Festival of Making
Today we visited the National Festival of Making in Blackburn which is in its third and very successful year. How lucky we are to live in a town which appreciates, encourages and thrives on creative skills - there are so many areas crying out for attendance in their towns! Arts, crafts, food, designers, makers and more well-known faces such as Wayne Hemingway and Patrick Grant have inspired many generations today. I attended a talk at the stunning Blackburn Cathedral called, “Making & Creating. The Skills of the Future?”. Speakers from the Arts Council, Lancaster University, Fixperts and the Creative Industries Federation spoke of the urgent need for people to learn, to discover their passions, to fulfil our natural curiosity to solve problems and to make, and to step into the ever-growing creative industries. I nodded through every word, perched on the edge of my seat - everything they said was relevant and right and spoken with passion and integrity. My son, who is 14, really enjoyed the talk too; and there I was worrying that he might get a bit bored..! At the end, I just had to speak to them - I talked to them about our vision, about our planned event - they were eager to listen and offer advice and support and gave me their business cards. Amazing! The history of Blackburn with Darwen is steeped in creative industries, as is our future. We have more inspiration in our home town than most - and we thrive on it..!
