British Textile Biennial 2025

This autumn, Venture Arts is delighted to be part of the British Textile Biennial 2025 (BTB25), which takes place across East Lancashire from 2 October – 2 November 2025.

BTB is a major month-long festival that celebrates the rich textile heritage of the region while exploring how textiles connect to contemporary issues of identity, innovation, and global change. Each edition brings together international artists, makers and communities to consider the textile industry’s history and its future.

For the first time, three Venture Arts artists have each been awarded a solo exhibition as part of the Biennial programme – a significant milestone that shines a national spotlight on their practices.

• Emelia Hewitt has spent the summer in residency at The Whitaker, producing As It Happens, a new body of work in photographic image-making and print. Responding to the Biennial’s Learning from the Land theme, the exhibition explores our connection to landscape with work inspired by the grounds of the museum. Emelia has used natural dyes with Anthotype printing methods in an innovative process that limits the use of photographic chemicals. As It Happens is on display at The Whitaker Museum & Art Gallery from 2 October – 23 November 2025.

• Sally Hirst presents Warped at Helmshore Mills Textile Museum (2 October – 2 November, Thurs–Sun). Her work uncovers overlooked histories of disabled mill workers and their roles in Lancashire’s textile industry, linking these to Luddite movements and contemporary debates around AI and technology.

• Sarah Lee exhibits Riding a Bike in a Flight Suit at OneTwoThree in Burnley (2 – 12 October 2025). Using large-scale embroidery, Sarah traces the stories of Lancashire manufacturers of high-performance fabrics, entwined with science-fiction narratives and speculative futures.

Alongside these exhibitions, Venture Arts will host a special programme of events over the weekend of 10–12 October, including tours, workshops and talks led by Emelia, Sally, Sarah and members of our team. This weekend offers audiences the chance to hear directly from the artists, experience their practices first-hand and join wider conversations about innovation, heritage and creativity.