This year’s commissions mark two significant industrial and cultural anniversaries for Lancashire and see new partnerships that have expanded the scope of the programme’s artist and industry commissions.

Nehal Aamir’s residency with Darwen Terracotta and 4 Faience marked her first large-scale commission as an emerging artist. Alongside working in the factory setting, the residency invited the artist to take inspiration from the Blackburn Museum & Art Gallery collection, in celebration of the Museum’s 150th Anniversary Year. The ceramic tapestry, Infinite Hands, will be exhibited until September in the Watercolour Gallery.

Celebrating another landmark moment, Standfast & Barracks reached its 100th Anniversary of the textile printing factory, founded in Lancaster in 1924. As part of the historic year, they welcomed weaver, Margo Selby, who responded with Breathing Colour, a celebratory textile installation located at Blackburn Cathedral.

Further establishing the Festival’s partnership with Venture Arts, an award-winning visual arts organisation who work with learning disabled artists, Horace Lindezey took residence with The Making Rooms. The work presented as part of We Are Gathered Here Together, the artist’s first solo show, brings together Lindezey’s connection to occasion and ceremony across births, marriages and deaths through witty references and a celebration of cultural icons.

Sam Williams and Cardboard Box Company have together created a large-scale playful structure in the iconic Exchange. Drawing comparisons between the creativity and innovation found in both the production industry and theme parks, 5 Williams evokes a sense of wonder in Fabula Un Facto, reminding us that ‘play is in the making’.

Focusing on the playful, the joyful and the beautiful, this year’s residencies reveal the often hidden side of the factory floor.