Textile and Memory

 

East Ayrshire has a rich history of textile production. At Darvel, Newmilns, and Galston, the Victorian industrialist Alexander Morton mechanized the hand-weaving industry and introduced the ideas of William Morris. Here textile designs were produced including some designers of the Arts and Crafts Movement. In Newmilns and Darvel high-quality lace is still produced using Victorian machines. Calico printing and shawl making has become an almost forgotten industry, and the closely related shawl manufacture was at one time a major industry in Kilmarnock. East Ayrshire is the location for two partner museums Dean Castle and the Dick Institute. Both hold rich displays of the historical textile archive. The exhibition ‘Textile and Memory’ is a collaboration between two researchers from Middlesex University, Kathleen Mullaniff and Emma Dick, the Dean Castle Textile Team, and East Ayrshire Leisure. This exhibition is located in the Loom Room at the Dick Institute, Kilmarnock, Scotland. The exhibition celebrates the work made by the Dean Castle Textile Team, a group of volunteers who help to conserve the historic textiles in the museum’s collections and contribute their wide-ranging textile skills and experience to creating new textile works for cultural heritage and community engagement. Kathleen Mullaniff, Emma Dick, and Pauline Mullaniff display digital embroidery, drawings, and an artist book as artwork responding to the wonderful textiles that the Textiles Team produces. We are in awe of their skills and dedication to the community and keeping textile heritage alive and we dedicate the exhibition to them all. Emma Dickand Kathleen Mullaniff Middlesex University London February 2019