Back at the end of September 2023, the School of Arts worked with then Arnolfini exhibiting artist, Alice Kettle, on two student tours of her co-curated exhibition with Arnolfini, Threads, a major exhibition which featured 21 contemporary international artists and makers, who use textiles as their chosen medium.
The first tour was for MA Curating students and Drawing & Print graduates and was led by Alice Kettle and Arnolfini’s Head of Exhibitions, Gemma Brace. They explored the themes of artist as curator, threads and sewing as an extension of drawing, the use of print in textile works and collaborative exhibition making.
“It is very important to learn from [artists], their intentions, their aims engaging with audiences” – Student Feedback
The second tour for BA Fashion Textiles students explored the themes of sustainability, reusing and mending and collaborative textile making. This was a special opportunity for students to learn from a contemporary working artist about how to work collaboratively with a gallery when exhibiting, developing and changing practice in response to the current climate crisis and personal histories being an integral part of working with textiles.
“It helps to stay engaged with the practice and be inspired for my projects.” – Student Feedback
This day culminated in a talk as part of the Art of the Maker series, which is collaboration between Arnolfini, the Centre for Fine Print Research (CFPR) and the School of Arts at UWE Bristol. Throughout this conversation, Kettle discussed how her practice evolved over years from starting as a painter and moving into textiles; learning and growing as an artist through making mistakes and embracing failure as a part of the creative process. You can listen back to the recording here.
Having these sorts of opportunities for our students and staff to engage directly with contemporary artists is a special experience, and highlights the uniqueness of our partnership with Arnolfini. We’re grateful to our colleagues at Arnolfini for enabling these relationships develop and grow and we look forward to many more opportunities like these.
