Lunchtime Lectures: Bright Bold Beautiful: Era-defying Textile Designs

Textile designs once consigned to archives are now receiving wider attention with a resurgence across the Art world. Along with recognition for those who produced post war era-defying designs for distinguished brands, against a backdrop of little or no recognition for their groundbreaking work. With the spotlight on Althea McNish and Colleen Farr, it is time to highlight the design skills and accomplishments of Shirley Craven and the Hull Traders cohort. This radical way of generating textile designs went beyond the sober restraints of cold war modernity to establish bright colour palettes, bold designs plus beautiful aesthetics comparable to large scale artworks with each making extensive contributions to the British textile industry. 

Cassandra Isaac is a multidisciplinary artist, who has textile design as a large part of their practice. This includes hand drawn, screenprinting, mixed media collage, printmaking and digital textile design. Their work has been exhibited in the Barry Till, Morley, and Tower galleries. Themes for works include Momentum, Shapes & Forms, UK Lockdown, plus Spaces to Belong.