British Textile Biennial: Affirming the Roots of Textiles in East Lancashire and the Contemporary Curatorial Venture

Potter, Gemma ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1033-3787 and Beards, Lilly Frances (2024) British Textile Biennial: Affirming the Roots of Textiles in East Lancashire and the Contemporary Curatorial Venture. Textile: Cloth and Culture, 22 (3). pp. 528-533. ISSN 1475-9756

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Abstract

Having conversations about place at its heart, the British Textile Biennial, launched in 2019 and produced by East Lancashire’s Super Slow Way, tells the stories of textiles through a diverse program, which aims to access and showcase a range of communities from the area. This article reflects on a conversation with Jenny Rutter in May 2022 that affirms the defining history and legacy of textile production in East Lancashire in the context of the wider global narratives. The importance of place defines the activities of the British Textile Biennial, which acknowledges textile histories, communities, contemporary artists of East Lancashire and the changing cultural landscape, both of the local area and of post-industrial England as a whole.