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The Canterbury earthquakes: a small act of kindness

22 February 2013 – 1.07pm

12.51pm today marks the second anniversary of the 6.3 earthquake that caused severe damage and resulted in the loss of 185 lives in Christchurch and its suburbs, with many more injured and displaced. Two years on the citizens of Canterbury are still struggling to rebuild their city and lives. While stories of frustrations with bureaucracy make the news daily, stories of acts of kindness and generosity also thankfully abound.

Tomorrow at the Dowse Art Museum you can take part in a small act of kindness, by participating  in a sewing bee organised by Sarah Read, a jeweller ‘attracted to projects with an element of collaboration, third-party participation or social practice’. As she says:

‘I am currently exploring magical thinking, radical gratitude and the sense of connectedness that makes all the difference when life is difficult.’

The bee is a continuation of a project that Sarah launched in 2012 entitled This Too Shall Pass in order to raise funds to support Caroline Billing’s contemporary jewellery gallery, The National. Sarah was inspired by the fact that although Caroline had lost her business premises in the 22 February 2011 earthquake, she continued to showcase jewellery in Christchurch via other means, such as when she took jewellery to the streets with Host A Brooch. (This project is documented in Te Papa’s collection as part of our collection around entrepreneurial and creative responses to disaster.)

This Too Will Pass ny Sarah Read

This Too Will Pass by Sarah Read

Wanting to put her ‘heart and soul… to help the regeneration of Christchurch. If Christchurch loses places like The National, there won’t be a beating heart’, Sarah created a participatory project. She invited well-wishers to donate their time to assembling ribbons which bore the legend ‘This too will pass’. In selecting the simple form of the ribbon, Sarah drew on an established history of ribbons being used as potent symbols of hope and support, from tying a yellow ribbon to an oak tree to the AIDS and Breast Cancer ribbons.

Once assembled, the ribbons were distributed  to galleries who agreed to waive their commission fees, and  gifted on by purchasers to anyone they know who could need a little extra help. The ribbons are intended to be worn inside clothing where they had protective and healing qualities for the wearer.

An anonymous donor kindly gifted a set of these ribbons to Te Papa last year. Each is attached to an image of the quake devastated city.

This Too Will Pass by Sarah Read, 2012. Te Papa.

This Too Will Pass by Sarah Read, 2012. Te Papa.

You are invited to Pass It On and create more ribbon pins tomorrow at The Dowse Art Museum in Lower Hutt anytime between 10am and 4pm.  While the sheer scale of the Canterbury aftermath is daunting, we should never forget that there are many small things we can do as individuals to make a difference, if not to the whole city, to a friend, colleague or stranger’s day through a little act of kindness.

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Birds of a feather

13 December 2012 – 8.39am

The Te Papa Store has just taken possession of a range of new stock inspired by the museum’s natural history collection. Dead Set is by textile designer Genevieve Packer, and is based on Te Papa’s haunting and strange collection of bird skins.

DEAD SET | KOTARE CUSHION, Digital print on hemp / organic cotton

DEAD SET | KOTARE CUSHION, Digital print on hemp / organic cotton

 
For the novice, of which I am in the case of natural history, bird skins are collected for research purposes, and are just that – boneless skins, stuffed with a bit of padding and a stick. Te Papa holds multiples of native bird skins. Collected over time and en masse they enable scientists to compare and contrast specimens.
 
Page from the British Museum's 1970 guide for collectors on preparing bird skins.

Page from the British Museum’s 1970 guide for collectors on preparing bird skins.

 
Grouped en masse, where difference suddenly comes to the fore, Genevieve Packer saw a design opportunity. She writes:
 
‘This new range of printed textiles and paper continues to expand on my ongoing interest in how we package and sell our culture and history – not only to foreigners, but to ourselves. It takes native New Zealand birds commonly used on souvenir / gift products – such as the Tui and Pukeko – and presents them in the rarely seen form of ’skins’ from Te Papa’s bird collection, exposing the care and beauty involved in preserving our natural history.’
 
DEAD SET | MIROMIRO SCARF, digital print on silk/cotton

DEAD SET | MIROMIRO SCARF, digital print on silk/cotton

 
The little birds above are tomtits or miromiro, of which there are five different subspecies. Te Papa has 169 miromiro skins plus a few wings and tails. A mix of male and female, adults, immature and juveniles, the oldest specimen was collected on Chatham Island in 1871 and the latest donated from Karori Wildlife Sanctuary (now Zealandia) in 2002.  Today, Te Papa does not actively collect live birds, but we do accept donations of deceased birds from Department of Conservation staff or members of the public.
 
