Alina Akbar (aka Lean) is a Visual Artist, Writer, Curator and Storyteller: Working in film, photography and installation. Wandering between both digital and analogue mediums.

​Using her lens and words to create art from both personal and cultural experiences as a British-born Pakistani. With a particular interest in authentic and ethical working class representation and issues of diversity in society; shown through her cinematic eye for capturing raw reality intertwined with poetic narratives often, as a self producing and self shooting director.

Azraa Motala is a visual artist from Lancashire, her multidisciplinary practice spans large-scale oil painting, photography, video, poetry, and site-specific interventions. Exploring the intersections of identity, culture, and belonging through the lens of her experience as a British South Asian Muslim woman.

Her work is grounded in a critical exploration of empire, history, and the politics of representation. Through a reclamation of space and narrative, she challenges orientalist portrayals of women in art and interrogates the legacies of colonialism that continue to shape contemporary cultural discourse. Increasingly, her practice is concerned with the role of place in shaping identity. Recent work reflects a growing engagement with rural England as a site of both personal reflection and wider historical resonance. Drawing connections between the landscapes of Britain and the diasporic memories of migration, heritage, and displacement, considering how natural environments can hold and reflect layered narratives of exclusion, belonging, and cultural identity.

Motala is committed to socially engaged practice, often working collaboratively with communities to foster dialogue and creative exchange. Her work not only examines what it means to navigate the world as a woman of colour in Britain today, but also contributes to a wider reimagining of British art and landscape traditions from a decolonial perspective.

Hira Butt is a British Pakistani artist based in Birmingham, England. Born in 1987, Butt migrated to England from Lahore, Pakistan, after completing her Bachelor in Fine Arts in December 2009. Since then, Butt has worked on and off in different creative fields. In 2016, Butt got the opportunity to study Fine Arts and relished the chance; she stretched herself as an artist and completed her master in 2018 by winning the Master Degree Prize in Medium Practice, Birmingham City University.

Through her installations, Butt’s work explores ideologies of gender and cultural dominance, modern slavery, domestic violence, the place of South Asian women within marital and domestic spaces. Butt is also interested in the occidental impact on oriental cultures and their political, social, and psychological effects on the eastern diaspora. Finally, through personal experience and conversations with several South Asian women, Butt seeks to critique both the wedding day and the life promised that often does not materialise.

Butt often uses carefully selected mundane domestic objects, bejewel them and transform them to give them a new identity while maintaining their originality.

Zara Saghir is an Assistant Producer for The British Textile Biennial (BTB) and The Super Slow Way (SSW)—a place-based cultural programme working with communities across East Lancashire. BTB explores the politics of cloth in the post-industrial landscapes left behind by the cotton industry, engaging with communities that have textiles woven into their heritage. SSW delivers an ambitious programme of artist commissions and residencies, collaborating with people, partners, and heritage sites to reimagine a 20-mile stretch of the Leeds–Liverpool Canal as a new Linear Park for Pennine Lancashire.

In her role as Assistant Producer, Zara has supported a wide range of cultural projects, contributing across planning, administration, installation, workshops, and community engagement. As a socially engaged artist herself, she understands the importance of fostering meaningful, collaborative relationships between artists, communities, and artworks.

Through her own creative practice, Zara explores taboo issues within her British South Asian culture, interrogating systems of power, values, and hierarchy. She draws on her personal experiences to create

space for voices that have been overlooked or silenced—helping them to be heard and encouraging advocacy through art.

Zara is currently developing new photographic works as part of a month-long residency in Islamabad, supported by The British Council, Art of Small Talk (Islamabad), and Insitu (Pendle).

“As a Pakistani woman born in England, I’ve grown up with a deep appreciation for my cultural roots. I feel a strong responsibility to engage with women who have been shaped by similar narratives. I am reaching out in the hope of connecting with the women you work with, as I believe their stories and lived experiences are invaluable.”

Her artistic practice centres on how women uplift one another and create spaces for honest, empowering dialogue—whether through shared struggles, achievements, or reflections on the journeys that have brought them to where they are today. She is particularly interested in speaking with women who have fought for their rights and hearing their hopes for future generations.

Following an enriching research residency in Islamabad—and winning The Blackburn Open 2025, where her work was acquired for a permanent collection—Zara is now focused on expanding the photographic, video, and audio works she created in Pakistan. With the support of curatorial guidance, she aims to shape this into a cohesive solo exhibition.

As an artist of Asian heritage, she is driven by the potential to create challenging yet inclusive work that better reflects the rich diversity of Blackburn’s creative community.

Mrs Khan explores marriage, gender roles, and cultural identity, blending sharp humour with moments of quiet reflection. Rooted in both South Asian and Western heritage, the exhibition questions who holds power in rituals of union and what it means to challenge, subvert, or reclaim those roles. Artist Zara Saghir explores taboo issues within British South Asian culture, interrogating systems of power, values, and hierarchy. Drawing on personal experience, she creates space for voices that have been overlooked or silenced, using art as a tool for advocacy, care, and cultural activism.