Thanks to funding support from the National Lottery Heritage Fund, this year we are running a programme of artist led free workshops across Burnley and Pendle. We have appointed four artists to generate exciting, high quality creative opportunities for people from the local community to engage with the collection. These free workshops will use the textiles of GTC as the catalyst for creative activities, learning new skills, meeting people and making friends. Meet the Artists: Nayna Lad Artist Nayna Lad is 48 years old, of Indian heritage and she currently resides in Liverpool. Having always had a passion for art, she knew it was something that she wanted to do as she got older. Nayna is formally trained to degree level having studied Interior Design and then in the year 2000 she trained to become an Art Teacher. Nayna says that she loved working with children, it was incredibly rewarding not just teaching a subject but also supporting them into adulthood. In 2018 she decided on a career change to become a freelance visual arts facilitator and she has never looked back: “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.” Printing, Embroidery and Embellishment Textiles workshops Nayna will be running a series of ten free 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. To find out more or register to join the workshops, please contact Bev by email at b.lamey@gawthorpetextiles.org.uk Julia Swarbrick Julia Swarbrick is a visual artist primarily working as a painter-printmaker. Her background incorporates the fields of Fine Art, Performance and Public engagement. She has over a decade’s experience delivering visual arts workshops in a wide range of settings with a particular interest in the museum and heritage sector, looking at ways to enliven collections and engage audiences through art practice. Julia finds inspiration in the natural world around her, in the historical, in the personal and the imagined. Found elements from the natural world combined with mental biography are the rich source for the images she creates; using painting and printmaking as mediums that compliment and inform one another. Her work explores her external and immediate environment alongside the internal world of imagination and storytelling. Julia has exhibited across the UK and internationally. Exhibitions include Liverpool Biennial, The Harris in Preston, The Bluecoat, Liverpool, and the Spectrum Gallery in Perth, Australia. Her own work has been inspired by working with the museums’ collections. She is a regular at Blackburn Museum and Art Gallery where she has held two solo shows and regularly delivers workshops. Printmaking Workshops Julia is running a series of ten free weekly printmaking workshop s at Gannow Community Centre in Burnley from Tuesday 27th June from 10am to 12.30pm until September 5th. For more information and to sign up for the workshops please contact Bev at b.lamey@gawthorpetextiles.org.uk Nazia Sultana Artist Nazia Sultana is based in Nelson, Lancashire. She graduated from Cleveland College of Art and Design in International Textiles and Surface Design. Although Nazia is primarily a textile artist, she also loves to work with other subjects including print, calligraphy and fine art. Her work reflects who she is and what she loves: “I love using a variety of mixed media on my work. I love nature and am hugely influenced by the intensity of colours and surfaces of the world around me, and my work shows this in varying degrees.” Nazia is interested in creating new and exciting techniques that further layer her work and make it unique and different. Decorative Textiles Workshops Nazia has worked with a group of participants at the DEEN Centre in Brierfield to create artworks with a strong ethos of upcycling and sustainability. The workshops included a visit to source materials from charity shops – garments, bags of sequins, and jewellery which were combined with discarded items we typically throw away and undervalue such as leaves twigs crushed bottle tops bits of metal etc. to create beautiful artworks.