The bird skins are stored in drawers, arranged very much as you see above. It was an image of drawers upon drawers of colourful bird skins and their keepers at the Smithsonian, that inspired Genevieve to pick up the phone and ring Te Papa. She was put in contact with Gillian Stone who looks after the bird collection, and who soon found herself in the role of stylist. Genevieve worked with Gillian to curate and ‘style’ the drawers – removing any odd or particularly damaged birds, arranging their labels etc and giving consideration to overall composition. They were then photographed under Genevieve’s direction by Te Papa photographer Kate Whitley.
DEAD SET POSTER | PUKEKO, offset print on 170gsm

DEAD SET POSTER | PUKEKO, offset print on 170gsm

 
Genevieve chose to primarily focus on Pukeko, with their wonderful balletic legs, Miromiro and Kakariki skins, along with the Kotare and Tui. She has produced a range of products from cushion covers and scarves to postcards, that have already provoked quite a reaction.
 
‘The response has been quite polarising. Some viewers get it and love it. Others not so much! But it has certainly been a conversation starter.’
 
Bird skins have long been the subject of conversation and debate, especially in regards to the international trade of bird skins, or as it was known ‘plume traffic’.  In New Zealand Victorian ornithologist Walter Buller, from whom the national museum acquired its first collection of bird skins in 1871,  has long been at its centre. The controversial Buller features as the suspect in a Tales from Te Papa episode entitled Who Killed the Huia? and in the exhibition  Buller’s Birds: The art of Keulemans and Buchanan (on at Te Papa until 27 January 2013). The latter features a number of skins collected by Buller, and coincides with a brand new publication from Te Papa Press – Buller’s Birds of New Zealand: The complete work of JG Keulemans.
 

Buller’s Birds of New Zealand by Geoff Norman

Both Buller’s Birds of New Zealand and Genevieve Packer’s provocative Dead Set collection are available from the Te Papa Store - Christmas gifts perhaps for bird lovers, conversationalists or provocateurs. Whether or not Dead Set is to everyone’s taste, it has been wonderful experience having a designer use our collections as a design resource.

PS: for more on the history of Walter Buller’s collections of New Zealand birds read Sandy Bartle and Alan Tennyson’ in-depth article here.

Posted in Art, Birds, Exhibitions, Te Papa Press, Textiles | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments (0)

Guest blog: Art in the Service of Science – Dunedin’s John Buchanan

26 November 2012 – 8.45am

Ever wondered how different people’s surnames end up as part of the scientific names given to plants and animals?  It is considered very bad form to name a new species that you describe after yourself, but someone else might do it for you as a mark of respect.  That is what happened to nineteenth century botanical collector and draughtsman to the Colonial Museum and Geological Survey, John Buchanan FLS (1819-1898).

John Buchanan, Plagianthus lyalli 1865, watercolour on paper, 143 x 225mm. This plant is now known as Hoheria lyalli, and was one of the original illustrations to John Buchanan’s A Sketch of the Botany of Otago, the essay he produced for the New Zealand Exhibition in Dunedin in 1865. Te Papa

Unsurprisingly, given the energetic botanical collecting he engaged in as soon as he arrived in New Zealand from Scotland in 1852, most of the species that bear John Buchanan’s name are plants.  But there is also a predatory sea snail, Antimelatoma buchanani described by Frederick Wollaston Hutton in 1873.  Over eighty examples of this marine snail, gathered from Deep Water Cove to Queen Charlotte Sound, are in the mollusc collection at Te Papa. 

When Hutton described the features of this new species, he was working as assistant geologist to James Hector in the Geological Survey Department in Wellington.  John Buchanan was a colleague whose sharp eye for flora and fauna that might be new to science was much admired.  His technical drawing skills were superlative, and he was the illustrator for eighteen issues of the Transactions and Proceedings of the New Zealand Institute from the date of its first publication in 1868.

Sterocaulon

Stereocaulon buchanani, illustration from Transactions and Proceedings of the New Zealand Institute, Volume 7, 1874.

