Image: Lubaina Himid's work as part of British Textile Biennial

Returning this year, British Textile Biennial throws a spotlight on the nation’s creativity, innovation and expression in textiles against the backdrop of the impressive infrastructure of the cotton industry in Pennine Lancashire. With its epic mills and grandiose civic architecture along the country’s longest waterway, the Leeds & Liverpool Canal, the landscape tells the story of textiles. This biennial festival celebrates that story in venues across East Lancashire with the community that has textiles in its DNA, while turning its attention to the global nature of textiles and the relationships they create.

Image: Lubaina Himid's work as part of British Textile Biennial

One of the highlights of the biennial this year is a major new commission by Turner Prize winner Lubaina Himid. With an abiding interest in the history of textiles within both an African and European context, Himid will present Lost Threads, a major new work responding to the Gawthorpe Textile Collection in Burnley, exploring the histories of industrialisation, female labour, migration and globalisation in the Great Barn at Gawthorpe Hall.

Image: Amber Butchart outside Gawthorpe Hall

Similarly, in the beautiful Arts & Crafts interior of a former mill owner’s house, Haworth Art Gallery, Accrington, fashion historian Amber Butchart will present Cloth Cultures, an exhibition with pieces chosen from the Gawthorpe Textile Collection. Through four fabrics - wool, linen, cotton and silk - this show, alongside a series of podcasts and related events both on and offline, explores the threads of imperialism, telling a myriad of stories of movement, migration and making through cloth.

Image: Raisa Kabir, exhibition at Queen Street Mill - photography by Richard Tymon

Gandhi’s homespun philosophy is the inspiration behind Homegrown/Homespun; a collaboration with designer Patrick Grant, Super Slow Way and North West England Fibreshed. In Spring 2021 a field of flax and woad was planted on a piece of unused ground on the banks of the Leeds & Liverpool Canal in Blackburn, to be harvested and processed in the autumn and finally, spun, dyed and woven in Blackburn, to create the first pair of commercial homegrown and homespun dungarees live in the town centre during the Biennial. The background to this process is featured in an exhibition at Blackburn Museum and Art Gallery.

Image: Jasleen Kaur's work as part of The British Invasion exhibition at Blackburn's Cotton Exchange

Finally, in line with celebrations for the brand’s 50th anniversary, C.P. Company will be taking part in the programme, presenting a retrospective dedicated to five decades of Italian Sportswear, and Massimo Osti’s lasting legacy. Taking place in Darwen, Lancashire, from 1 – 10 October, the display will feature C.P. Company archive pieces from throughout the label’s history, alongside workshops and panel talks featuring speakers from the brans as well as respected names in sportswear.

British Textile Biennial runs from 1 - 31 October 2021. The majority of the exhibitions are free and no booking is required.

Find out more here: www.britishtextilebiennial.co.uk