The Museum Shop.....

The Shop

You can always tell the quality of a museum by its shop and café.......Discuss?

The joys or not of the obvious commercial spaces of a museum. Often the last port of call in any visit and the one that can leave the most pertinent memory. The space in the Textiel Museum is beautifully laid out and as with the rest of the museum is to a high quality specification in display. The pieces for sale reflect what one has seen within the rest of the museum. Here is your opportunity to buy the Viktor & Rolf designed jacquard dishcloth with graffiti splurge or a table cloth designed by Droog. This was interspersed with a strong collection of jewellery made by Nederlands designers, felt and wool pieces and I even found a Margo Selby scarf. The space and the staff were all very welcoming and there were pieces for all price points. Good thing that I came with a full suitcase... lots of lovely new books I would have liked and some gorgeous textiles.

Margo Selby scarf

Catching Up,,,,,,,,

Catching Up ------

I had promised myself to write daily and be diligent in capturing my thoughts from each experience. I have done so in my trusty moleskin notebook but not so in this blog. A day in archives and collections is more energy sapping than one expects.....such a poor excuse.

Back to Tilburg so many days and experiences ago now.

Gallery 1 – Textiel Lab

one of the small looms

Walking into the space the first time totally lifted my heart (bit extreme I know for blog writing!) Here laid out within a museum setting was exactly what I had aspired to within Hat Works and within the textile museums in Yorkshire. Textiles, artisanship, design and manufacture totally alive and well and moving forward. Not ignoring the past but aware of the history and skills and breathing in new life with sound commercial underpinning and an awareness of market needs.

Within the lab area is a design hub where meetings can be held and the managers of the space work. A weaving hub with a range of new high quality looms, the Lab work with Dornier Jacquard Loom company who appreciate and welcome the unique synergy between atelier and museum in leading to new textiles. Including 3 jacquard looms, 2 plain looms, one similar to the Yorkshire Hattersley, but powered by a static bike, which visitors can ride on and weave cloth. The jacquard card puncher was a particularly beautiful thing.

The looms were quietly humming away. On my first visit one was weaving cloth to be sold in shop as table linen, another was having its warp set up and I saw the magic created the following day by Belgium artist Otobong Nkanga. She is based in Antwerp and has worked with the lab since 2010 working with the skills of the team to realise her artistic ideas. The piece she was developing was based on topographical photographs and through the use of browns, golds and blacks on the jacquard she had created the first layers of her three dimensional landscape. I was fortunate to share the moment when her cloth was cut from the loom and cascaded onto the floor by Stef the Manager. Such an experience is one that brings a museum visit to life and creates such memories. All the techncians were working on projects at the different machines but all were happy to talk and answer questions .To be so close to a moving loom raises ranges of Health & Safety queries yet these seem to be manageable and increase the sense of belonging and being allowed to be within the space as a visitor.

Other areas in the lab included a machine embroidery area with a Brother and SWC machines. I spoke with the technician who was completing a commission for a British artist embroidering symbols onto ikat cloth. The handwoven ikat had taken a year to produce to the artist’s design then the lab was completing the work. Such a project is a big part of the lab’s work and generates important incomes.

Day 1 Tilburg

Finding the Textiel Museum

One of my favourite parts of travel is meandering through a town or city and getting a sense of where I am and what that means. The wondering through streets like a flaneur following the traditions of Baudelaire and Benjamin. Aspiring to as really I had a destination to get to quickly.....
Walking for walking sake and not in a hurry to just get from one place to another, but to just experience/wondering in the urban cityscape, alley ways and hidden corners and nooks observing the immediate, and also to be seen.

mini library

interesting glass and tiles

Tilburg artisan cottages made me think of Hebden Bridge and the fustian making

My destination Textiel Museum Tilburg

The Journey Begins

Yorkshire to Nederlands via Scotland and Belgium

Edinburgh Airport

So needed these at Brussels train station

So you leave at 9am across the wilds of Scotland, levels of nerves and anticipation, as the flights was only booked on Sunday.... will this five weeks of travel and as WCMT states fun work out. Not that I am a worrier or anything....

Julia Weston gives tips and advice to Churchill Fellows

Edinburgh Airport is a joy, wonderful staff, straightforward security and off we go.

