Art in Manufacturing: Ibukan Baldwin

Ibukun Baldwin is a multidisciplinary artist and social practitioner specialising in print, illustration and embroidery.

Centred in the human, social and environmental, Ibukun Baldwin‘s work has grown out of an awareness of the neglected needs of marginalised communities and the potential role that innovative, contemporary, hand-crafted design can play. Baldwin is also founder of fashion brand Bukky Baldwin Ltd which focuses on the importance of community and providing employment opportunities for marginalised groups.

Baldwin is in residency with Cookson & Clegg, founded in Blackburn in 1860. Today the company manufacture jeans, chinos, trousers and workwear for some of the UK’s finest sustainable clothing brands, including jeans for Patrick Grant’s Community Clothing brand.

As part of the residency, the artist is working with local partners to support Families who have been evacuated from Afghanistan within the last 12 months. Two Afghan women have become ‘Artist Assistants’ to Ibukun Baldwin and will be introduced to making workshops that utilise denim deadstock fabric from the Cookson & Clegg factory, to create a large-scale immersive installation from denim waste.

This is National Festival of Making and British Textile Biennial co-commission.