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.