Arrived safely in Brussels airport having gone through the itinerary with a fine tooth comb and aware that it would be a fast run to get to the train at the airport in time. This is where you just have to smile. Went through security asked where the train station was as could see no signs. Sorry madam we have no train station that is at the other Brussels Airport.....

Slight panic, deep breathing, bus ticket purchased and train timetables checked. May get to Tilburg tonight!! Hence the chips at Brussels train station, a small celebration for not totally panicking.

Seriously brilliant trains and all on time. I love watching the country side shift and change on the train definitely my favourite way to travel especially when in a coach like olden days train travel...

Paul Smith esque interiors in silent coach Brussels to Roosendahl

Silent Coach - lovely graphics

Are we there yet?

Arrived on Tilburg after 10pm so not so harrowing. Lots of lovely kind people to direct and smile with. Looking forward to the museum adventure tomorrow. 

Questions

What am I looking to find out?

My aim for this project is to look for innovative ideas to support and develop artisan practice and sustainable collaboration. Whilst I have worked within millinery and textiles education and curation I have been fortunate to see a range of innovative practices. I have been informed that some of my own work has fitted into this as I have facilitated new makers through projects and mentoring. What I have also seen is that these happen through the strength of the lead person or the financial support at any one time in a project. Sustainability can be more problematic.  The lead person can be worn down through the drive to make things happen. The project ends when the money ceases.

Feltmakers competition hat 2012 Emily Ellwood

So these were my first thoughts when I applied for the fellowship. How could I carry on and develop new ways of working as the millinery programme I ran drew to a close? How could I find ways to fund my curatorial work, which had been on a voluntary basis, to support the institutions and museums in times of austerity where culture is often less of a priority.

I will explore more of this as we go through the blog and the trip........

Case from Trends of Trimmings exhibition Hat Works 2010, Stockport

My Context

Why undertake the Fellowship?

Red Felt piece inspired by Scottish Clearings, S K Bainbridge 2009
In the Collection of Stockport Museums and Galleries, Stockport. UK.

I began making hats in 2000 when I joined the HNC millinery course at Leeds College of Art & Design. I had always made and was at the time teaching textiles within Further Education, so the course was perfect for professional development. I fell in love with making three dimensional objects. Textiles suddenly made sense. So began my voyage of discovery and my change of direction. I continued to study undertaking the more skills based City & Guilds Millinery as well. My aim to look at ways to develop a more holistic mode of study to include technical skills, design and context of practice.

In 2004 I began teaching millinery as a HNC at Leeds and for City & Guilds in Huddersfield. I was fortunate to work with a range of talented people who were inspired and wanted to develop millinery further as businesses and teaching opportunities. Over the ten years that I taught millinery many changes happened in craft and adult education which impacted negatively on ways to develop future milliners. The qualification courses I ran closed  and the only way to share skills was through private short courses.

Hence my wish to undertake the fellowship and look at other ways to create sustainable and effective artisan education and skill sharing. I have been fortunate to work with Hat Works, the hat museum in Stockport as a voluntary curator, researcher since 2010 and this has also informed my questions as the cultural and museum sectors have been affected by political shifts. How can these areas collaborate to mutually benefit each other and create new paths for future working relationships. As I work in Higher Education I feel that this also has a role in collaborative futures.

Archive Hat Works

 

Introductions

I have been fortunate to have been awarded a Winston Churchill Fellowship by the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust. My Fellowship is within The Creative Industries field and aims to look at best practice across Western Europe of supporting artisan makers through museums, collaborative practice, community engagement and innovative ways of thinking. As an educator and occasional milliner my main theme will be to address this within millinery and ways that can be shared within the U.K. to enable this niche area to survive and thrive.

The image from the train to Tilburg, Nederlands, seems a perfect symbol for the purpose of the WCMT Fellowships - to have conversations, to share, to listen, to learn.

My planning has been slightly erratic. i am someone who always considers that there are 36 hours in a day and that I need little sleep. The reality is that i need at least 8 hours and there are only 24 hours. So this has been my first learning before I began. It's alright to ask for help and you need lots of time to plan. Working 50+ hour weeks isn't always conducive to this so another observation to take forward before i even began my travels.

Jacquard card punch at Textiel Museum Tilburg, Nederlands

So order and organisation to assist me getting the most from this truly amazing opportunity.