Uncultured Creatives

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Uncultured Creatives

Uncultured Creatives is a collaborative creative practice between Artist Jamie Holman and Curator Alex Zawadzki.

16/02/2026

The Uncultured Process: Research, Respond, Reimagine

We aren’t designers. We’re Cultural Archaeologists.

Our Method:

Research → Uncover the ‘Future Folklore’ of our communities

Respond → Co-create with young people, their vision, their spark

Reimagine → Take what’s hidden or forgotten and bring it into the light

Like Mery Shelley, we assemble fragments and breathe new life into them.

The Fusebox, Blackburn: An 1895 power station’s bones (original brickwork, gantry crane) grows contemporary flesh (AI artwork, LED screens) and the soul of young people’s creativity.

The building that first powered Blackburn now hums with the sound of the future.

Mill workers became ravers. Power stations become youth hubs. Heritage becomes contemporary.

This is the work. This is the Uncultured Way.

09/02/2026

The Uncultured Way: Research, Response, Reimagine

We aren’t designers. We’re Cultural Archaeologists.

Our Method:
Research → Uncover the ‘Future Folklore’ of our communities
Response → Co-create with young people, their vision, their spark  Reimagine → Take what’s hidden or forgotten and bring it into the light

Like Mary Shelley, we assemble fragments and breathe new life into them.

The Fusebox, Blackburn: An 1895 power station’s bones (original brickwork, gantry crane) grows contemporary flesh (AI artwork, LED screens) and the soul of young people’s creativity.

The building that first powered Blackburn now hums with the sound of the future.

Mill workers became ravers. Power stations become youth hubs. Heritage becomes contemporary.

This is the work. This is the Uncultured Way.

16/12/2025

FUSEBOX LAUNCH: A DIFFERENT KIND OF CURRENT

April 2025

The 1895 power station that first electrified Blackburn now hums with the energy of young people’s.

Nine months construction. Years dreaming. £3.1m invested. Fusebox is live, a cutting-edge Employment Skills Hub.
400 young people weekly. Dedicated Maker Zone with STEAM equipment. Training academy for vocational qualifications. Open events space. Gaming Zone. AI and VR learning. One-to-one support.

The launch united everyone: Hannah Allen, Leon Crosby, Mayor Brian Taylor, Chair Wayne Wild MBE, Andrew Graham MBE (who started this dream), and the young people whose creativity shaped every wall, window, and pixel on the massive LED screen.

From unused heritage building to thriving hub. 5,000 young members from every Blackburn ward. Proving what’s possible when communities invest in the next generation.

That current from 1895 still runs through these walls, now powering the future.

h.e.r.e.d

Photo , &

uk

signpost restoration

Hannah Allen

08/12/2025

FUSEBOX: HERITAGE COLLIDING WITH CONTEMPORARY PRACTICE

Months of co-design with young people complete. Three artistic interventions transform this Victorian power station, inspired by Mary Shelley’s vision of electricity bringing life, proposing the current made here 150 years ago returns as sentient AI to co-design its birthplace’s restoration.

STAINED GLASS WINDOWS Bespoke arched windows inspired by Blackburn College’s Victoria Building (which commemorates electricity’s arrival in Blackburn). Reopened sealed heritage archways between Fusebox and Youth Zone, collaborating with Lightworks to blend heritage design with contemporary aesthetic.

NEON SIGNAGE & LIGHTBOX Rear ‘Electricity Works’ sign fully restored through reworking, cleaning, painting, recasting. Industrial neon honors electrical heritage and modern impact. Co-designed lightbox wall on stairway captures young people’s future heritage.

GIANT LED SCREEN 180 LED panels form massive screen in double-height Event Space beneath new mezzanine, immersive digital canvas for young people’s work, gaming, esports, films, presentations. Fusebox logo inlaid in floor below.

Every element sympathizes with the building’s original use, honoring what was while empowering young people to create what comes next.

h.e.r.e.d

uk

signpost restoration

Hannah Allen
Photo &

01/12/2025

WONDERFUL ELECTRIC: FINDING THE SPARK WITH YOUNG PEOPLE

October 2023, and we’re standing in Blackburn’s first electric power station from 1818. The current that started here is still live, still running through the walls. Can’t be switched off. There’s something in that.

We partnered with Blackburn Youth Zone to reimagine this historic Fusebox building. Not just designing a space, but co-creating with the young people who would actually use it. Youth Zone members became the researchers, the artists, the visionaries.

AI technology workshops. Museum visits across the region. Art installations. Inspiration gathering. The young people explored what it means to find your creative spark in a building that once powered an entire town.

Incredible things have happened here. This is where the switch was thrown to light Blackburn for the very first time. Now it’s about young people finding their own spark. Their ideas became the foundation for the entire £3.1m transformation.

The ‘Wonderful Electric’ event brought community and business leaders together. Poet Jennifer Reid performed an elctricty inspired. We presented our vision. Andrew Graham MBE, founder of the Youth Zone, told us what we showed was quite simply amazing. But really, it was the young people who showed us the way.

This was their project from day one.

h.e.r.e.d

Address

Lord Street West
Blackburn
BB21JX

Website

http://www.unculturedcreatives.co.uk/

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