The ornamental grass Danthonia buchanani and orange sedge Carex buchanani are also named after John Buchanan, who won the first prize at the Melbourne Exhibition in 1880-81 for his technical ingenuity in producing The Indigenous Grasses of New Zealand.  This folio-sized book was nature –printed direct from the specimens themselves, and appeared in three parts in 1878, 1879 and 1880.  There is still printer’s ink on some of the grasses that Te Papa holds that were used by Buchanan to produce the lithographic plates.

Buchanan sent many of the plants he found back to experts in Glasgow or to Kew Gardens. The lichen Stereocaulon buchanani  he sent to James Stirton M.D., who – like Buchanan- had become a foundation member of the Glasgow Society of Field Naturalists in 1871. Stirton published his description as Article LIV in Volume 7 of the Transactions, and Buchanan illustrated it.

From his humble beginnings as a designer for printed calico for the textile industry back home in Glasgow, Buchanan reinvented himself as a man of science on emigration to Dunedin in 1852.  His drawing skills were his ticket to professional employment opportunities.  He worked first on the Reconnaissance Survey with Alexander Garvie, and then was recruited by James Hector M.D. in April 1862 to work as a draughtsman and botanical artist for the Otago Geological Survey.

John Buchanan, Coprosma lucida 1865, watercolour and ink on paper, 146 x 224mm. Another one of the original illustrations to John Buchanan’s A Sketch of the Botany of Otago, the essay he produced for the New Zealand Exhibition in Dunedin in 1865. Te Papa.

Hector respected Buchanan’s botanical knowledge and commissioned an essay on the botany of Otago for the New Zealand Exhibition in Dunedin in 1865, later to be published in the Transactions. Te Papa has Buchanan’s watercolours of the plants which were displayed at the exhibition as part of the work of the survey.  Many of these, including Coprosma lucida and Plagianthus lyalli have been loaned to the Hocken Library for the exhibition Art in the Service of Science: Dunedin’s John Buchanan,  which runs until 9 February 2013.

John Buchanan, Ranunculus buchanani 1865, pencil and watercolour on paper, 277 x 202mm. This plant was described by Joseph Dalton Hooker, and named after John Buchanan. It is one of the original illustrations to John Buchanan’s A Sketch of the Botany of Otago, the essay he produced for the New Zealand Exhibition in Dunedin in 1865.

Corollary to the exhibition, a two day symposium will be convened on 29 and 30 November at Salmond College in Dunedin for researchers to present their work on Buchanan.  It includes a presentation by Jim Endersby of Sussex University, whose talk at Otago Museum on Thursday evening is provocatively entitled Imperial Science: the invention of New Zealand plants.

For more on John Buchanan and the symposium you can watch an interview with Linda Tyler here.

Written by Linda Tyler, Director, Centre for Art Research, University of Auckland and Te Papa Research Associate and guest blogger.

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Canterbury Earthquake AVs: Student Volunteer Army

21 November 2012 – 1.14pm

Sam Johnson of the Canterbury’s Student Volunteer Army (SVA) is in the news again! This time, however, the world’s media have zoomed in not on Sam’s amazing volunteer work and leadership following the Canterbury Earthquakes, but on his dance moves.

During Prince Charles and Camilla’s recent visit to Christchurch, Sam took the Duchess of Cornwall for a spin on Gap Filler’s Dance-O-Mat. Indeed the Gap Filler team are now thinking of renaming it the Royal Dance-O-Mat!

Earlier this year Sam and Jason Pemberton from the SVA generously gave up some of their time to talk to us about the foundation of the SVA, the start of which was anything but smooth.

Silt Worms – the foundation of the Student Volunteer Army is one of six short films we have commissioned on the theme of creative and community responses to the Canterbury earthquakes and their aftermath.  While their start may have been bumpy, the achievement and contribution of the Student Volunteer Army from 2010 to today, is both humbling and inspiring.

Poster, ’The Student Volunteer Army wants you to fight’, April 2011. Designed by Laura Campbell and Joel Hart for the Student Volunteer Army. Gift of Student Volunteer Army, 2011. Te Papa

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Documenting the Canterbury Quakes: Te Papa launches AV series

5 November 2012 – 3.07pm

Since the Canterbury Earthquakes of 2010 and 2011, Te Papa has been collecting objects relating to the earthquakes.  We have been particularly interested in objects which demonstrate acts of public support, such as fundraising and spirit-raising initiatives, and creative and entrepreneurial responses to the earthquakes.

