We were awarded a co-commission to produce a brand-new artwork for the Pendle Festival of Culture, Nelson, and the National Festival of Making, Blackburn, which was displayed at both festival sites this summer.

For this exciting new artwork, we designed and fabricated a bespoke Welcome Arch informed by the local communities across two Lancashire towns, reflecting the sense of place and geography, drawing together what unites them. During the two festivals, the Welcome Arch was a prominent part of the pop-up built environment and a highly visible place for audiences to gather.

Elena Jackson, Director of National Festival of Making, said: “The Welcome Arch provided a place of gathering at the National Festival of Making - a place to sit with others, have a moment of relection in the busy festival environment, and enjoy the changing colour reflections as the sun came out. Accompanied by workshops using offcuts from the making process, participants were able to take a piece of the Festival home with them. Working with Dual Works, This is Nelson and members of the community on this commission resulted in a collaborative, high quality and unifying piece of work - one that embodies the qualities of making we continuously aim to celebrate. For us, it was a joy to work with the whole Dual Works team whose passion for considered, contemporary design and engagement runs through their work. We were so pleased they played such a significant part of this year’s Festival of Making programme and look forward to working collaboratively again in the future.”

Welcome Arch designed and made for the National Festival of Making and Pendle Festival of Culture

We hosted creative workshops which focused on meaningful conversations with intergenerational groups fostering connections between participants and their local surroundings. We worked with a range of maps to explore these areas and participants shared their homes, memories and aspirations linked to local and global places. Through a series of design challenges, the teams identified the most interesting patterns as a way to make their mark and these patterns contributed to the design of the Welcome Arch.

Holly Noonan, Community Development Officer at Building Bridges Pendle, said: “For us, our communities here in Pendle have to be at the heart of everything we do, and from the very first time we met the Dual Works team, we knew that they understood this. In addition to crafting the vibrant and fun Welcome Arch, Dual Works also developed workshops which meant that the contribution from our community members on the design of the Arch was truly meaningful. A joy to work with!”

Photography Courtesy of the National Festival of Making by Emma Colbert-Mooring

Here you can see the ceramonial opening of the Pendle Festival of Culture where the Peace Walk gathered to parade through the Welcome Arch. The Peace Walk has 3 routes across Pendle which culminated at the Welcome Arch, as the gateway to the festival. It was wonderful to see the workshop participants parading the decorative panels they designed, which they then handed to us to build the Welcome Arch. The Peace Walk paraded through the Welcome Arch as a celebration of coming together, building together and making connections with your neighbours, which was at the heart of the design process .

Paul Hartley, co-founder of In-Situ, said: “One of of the really important aspects of This is Nelson is for communities to feel engaged. The development of the Welcome Arch with Dual Works enabled this to be fully realised, giving depth to a structure which then provided the entrance to the Pendle Festival of Culture in a vivid, fun and exciting way. Dual Works have been a great team to collaborate with, and this project had the added bonus of creating something that united the two towns of Nelson & Blackburn at the National Festival of Making.”

The arch is multi-function, the panels can be adjusted to different angles, like a Mexican wave! The coloured viewfinders offer a new perspective on the town in a joyful way and when the sunshines colourful patterns appear across the floor.

Overall the collaborative design focuses on the positive energy of these communities and colourful viewfinders, akin to wearing rose-tinted glasses, were created to invite the audience to look with a fresh perspective. Waste material was utilised to create personalised viewfinder as a creative family activity which were used to explore the local environment and to takeaway as a memento of the celebration.By looking forward we created a vibrant and joyful design and this collective endeavour was celebrated at both festivals and where the Welcome Arch become a place of gathering and celebration to act as the opening ceremony and gateway to the festivals.

About the Co-Commissioners

This project was co-commissioned by In-Situ-In-Place as part of Pendle Festival of Culture (This is Nelson) and The National Festival of Making.

Pendle Festival of Culture is a major, annual event for pendle communities, who come together in solidarity and celebration of art and culture. Through the festival, our communities gather in a spirit of shared identity to celebrate the diversity of Pendle. A family fun-day which will celebrate people, environment and culture through music, arts and crafts, food stalls, fun fair rides, community conversations and much more. The festival aims to provide an opportunity for as much interaction between people as possible. Through the year the various organisations that we work with are invited to have some involvement in the festival, be it to be part of the planning or help in the delivery of the Festival. This has resulted in collaboration between community organisations, walking groups, musicians and schools.

The National Festival of Making is a unique celebration of UK making, from the kitchen table to the factory floor. Presenting a programme of work that combines art, manufacturing, making and communities, we commission artists to create world class works, a year round programme and a participatory free family festival for all to enjoy.

During the Festival weekend, we fill the streets of Blackburn with free participatory making opportunities, workshops, performances, talks, exhibitions, makers markets and more. We regularly see audience numbers of between 30-40,000 from local and national visitors alike, and take-over 20+ venues across the town centre.

Formed in 2016, the ambition of Festival of Making CIC is to be a nationally relevant cultural festival in Blackburn, while celebrating the unique manufacturing heritage and contemporary characteristics of the town and region more widely.

This is Nelson is the arts and culture strand of the Nelson Town Deal, delivered in partnership between In-Situ, Building Bridges Pendle and Super Slow Way. It engages with Nelson’s communities through a programme of activities and events alongside the reactivation of places and spaces. As outlined in the Nelson Town Deal website and literature, the £25m investment offers a ‘once in a generation’ opportunity to improve the future of Nelson, promising new hope, and a brighter future. The Festival of Culture is a key, annual event supported by This Is Nelson.

Photography Credits
Courtesy of the National Festival of Making Photography by Emma Colbert-Mooring
Photography by Hayley Salter on behalf of Dual Works