Free workshops offered by the Gawthorpe Textiles Collection

Gawthorpe Textiles Collection is leading a series of artist led workshops across Burnley and Pendle, thanks to funding support from the National Lottery Heritage Fund. 

Four artists have been appointed to generate exciting, high quality creative opportunities for people from the local community to engage with the collection.  

These free workshops will use pieces from the Gawthorpe Textiles Collection as the catalyst for creative activities, learning new skills, meeting people and making friends.

Two of the workshops start later this month and will be led by Nayna Lad and Julia Swarbrick.

Nayna, of Liverpool, is 48 years old and of Indian heritage. Having always had a passion for art, she knew it was something that she wanted to do as she got older. In 2018 she decided on a career change to become a freelance visual arts facilitator and she has never looked back.

She said: “I love how varied my workshops are, from delivering to toddlers right through to the elderly, being involved with drop-in sessions through to longer projects.

“I work with a wide range of media, but my favourite is printing, textiles and clay and I’m always developing my skill set and learning new techniques to create interesting and creative workshop concepts.”

Nayna will be running a series of 10 free printing, embroidery and embellishment textiles workshops at Burnley Mechanics commencing on Wednesday 21st June from 10am to 12 noon to Wednesday 19th July, followed by a summer break and recommencing on Wednesday 6th September until 4th October. 

Julia is a visual artist primarily working as a painter-printmaker who has over a decade’s experience delivering visual arts workshops in a wide range of settings. 

Her work explores her external and immediate environment alongside the internal world of imagination and storytelling.

Julia is running a series of 10 free weekly printmaking at Gannow Community Centre in Burnley from Tuesday 27th June from 10am to 12.30pm until September 5th. 

Bev Lamey, community engagement officer for the Gawthorpe Textiles Collection, said: “These artists are incredibly talented and we feel privileged that they be working with us on this project. All the sessions are free and we urge anyone interested in textiles to sign up and get involved.”

For more information and to sign up for the workshops please contact Bev at [email protected]