From the kitchen table, to the factory floor.
The National Festival of Making is a groundbreaking arts organisation that delivers an annual festival, year-round projects and Art in Manufacturing, a remarkable commissioning and residency programme embedding artists from across the UK in Lancashire factories.
See. Do. Make.
Founded in 2017, the National Festival of Making was granted Arts Council England NPO status in 2022. This marked a major step change for the organisation, and an opportunity to realise its enormous potential as one of the UK’s most exciting arts festivals.
Supporting NFM’s Founder-Directors and staff, we lead on marketing planning and strategic communications for the organisation, for its incredible annual festival and various year-round projects.
2023’s festival saw record-breaking attendances with over 35,000 visitors from around the world descending on Blackburn town centre to explore a programme of installations, hands-on workshops, talks, tours and performances.
Art, manufactured.
The National Festival of Making’s commissioning strand, Art in Manufacturing is a remarkable programme that embeds artists from around the UK in residencies with Lancashire factories. During these residencies, artists explore various manufacturing disciplines, from textiles, to printing, to steel fabrication, producing challenging new work co-created with the manufacturing workforce of Lancashire.
These works are then presented at the National Festival of Making.
We work with the curating team at NFM to tell the story of these residencies, where the process of colliding art with manufacturing leads to incredible new artworks. We communicate the processes and concepts behind the residences to arts and family audiences, encouraging festival visitors to discover new ideas and celebrate the long and proud heritage of Lancashire’s manufacturing and creative industries.
Photos copyright National Festival of Making / Darren Lee Poole / Robin Zahler.