Image:’Bathing Beauties: Reimagining the Beach Hut for the 21st Century’, installed at 20:21 Visual Arts Centre in Scunthorpe in summer 2013. ‘Bathing Beauties’ was a long running touring exhibition from The National Centre for Craft & Design, that I managed from 2010 onwards. It consisted of over 110 architectural models, a selected response to a … More Bathing Beauties touring exhibition 2008 – 2015
One of the larger touring projects I managed for The National Centre for Craft & Design was “Transplantation: a sense of place and culture”, conceived of and curated by jeweller Norman Cherry and focusing on stories of movement and migration. It featured six UK based and six Australian based makers and toured to 15 venues … More Transplantation: touring international jewellery show 2012-2015
The project came directly out of my research in early 2008 for the Michael Swaine ‘Door to Door Darning’ project, and was an eclectic mixture of textile artists engaged in use of the actual darn, and other visual artists whose concentrated on community engagement projects, attempting to make things better for members of the public. … More Making and Mending – the original exhibition in 2009
Michael Swaine darns at the Alexandra Palace bus-stop, October 2008. Photo by Rob Kennard. This is an important project for me, in two ways. It was the first for which I received direct Arts Council England support, rather than via an organisation (although it was a feature at 2008 The Knitting and Stitching Show, and … More Door to Door Darning with Michael Swaine, 2008
Image: Windfall apples from Renate’s garden on top of the family piano with her drawing materials. In 2014 I developed a survey project for The Knitting & Stitching Show, of work by textile artist Renate Keeping. This exhibition was initially developed as a retrospective after consultation with Renate, a former member of the 62 Group, … More Renate Keeping: Ripeness and Age 2014
Image: Work by Alice Kettle at the Spring Knitting & Stitching Show 2013. I was freelance installation manager for “Twisted Thread” from 2003 to 2018, and also researched and curated a number of shows for them. This organisation ran The Knitting & Stitching Shows in England, Scotland and Ireland, and The Festival of Quilts (now … More Working with the Twisted Thread portfolio (an historical view)
This exhibition was on show in the main gallery of The National Centre for Craftt &Design at Sleaford from 20 July – 29 September 2013, to mark NCCD’s 10th anniversary. Co-curated by my colleague Laura Mabbutt, then NCCD’s exhibitions manager, and me, and showing work by over 35 artists and designers nominated as future stars, … More “Growing” – celebrating The National Centre for Craft & Design’s 10th birthday
Back in April I mentioned this exhibition, which I’d just invited the maker collective Intelligent Trouble to work on with me. It’s been fantastically realised. All of the Intelligent Trouble collective and particularly Helen Carnac put a lot of thought and energy into it. The theme was jewellery in conversation and we programmed events ans … More Under the Counter, Smiths Row 18 Sep – 30 Oct 2010
I was invited by Creative Events to create an exhibition based on a curated selection of artists from the Holland Paper Biennial 2010, to be shown at The Knitting and Stitching Show at Alexandra Palace. This project originated at Museum Rijswijk in a suburb of The Hague, in the Netherlands. Selection and installation were hard … More Holland Paper Biennial at The Knitting & Stitching Show 2010
The Palatinate museum at Heidelberg always puts together a great selection of work for this triennial, always strongly representative of art quilts, especially European. This gallery returns ot the Festival of Quilts every three years and never fails to please as the standard is so high. It was great to work again with Dr Kristine … More European Quilt Triennial at Festival of Quilts, August 2010
Liz Cooper 