am-1pm
Darwen Market
Workshops

Zarzo Basket Making

with Cherry Chung

Join willow weaving artist, Cherry Chung for a basket making workshop at Darwen Market.

25/10/25
1pm-3.30pm
Darwen Market
Workshops

BTB25 Study Visit: Innovations in 19th Century Textiles

with Gawthorpe Textiles Collection

Discover 19th century innovations in textile production, with the chance to study antique costume, lace, patchwork, embroidery and more.

25/10/25
10am-3.30pm
Northlight
Workshops

Origami Workshop

with Sharon Brown

A colourful origami butterfly workshop taking inspiration from the work of British Textile Biennial artist Margo Selby.

25/10/25
11am-3pm
Blackburn Market
Workshops

Weaving Workshop

with Caitlin Binks

Come and explore our North West history by trying your hand at weaving, with artist and heritage machinery technician Caitlin Binks.

27/10/25
11am-3pm
Blackburn Market
Workshops

Natural Dyeing

with Kirsteen McGregor

Join Heritage Textile Specialist, Kirsteen McGregor and experiment with natural dyes and botanical pigments on a range of fibres and material mediums

28/10/25
11am-3pm
Blackburn Market
Workshops

Step Into the Future of Fashion

with Sairo

Step into the future of fashion at this groundbreaking two-day workshop where creativity meets cutting-edge AI technology. Join us for an immersive, hands-on experience that explores how artificial intelligence is reshaping the fashion landscape.

29/10/25
11am-3pm
Prism Contemporary
Workshops

Origami Workshop

with Sharon Brown

A colourful origami butterfly workshop taking inspiration from the work of British Textile Biennial artist Margo Selby.

29/10/25
11am-3pm
Darwen Market
Workshops

Step Into the Future of Fashion

with Sairo

Step into the future of fashion at this groundbreaking two-day workshop where creativity meets cutting-edge AI technology. Join us for an immersive, hands-on experience that explores how artificial intelligence is reshaping the fashion landscape.

30/10/25
11am-3pm
Prism Contemporary
Workshops

Somali Tapestry Workshop

with the Dhaqan Collective

Join Fozia and Ayan of the Dhaqan Collective for a weaving workshop creating Somali tapestries.

31/10/25
11am-1pm
Blakey Moor
Workshops

Yarn Winding Workshop

with Hannah Robson

Yarn windings are mini textile artworks created by wrapping and placing thread around card. Through the process, you enjoy the feeling of the materials in your hands and appreciate the colours, textures and magic of yarns.

01/11/25
11am-3pm
The Harris
Workshops

Alternative Weaving

with The Bureau

Join artists at The Bureau every Saturday in October to experiment with creating new fabrics from different combinations of discarded materials.

01/11/25
11am-3pm
The Bureau - Centre for the Arts
Workshops

Day of the Dead Mask Making Workshop

with Sharon Brown

Inspired by the British Textile Biennial exhibition of work by 4 Mexican artists, we celebrate ‘Dia de Muertos’ by creating ‘La Catrina’ inspired skeleton masks.

02/11/25
11am-3pm
The Whitaker Museum & Art Gallery