’Aftersocks’, 2011, New Zealand. Rural Women New Zealand, New Zealand Sock Company. Purchased 2011. Te Papa

In March we began working with director / producer Liz Grant and John Chrisstoffels from the University of Canterbury film school, to film a series of interviews with some of the people behind the objects we have collected. We conducted seven interviews, most of which are an hour in length, and which are amazing in their content. While the full interviews are being archived by Te Papa, Liz and John have edited the interviews into six punchy AVs, ranging from 7 to 12 minutes in length. They can be viewed on Te Papa’s YouTube channel. Over the next month I will highlight one a week.

First off the rank is Gap Filler, namely because I was moved and inspired by them all over again when I heard them talk at the City Gallery, Wellington on Sunday in a session entitled Making Dreams Reality. Of all of our the interviewees, they are the most tenuously linked to an object in our collection. They link to the Silty Brick, a paver made from liquefaction and sold to raise money for Gap Filler and Greening the Rubble’s initiatives.

Silty Brick

‘Silty’ Brick, , 2011. Urban Paving and Landscape Supplies. Purchased 2011. Te Papa

The interview features Coralie Winn and Ryan Reynolds, who founded Gap Filler after the September 2010 earthquake with Andrew Just. Wellingtonians will be delighted to know that the idea was in part inspired by the cafe-in-a-caravan-cum-garden-centre-cum-night market that used to be on the corner of Cuba and Webb Streets.

Gap Filler’s core aim is to ‘temporarily activate vacant sites within Christchurch with creative projects, to make for a more interesting, dynamic and vibrant city’. At the beginning of her Sunday talk, Coralie showed image after image of  ‘gaps’ in Christchurch. The broken down buildings and rubble that we have been so used to seeing, has been meticulously cleared away, leaving more empty gaps than non-gaps. She asked us to imagine standing outside of Floriditas on Cuba Street and to imagine looking up the street and only seeing two or three buildings standing. It was a sobering start to an inspiring talk.

Gap Filler has endeavoured to work with the people of Christchurch to turn these bleak gaps into lively public spaces. They have created a cycle powered cinema, petanque court, book exchange, portable dance floor and are currently building a Summer Pavilion out of pallets.

To find out more about Gap Filler’s projects and their aspirations for Christchurch’s future take a few minutes  to watch our video on Gap Filler. It will make you think not only about Christchurch, but about your own community and how it too can be enhanced with can-do attitude. You can also follow their activities through their website or by connecting to their Facebook page.

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Call for papers: Costume and Textile Association symposium 2013

25 October 2012 – 4.24pm

The 2013 annual symposium of the Costume and Textile Association of New Zealand (CTANZ) will be held in Auckland on Friday 22nd and Saturday 23rd March 2013.

Hosted by The Auckland Museum Institute in conjunction with the Centre for New Zealand Art Research and Discovery, this event promises to deliver two days of entertaining speakers united by their enthusiasm for costume and textiles.

This year’s theme Gathering: connections/recollections suggests both the act of coming together and the practice of assembling.  The 2013 symposium marks the return of the symposium to Auckland, the birthplace of CTANZ.  This theme, therefore, affords scope for a diversity of interpretations across the costumed and textiled world.

A family gathering , 16.05.1920 by Leslie Adkin. Gift of G. L. Adkin family estate, 1964. Te Papa

Interested presenters are invited to submit an abstract on this theme (no more than 300 words) and short biography to Finn McCahon-Jones at fmccahonjones@aucklandmuseum.com by Friday 25 January 2013. Word documents are preferred and please ensure that the document, not just the email, includes your name, paper title and contact email address. Successful applicants will be notified by 1 February 2013.

Successful applicants are not required to be current members of CTANZ, but will need to register for the symposium. Final presentations will be eligible for inclusion in Context, the CTANZ bi-annual publication.

 

 

 

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Symposium: Material Histories: Antipodean Perspectives

18 October 2012 – 9.39am

From the British Museum’s global History of the World in 100 objects to the recent gorgeous local publication Te Hao Nui The Great Catch: Object stories from Te Manawa Museum, it is clear that there is renewed interest and excitement in material culture. Antiques, vintage and retro, as well as museum collections and would be collectors are everywhere. What does this mean for the history we research, write, display and put online?

