Clothes, Cloth & Culture Group. Dr. Althea McNish in conversation with John Weiss.

Join us for this free talk Thursday 30 April 2015 6:30 - 8:30 pm at Stuart Hall Library

Dr. Althea McNish is a painter and textile designer, she came to Britain from Trinidad and Tobago in the 1950s to study at the London College of Printing and the Royal College of Art.

Best known for her innovative and successful textile and surface pattern designs, Althea worked with Liberty & Co., Hull Traders and international companies. Examples of the range of fabrics designed by Althea can be seen on her website

Althea and was associated with the Caribbean Artists Movement. Her art work draws on diverse cultural influences.

In 2011 Althea was featured in the exhibition RCA Black organised by The Royal College of Art in collaboration with the African and African Caribbean Design Diaspora (AACDD). The exhibition celebrated art and design by African and African-Caribbean graduates and students; a group who are often marginalised within the creative industries.

Althea describes her experiences as an artist and designer in her interview with John Weiss in Building Britannia: Life Experience With Britain, 2009. She talks about how she worked with the major international textile companies, her use of colour and 'tropicalisation' of English flowers.

"In the context of the unacknowledged contribution and influence of the Black artist, Althea McNish had a visible effect on British textiles and thus on, and in, British culture" John Weiss 1998

Dr. McNish works in partnership with her husband, designer John Weiss, who will interview her for this Clothes, Cloth and Culture Group event

Talk: researching a parasol from Goldsmiths Textile Collection

Christine Checinska and Ruby Hoette's recent talk at Goldsmiths is now available online.

It is part of Goldsmiths Objects (In)Sight project which "aims to develop object-based research skills and foster cross-disciplinary thinking".

Christine and Rubys' session focused on a parasol from the Goldsmiths Textile Collection. Their talk is part of a series delivered by academics or practitioners from different disciplines. In each session the speakers chose an object from Goldsmiths Special Collections & Archives, or Textile Collection and shared their ideas on research methods into the artefact.

Christine Checinska is the 2nd Stuart Hall Library Animateur and founder of our Clothes, Cloth & Culture Group.

Talking about The Troubles,Textiles and Northern Ireland

The March 26 2015 Clothes, Cloth & Culture Group meeting here at Stuart Hall Library proved so interesting to our audience that we had trouble persuading them to leave on time. If you missed the event, audio recordings of the talks are available to stream: see below.

Dr Karen Nickell talked about her doctoral research 'Embroidery in the Expanded Field: Textile
Narratives in Irish Art Post-1968’ with a response from Professor Catherine Harper.

Karen talked about how textiles are embedded in Irish social, cultural and political life. Her research examines textile practices by individual artists and communities in response to the conflict in Northern Ireland known as the Troubles. Read more about the research and presenters.

The evening started on an informal note; following the group's custom, the presenters showed the audience textile artefacts as 'conversationals'. Karen and Catherine brought with them carefully chosen textile pieces invested with both personal meaning and with cultural significance.

Hand-knitted dishcloth: conversational
 brought by Catherine Harper

Irish crochet: conversational
brought by Karen Nickell