Five seasons of Art in Manufacturing pairings have seen incredible and diverse creative works unfold across the mediums and methods of each artist and the manufacturing narrative they choose to portray.

Season five welcomed five new artists into the residency programme working across installation, sculpture, performance and textiles. From magical chocolate box histories to sensory playscapes and community collaborations, intriguing theatre and public art, this year’s residencies and commission outcomes evolved to be collaborative and participatory.

This year’s residencies and commission outcomes have evolved to be collaborative and participatory. Ibukun Baldwin’s Funufactury engaged the skills of community members, with the entire project shaped through weekly sewing workshops designed to share the opportunity for creative development.

In North Light, Stephanie Jefferies and Sarah Marsh placed partner memories from 70 years of the Herbert Parkinson and John Lewis Partnership at the heart of their work, gathering sensory memories and building reciprocal relationships with a dedicated project team. Their work, aimed at an early years audience, challenges the perceptions of artistic hierarchy to create a beautifully crafted sculptural installation with the experience of families considered throughout every aesthetic and making decision.

All five projects have co-design practices within the makeup of the work, with Sam Belinfante’s, I See a Voice shaped by the personal relationships built with the factory and collaborative acts with co-creators in music composition and exhibition design. Work brought by Illuminos was shaped collaboratively by the artists’ family, with a project that explored family archives and facilitated intergenerational creativity between the artists, their children, and wider family, in a highly personal project.

Sapien’s new work, Wave Sweeper was made by artist and factory with distinct roles in both the making facilities of the factory floor and hours spent in the artist’s Sheffield sculpture studio. Layers of co-creation within each commission are there to be activated by the interaction of our festival audiences.