WOVEN 2025: Connecting Culture. https://woveninkirklees.co.uk/
1st to 30th June 2025 is WOVEN, the biennial festival celebrating textile heritage and innovation in Kirklees. The festival helps communities across Kirklees celebrate the region’s textile heritage and find out more about the future of textiles in the region and further afield. The month-long event will showcase the rich textile history of the area as well as explore cutting-edge developments in the industry. The theme for WOVEN 2025 is Connecting Culture, bringing communities together through the shared language of textiles. Each year the festival attracts more than 100 events, including exhibitions, workshops, talks and community projects, including The Red Dress project, initiated by British artist Kirstie Macleod in 2009 to help marginalised women tell their stories through stitching, uniting people around the world without borders. The dress now features the work of more than 300 embroiderers from 51 countries and has been exhibited in galleries and museums worldwide.
Back to the local community
WOVEN 2025 is once again calling for community groups, organisations and artists to submit event proposals for inclusion in the festival programme. To support local initiatives, WOVEN will be offering micro-grants through crowd-funding platform Growing Great Places to help bring textile-related projects to life, as well as advising on project ideas, delivery and marketing.
Free and ticketed events
During the festival, various free and ticketed events will celebrate textiles all across Kirklees, with exhibitions showcasing local and international textile art, workshops teaching traditional and innovative textile techniques, talks and tours exploring the region’s textile heritage and future and community projects connecting diverse cultural backgrounds through textiles. WOVEN will be working in partnership with organisations across Kirklees, including libraries, museums, charities and businesses. https://woveninkirklees.co.uk/