Blackburn Museum celebrates nature through the ages

Blackburn Museum & Art Gallery's landmark new exhibition that places its extraordinary collection of rare books, manuscripts and ceramics into dialogue with works from major national institutions opened on Friday 12 September. ‘The Nature of Gothic: Reflecting the Natural World in Historic and Contemporary Artistic Practice’, explores how artists across faiths, eras and disciplines have turned to nature for aesthetic and symbolic inspiration.

Open until 13 December, ‘The Nature of Gothic’ is the most ambitious exhibition ever staged by the Museum with Blackburn’s own Hart Collection (one of the UK’s most significant bodies of rare books and manuscripts) taking its rightful place on the national cultural map.

Co-curators Dr Cynthia Johnston (School of Advanced Study, University of London) and Anthea Purkis (Curator of Art, Blackburn Museum & Art Gallery) were joined by their counterparts from museums and galleries across the UK which loaned significant pieces to the exhibition. Items from Blackburn Museum's own collections, including those bequeathed by local rope maker, industrialist and collector Hart, have been matched with pieces of equal significance from the British Library, Manchester Art Gallery, Cambridge University Library and others.

The show includes:

• Illuminated manuscripts, from Books of Hours to Islamic devotional texts
• Pre-Raphaelite masterpieces including Rossetti’s ‘Astarte Syriaca’ and Burne-Jones’ ‘Sleeping Beauty’
• Rare bindings and early printed books including a copy of the ‘Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam’ with calligraphy by William Morris
• Decorative ceramics and textiles from the De Morgan Foundation, Tullie House, Gawthorpe Textiles Collection and more

Dr Cynthia Johnston said, Through Blackburn Museum’s exceptional collections, we are able to explore this shared cultural theme of gothic decorative art using the natural world, present across books, paintings, textiles and ceramics. Blackburn’s collections are astonishing in scope and quality. This exhibition places it within the national narrative of collecting, creativity and cross-cultural exchange.

The loan from the British Library is particularly significant and generous, it includes six medieval manuscripts including a national treasure, the ‘Bedford Psalter and Hours’. This manuscript was made in London in the early 15th century in the workshop of the famous illuminator, Herman Sheere. The Bedford Psalter is matched by a manuscript from the museum’s Hart Collection which also comes from Sheere’s workshop.”

The exhibition also includes two significant new artist commissions, which will become permanent additions to the Museum’s collection.

• Multi-disciplinary artist Jamie Holman (‘Contagious Acts’, 2025 featuring Jane Horrocks and Christopher Eccleston, ‘Dishing It Out’, 2023) has been inspired by the collection of Tregaskis bindings on loan from the University of Manchester’s John Rylands Library — a series of ornate, handcrafted book bindings first commissioned in 1894 from binders around the globe. Holman is currently creating new bound editions through a collaboration with artists in Islamabad, Pakistan, which will be bound at the National College of Arts in Lahore, Pakistan, echoing the original project’s international engagement while bringing a 21st-century perspective on craftsmanship and cultural dialogue. These will be installed in October.
• Nehal Aamir (Art in Manufacturing commissioned artist, National Festival of Making 2024), whose work explores themes of migration and identity through craft, has developed a new series of freestanding 3D ceramic borders. Her work draws directly from Blackburn’s historic ceramics collection and highlights the visual and technical connections between Islamic decorative traditions and the Arts & Crafts movement—a cross-cultural resonance at the heart of the exhibition’s theme.

The exhibition is funded by the Brian Mercer Trust and is part of the Museum’s National Portfolio Organisation (NPO) status awarded by Arts Council England, part of a wider story of cultural renewal in the town. Once shaped by industrial wealth, Blackburn is now redefining its identity through art, heritage and community partnerships

“’The Nature of Gothic’ is a powerful example of what happens when a local museum thinks nationally and curates with ambition,” adds Anthea Purkis, co-curator. “It’s about weaving Blackburn’s story into a much larger cultural fabric.”