LOIS BLACKBURN
Textile artworks exploring care, resilience and connection, shaped by lived experience
I am a UK-based textile artist working nationally and internationally. I create brightly coloured, issue-led artworks using stitch, batik, quilts, and hand fans. My practice uses making as a way to connect, share stories, and explore themes of care, loss, resilience, and belonging.
Collaborative Practice
My work is shaped by over 25 years’ experience in the arts and health sector. This experience informs how I collaborate, listen, and create work with and for others.
From 2006 to 2021, I founded and directed the Community Interest Company arthur+martha, working closely with poet Philip Davenport. Together, we developed art projects with older people and people experiencing homelessness, often creating large-scale collaborative quilts. While arthur+martha has now concluded, its ethos continues to inspire my current work.
Exhibitions and Commissions
My artworks have been exhibited widely, including:
- Houses of Parliament
- People’s History Museum
- Festival of Quilts
- Royal Festival Hall Imperial War Museum North
- Imperial War Museum North
Internationally, my work has been shown at the National Gallery of Art, Vilnius, Lithuania. I have undertaken a range of public and private commissions and my work is held in public collections, including Bankfield Museum, Halifax and Leighton House Museum, Kensington. In 2018, two quilts were archived with The Quilters’ Guild.
Teaching and Engagement
I teach across foundation, undergraduate, and MA levels, and lead summer schools and workshops in community settings. I am a member of the Textile Study Group, sharing skills and knowledge with fellow textile artists and learners.
Education
BA (Hons) Embroidered Textiles, First Class – Manchester Metropolitan University
Lois Blackburn 