Te Papa and Massey University have joined together to host ‘Material Histories: Antipodean Perspectives’. This symposium brings together historians, curators, artists and designers, plus postgraduate students. International speakers will put research conducted locally into an international perspective. As well, there will be exhibitions and behind the scenes tours of Te Papa. Please join us to hear fascinating accounts from scholars at the cutting edge, see what is being done in print, on display and online, and be part of moving this exciting research area forward!

Date:               15-16 November 2012

Venues:           Te Ara Hihiko, Creative Arts Building, Block 12, Massey University, Wellington and Te Papa, on the Wellington Waterfront

To view the programme and register click here.

Enquiries:        Bronwyn Labrum     B.J.Labrum@massey.ac.nz

Keynote Speaker:        Professor Beverly Lemire, Professor & Henry Marshall Tory Chair, Department of History & Classics and Department of Human Ecology, Director of the Material Culture Institute, University of Alberta, Canada.

A member of the Royal Society of Canada, her publications include Fashion’s Favourite: The Cotton Trade and the Consumer in Britain, 1660-1800, (1991) Dress, Culture and Commerce, (1997), and The Business of Everyday Life: Gender, Practice and Social Politics in England, c. 1600-1900 (2005). Beverly has worked with collections at major museums in Canada, the US, Portugal, Spain, India and Britain. She has recently completed the book Cotton (2011) for Berg Publishers, in the series entitled ‘Textiles that Changed the World’. With Lesley Miller she co-edited Textile History (2002-2007), the longest-established international journal on the production, consumption, meanings and conservation of textiles and dress. The history of material culture remains one of her long-standing and continuing interests.

Other confirmed speakers include Dr Louise Purbrick (University of Brighton); Dr Graeme Were (University of Queensland); artist Areta Wilkinson; Dr Bronwyn Dalley (independent scholar); Dr Kate Hunter (Victoria University of Wellington); Kirstie Ross (Te Papa); Dr Kerry Taylor (Massey University); Fiona McKergow (independent scholar), Douglas lloyd-Jenkins and Georgina White(Hawke’s Bay Museum) plus a postgraduate panel of current students engaged in material culture studies research.

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Calling all quilt lovers!

18 October 2012 – 9.15am

On Wednesday 14 November 2012 from 6.30 to 8.30pm visiting material-culture specialist Beverly Lemire will present an illustrated lecture on the history of the quilt entitled From Global Trade to Domestic Arts: The Spread of Quilt Culture 1600–1900.

Quilt, 1850s, England. Maker unknown. Gift of R. Miller, 1963. Te Papa

Beverly Lemire has worked with collections at major museums in Canada, the United States, Portugal, Spain, India, and Britain. Her publications include Fashion’s Favourite: The Cotton Trade and the Consumer in Britain, 1660–1800 (1991), Dress, Culture and Commerce (1997), and Cotton (2011) – for Berg Publishers, in the series entitled ‘Textiles that Changed the World’.

With Lesley Miller she co-edited Textile History (2002-2007), the longest-established international journal on the production, consumption, meanings and conservation of textiles and dress. As such she is a certainly a speaker not to miss!

This is a Friends of Te Papa event. Members of the public are also welcome to attend. Register to attend by 5pm, Tuesday 13 November.

Cost: Friends of Te Papa $15, public $20 (includes a glass of wine)

To book:

Quilt, 1700s. Maker unknown. Te Papa

Beverly Lemire From Global Trade to Domestic Arts: The Spread of Quilt Culture 1600–1900 is presented in conjunction with a symposium jointly hosted by MATTER, New Zealand’s only research cluster focussed on material culture research at Massey University and the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa.

 

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Lecture: Undressing Mr Darcy ‘a scandalous delight’

16 August 2012 – 5.33pm

When Colin Firth emerged from the lake dripping wet as Mr Darcy in the BBC’s 1995 dramatisation of Jane Austen’s novel Pride and Prejudice, many women world-wide certainly dreamed of undressing Mr Darcy. Rather than literally undressing Austen’s dashing hero, Ian Kelly, accalimed British biographer and actor, will take a revealing look at the life and times which shaped Regency gentlemen such as Darcy.

Kelly’s focus is London’s ultimate dandy: Beau Brummell, the man whose clothes defied wrinkles and whose breeches clung to his legs like a second skin.

