Whether newly commissioned work or programmed features, the festival’s exhibitions, installations and experiences are an audience highlight.
Each year, visitors travel from across the region and beyond to see the latest Season of Art in Manufacturing. Conceived as a unique platform for artists to develop their practice and an opportunity to create a meaningful dialogue between artists and the industrial workforce, the commissioning programme explores the social and cultural fabric of place.
The residency programme facilitates access to cutting-edge technologies and unearths hidden heritages, all resulting in remarkable, contemporary artworks.
These are presented as part of the National Festival of Making’s weekend programme in venues from repurposed town centre shops to Blackburn’s finest heritage spaces.
During the festival, you might also experience projects created through our year-round programme. These are often created with communities, education partners and/or are the result of new commission opportunities for artists.
Whilst the focus of these projects isn’t always about an outcome for the festival, they often feature over the weekend, platforming the work to the thousands of festival visitors.
In addition to these brand new works, installations made by artists and makers often tour to Blackburn for the first time as part of our programme. Previous highlights include The Light Organ, Yess Lad and Thingamabobas.