Endings and beginnings

Following the exhibition ‘Hello Goodbye’ at the Crafts Study Centre, after an association of almost 40 years, in September 2023 Lesley Millar retired from UCA and became Emerita Professor of Textile Culture at the University.

In March 2024 Lesley travelled to Japan to give the closing lecture at the exhibition celebrating the life and colleagues of Masakazu Kobayashi at the Museum of Modern Art Kyoto. This also represented a completion of the circle as it was the Museum of Modern Art Kyoto who showed the first exhibition curated by Lesley Millar: ‘Revelation: textile artists addressing issues’ in 1998. A wonderful opportunity to say thank you and goodbye to all the amazing Japanese artists who have appeared in the Transition and Influence projects ( see above). However, while The International Textile Research Centre may have closed its doors, its wonderful archive of achievements documented on this website remain and new possibilities are on the horizon.

In early 2025, following on from ‘The Erotic Cloth’, Bloomsbury will publish the latest book from Lesley Millar and Alice Kettle: ‘Reading the Thread: cloth and communication’. The book has been several years in the pulling together and appears at a significant moment in the global interest in textile thinking. It is now over 30 years since Annette B. Weiner and Jane Schneider published their foundational book Cloth and Human Experience. In this book they wrote: “…cloth represents the key dilemmas of social and political life: how to bring the past actively into the present. Ultimately, the opposing properties of cloth - its inalienability and its fragility - exemplify these universal needs and their contradictions" (1989: 26). Since Weiner and Schneider wrote this, much has happened in art practice, theoretical writing and scientific exploration of the possibilities offered by this relationship between cloth and our socio-political and personal experiences. Reading The Thread: cloth and communication presents cloth as a record of experience within its social, historical, psychological and cultural context. The launch of the book will be announced here on this website

Also in 2025 Lesley and Alice have developed 2 separate but interlinked exhibitions from the book. The title of this project is ‘Hear My Voice’ in which cloth is used as the starting point for work that gives voice to those who are overlooked or unheard. The first of the exhibitions will take place at the Royal West of England Academy in Bristol from 17 May – 10 August 2025. The second exhibition, due to run from August to October 2025, is still subject to confirmation – but it is in the MOST exciting venue!

As Honorary Fellow of West Dean College of Arts and Conservation, Lesley will continue to build on this relationship, starting with a presentation at the Mary Farmer Study Day at West Dean on August 29th 2024. Details from the Crafts Study Centre or West Dean.

Updates will appear on this website under the title of Emerita Activities, and any questions please contact Lesley Millar.