Cloth and Culture Now

Cloth and Culture Now comprised of an exhibition, catalogue, website and education programme (252 events), resulting from a three-year collaborative research project by Professor Lesley Millar (UCA) and the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, University of East Anglia (SCVA, UEA). The project investigates the cultural role of cloth in the development of contemporary textile practices emerging from traditional practice, and extends the field of research in this area through its exploration of the transition from the repetition of traditional practice, to the development of a contemporary language of making, and the factors that influence that development. Shelly Goldsmith was one of 35 artists selected as case studies and to take part in the exhibition, from Estonia, Finland, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania and UK. The exhibition at the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts in 2008 placed the work within a framework of cultural transition epitomised by the World Art Collection, SCVA; it has also toured to the Whitworth Art Gallery, University of Manchester