Beau Brummell was the subject of Kelly’s 2006 biography which was described as ‘a magisterial and utterly gripping parable for modern times’ (The Independent), ‘superlative – as good as biography gets’ (The Times), and ‘witty, vibrant, a tour de force’ (The Telegraph). It was subsequently adapted for television by the BBC – Beau Brummell: This Charming Man.

Ian Kelly’s ‘biography of the year’ on Beau Brummell.

Brummell cut a dramatic swathe through late Georgian society. A favourite of the Prince of Wales, he became the Age of Elegance’s arbiter of taste – setting in motion a fashion revolution that defines the way men and women dress across the world to this day.

In this lecture, Ian Kelly will present new images from his lavishly-illustrated biography to reveal the man behind the ‘Beau’ image, and unlock the scandalous world half-hidden by the decorous façade of the world’s first metropolis.

This is a story of the modern age as much as it is Brummell’s own – one in which men’s fashions and masculinity were redefined. But as Kelly demonstrates, the clothes and the fame were only part of this intriguing, complex man.

Ian Kelly comes to Te Papa courtesy of Wellington’s Decorative & Fine Arts Society, and with a history of rave reviews. Stephen Fry described his lecture on Brummell as ‘All the wonders of an incomparable age touched on with wit and mastery’, while Stephen Calloway of the V&A boldly declared that ‘Ian Kelly gave one of the wittiest and most informative talks we have ever had’.

What other recommendations do you need to get out of bed on a Sunday morning? And yes,  Kelly’s lecture is on a Sunday morning but what an interesting one it will be!

When: Sunday 26 August 2012 , 10.30am-12.30pm, Soundings Theatre, Te Papa

Cost: Friends & WeDFAS members $20, public $25, students $15

To book your place visit Te Papa’s event’s page.

Finally, Jane Austen fans beware: Ian Kelly’s ‘talk on Brummell was a scandalous delight; it has changed forever the way I’ll think about Georgian England.’ Director of the Jane Austen Festival.

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2012 Costume and Textile Symposium – registrations open!

6 June 2012 – 6.00pm

Registrations are now open for this year’s annual NZ Costume and Textile Association symposium – Town & Country. The symposium is being held in Nelson, which will hopefully live up to its sunny reputation come July. To download a registration form click here.

This year the CTANZ is delighted to be hosting three speakers whose expertise will bring a truly international flavour to the annual symposium. We are thrilled to welcome Mary Kisler as a keynote. Mary Kisler is the Senior Curator at Auckland Art Gallery, and is well-known nationally through her lively conversations about art with Kim Hill on Radio New Zealand. Much to our delight, she is also working alongside the Art Team at Te Papa at present. Her infectious enthusiasm for art history and ability to decode the stories embedded within artworks is guaranteed to make for a highly entertaining and thought-provoking keynote address.

With her interest in portraiture, costume and textiles are an important part of Mary’s research as they hold many subtle hints about the character of the sitter. Her keynote address is enticingly entitled Silken Slippers, Wooden Shoes and is inspired by this portrait of Louise de Kéroualle, King Charles II’s mistress. Of Louise’s appearance, Mary mysteriously comments ‘sometimes signs and symbols are not what they seem’.

Portrait of Louise de Kerouaille by Henri Gascar ca. 1670 (Auckland Gallery of Art, Auckland New Zealand)

From 17th century intrigue, we hit the road with  Ann-Maree Reaney and Jill Kinnear, who will be presenting their collaborative textile/art project American Road Trip.

Four Corners dress from American Road Trip. Photograph copyright and courtesy of Ann-Maree Reaney and Jill Kinnear. This project has received financial assistance from the Queensland Government through Arts Queensland.

Ann-Maree is a practicing visual artist based in Brisbane, where she has had a considerable career both as an artist and an educator.  Jill is a textile designer and artist currently based in Savannah, Georgia, where she holds the position of Professor of Fibers at Savannah College of Art and Design. In American Road Trip, the pair have created a collaborative series of printed textile forms that are wearable, as well as contextual photographs and videos, which capture the essence of travel.  Using textile, structure and digital pattern, these collaborative works reflect an abiding interest in other cultures, experiences and the unique perspective of a journey. They will come to us fresh from a research trip to India.

These are just two of the 20 presentations that will make up the two-day symposium. For a full programme keep an eye out on the Costume and Textile Association blog. The symposium is open to members and non-members alike, and newcomers are always warmly welcomed.

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