British Textile Biennial

British Textile Biennial (BTB) is a free festival of contemporary art, commissioning artists and designers from all over the world to make work inspired by the context and legacy of the textile industry in East Lancashire and its global impact, often in the places that were created by it.

This year the British Textile Biennial explores invention and innovation, past, present and future, through indigenous knowledge to space-age technology from the earliest form of shelter, the tent, to space suits, and from plant-based dyes to the first polymers.

On the 50th anniversary of the successful 1975 British Mount Everest Southwest Face expedition, the Biennial throws a spotlight on the invention of innovative high-performance materials made in Lancashire, that clothed explorers and pioneers in extreme environments including Amelia Earhart for her transatlantic crossing and Hillary and Norgay on their conquest of Everest.  It will survey the stream of hi-tech fabrics created in the area in the early 20th Century, used for everything from airships to typewriter ribbons and high performance tents and chart the enduring relationship between these real world inventors and science fiction in a story of mutual inspiration.

The Biennial will present its exhibitions, installations and performances in former mills and other rarely accessible spaces created by the textile industry across the centuries. Major artists are given the opportunity to make new work on a grand scale, as Lubaina Himid, Christine Borland and Jasleen Kaur have done in the past.  Featuring 60 artists, 27 exhibitions across 18 indoor and 2 outdoor venues, and included talks, walks, tours, workshops, and other events.

Each Biennial casts a new perspective on the role that textiles play in the past, present and future of our world.​​​​