#IWD2026: Creative Women - Elena Jackson
02 March 2026 by Michelle
In recognition of International Women's Day on Sunday 8th March 2026, we're featuring interviews with dynamic, trailblazing, and courageous women working in creative and digital fields who have a connection to Lancashire. Meet Elena Jackson, the Co-Founder of Deco Publique and the Co-Director of the National Festival of Making.
International Women’s Day (IWD) is an annual global event celebrating women and their achievements. First initiated in 1911, IWD has since grown into a global movement encouraging us to stand up for a more diverse, equitable and inclusive world, free of discrimination and stereotypes.
This year's campaign theme is GiveToGain, which explores how giving our support can help advance gender equality as well as reinforce a sense of connection and purpose.
Creative Lancashire has a long history of supporting International Women’s Day, with a special campaign and Conversations in Creativity event every year. As part of our #IWD2026 "Creative Women" Series, we've posed three questions relating to this year's theme to our four featured women.
Meet Elena Jackson, the Co-Founder of Deco Publique and the Co-Director of the National Festival of Making.
Elena is also one of the special guests participating in our Conversations in Creativity panel discussion on Friday 6th March 2026 at The Harris Museum in Preston.
Let's find out more about Elena and her thoughts on giving to gain, resiliency, and supporting others.
About Elena Jackson
Elena co-founded Deco Publique in 2013, establishing an art, culture and commissioning practice rooted in place-based cultural programmes. She is also Co-Director of the National Festival of Making in Blackburn, where she curates the Festival’s Art in Manufacturing programme, placing artists in residence with industry across Lancashire.
Her work centres on collaborative commissioning, working with artists, industry, education and civic partners to realise original projects that respond to landscape, industry and heritage.
Through Deco Publique and the Festival of Making, alongside her business partner, Lauren Zawadzki, Elena builds strategic cross-sector partnerships that support cultural regeneration and the development of artists’ practice.
She is currently developing a coastal commissioning programme in Morecambe Bay and working in partnership with Lancaster University as Co-Lead Investigator on an AHRC-funded research project. Elena also serves as Co-Chair of the Eden Project Morecambe Partnership, Arts & Culture Working Group.
Giving to Gain in Real Life
The IWD 2026 theme is Give to Gain. What does this idea of reciprocity and generosity mean in your own work or leadership, and how have you seen it create ripple effects beyond you?
For me, “Give to Gain” is about investing belief in other women, often before there is proof.
When we commission new work by women artists, we’re not just funding a project, we’re backing a voice so they can take creative risks of their own. That act of trust, of providing infrastructure, visibility, time and collaborative support often unlocks confidence, ambition and further opportunity.
Some of the most exciting commissions we’ve developed through Deco Publique and the National Festival of Making have been with women pursuing ambitious new ideas, challenging the status quo of the arts sector and disrupting established hierarchies. They’ve gone on to create bold, original work that shifts both their own practice and the wider conversation.
Reciprocity, to me, is the understanding that when we invest in others with intention and integrity, value circulates. It returns amplified through stronger work, deeper trust and a more sustainable cultural landscape.
Generosity in leadership operates in the same way. Sharing visibility, credit and networks strengthens the ecosystem as a whole.
When women are properly supported and platformed, the ripple effects extend far beyond a single commission or organisation. We see new ideas, broader representation and a more resilient creative sector.
The arts are built on generosity; without it, the sector would collapse and the responsibility is ensuring that generosity remains intentional.
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On Challenges, Resilience & Support
Looking back, what were some of the key challenges or moments of resistance you faced in your career journey and what types of support, encouragement, or belief helped you continue despite them?
When I read this question, I realised my response is twofold.
There has been external resistance through structural hierarchies, issues of class and subtle exclusions that women encounter in the arts sector and beyond. But there is also internal resistance.
When you operate within systems that question readiness or scale, it can be easy to internalise those limits and to temper ambition or second-guess instinct. Recognising that dynamic has been crucial: the work has not just been about navigating external barriers, but about resisting the urge to absorb them. What has sustained me is creative partnership and working collaboratively.
The long term partnership I have with my female co-founder has been fundamental — a space of shared ambition and mutual trust. Alongside that, working in dialogue with amazing female leaders who drive organisations, both within Lancashire and beyond, has been formative.
Fundamentally, I believe in doing the work.
I believe in the power of artists and creative practitioners to shape places positively — to make them more distinctive, more culturally rich and more reflective of the communities they serve.
Drawing on the support around me is essential, and resilience has ultimately meant continuing to build and produce projects we believe in, in places we care about.
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Lifting Others As We Rise
How do you actively create space, opportunity, or visibility for others through your work, and what would you love to see more people ‘give’ to support the next generation of women and creatives?
When an artist or collaborator brings a bold or challenging idea, our instinct isn’t to ask, “Why won’t this work?” but “How could this work?”
Starting from possibility rather than limitation changes what a project can become, so across both of our organisations we try to protect ambition at the earliest stage.
Budgets and logistics are essential, they’re what make ideas real, but if we begin by shutting something down, we rarely reach anything new. It’s about holding space for big thinking first, then working together to shape the strongest version of a work or programme that can realistically happen, supported by the production structures needed to deliver it well.
For us, supporting the next generation means being willing to invest before the evidence feels wholly comfortable.
Too often, women are asked to demonstrate track record, scale or certainty before their ideas are taken seriously, while others are afforded belief as a starting point. If we wait for proof we risk reinforcing existing hierarchies rather than reshaping them.
As organisations and leaders, we have the ability to reveal the possibility within someone’s creative practice by creating the conditions for it to exist. That early trust can be transformative, not just for an individual career, but for the cultural landscape that follows.
Find out more about Elena and her work:
Websites:
Instagram:
Images provided by Elena Jackson. Photo credits: Danny Allison, Jack Bolton, Jules Lister, Robin Zahler.
About International Women's Day
Celebrating 115 years in 2026, IWD has supported transformative change since their first gathering in 1911.
International Women's Day occurs globally on 8 March to celebrate the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women.The day also marks a call to action for accelerating women's equality.
IWD is not country, group or organisation specific, it belongs to all groups collectively everywhere who champion equality, diversity and inclusivity.
www.internationalwomensday.com
This year’s IWD theme is #GiveToGain.
Giving requires open hearts and minds. As individuals, giving support means calling out stereotypes, challenging discrimination, questioning bias, celebrating women's success, and more.
Sharing our knowledge and encouragement with others is also key. Giving our support to help advance gender equality reinforces a sense of connection and purpose.
This creates an important ripple effect for spreading positive impacts for everyone.