Blackburn Museum and Art Gallery, Museum Street, Blackburn BB1 7AJ

Thursday 3rd October to Saturday 30th November 2019

Opening Hours: Wednesday to Sunday 12—4.45pm

Katab: Not Only Money has developed an ongoing collaborative dialogue with a group of women artisans in the migrant communities scattered across the city of Ahmedabad, Western India. Traditionally, women from these communities practised the craft of katab (appliqué), making domestic household decorations with recycled waste fabrics. To make a regular income for their families, these women have been drawn into commercial work for clients including local clothing boutiques, design students and independent designers, and are allowed little, if any, creative voice within the production process. For many of the women, the commissions they make for Katab: Not Only Money are the first opportunity they have had to put their own name on their work.

Included in the inaugural British Textile Biennial are a series of quilts created by a selection of the project’s participants which are inspired by iconic films (both Hollywood and Bollywood) and Hindi TV series. The quilts are exhibited alongside a selection of items from Blackburn Museum and Art Gallery’s South Asian collection, including a quilt by Hariyaben Bhanani and Lokesh Ghai, made as part of the 2012 Cotton Exchange Project which explored the connections between Ahmedabad and the North West of England through the cotton industry.

Download the full British Textile Biennial 2019 brochure HERE.

Katab: Quilting Stories – Community Quilting Workshops

Dates: 5/6/12/13/19/26th October and 2nd November

Times: 12.00 – 4.45pm

Every weekend throughout the Biennial you are invited to join Katab’s project leader Emma Sumner at the museum for a series of community quilting workshops during which you can make your own Katab patch and contribute to the Blackburn Katab Community Quilt which, once completed, will join the Museum’s collection. No experience necessary and all materials provided.