Cloth & Culture Now

Cloth & Culture Now investigates the links between contemporary textile practice, strong traditional practice and overlapping global influences, offering a framework for the study of contemporary textile practice within a cultural specific, trans-national and cross-cultural context. The exhibition brings together, for the first time, contemporary textile works from Estonia, Finland, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania and United Kingdom. Exhibited two works, "The Perfect - Alex" and "The Perfect - Emilie, Annette, Marie, Cecile and Yvonne". The exhibition generated press including extensive previews in ‘Embroidery’ and ‘Textile Forum’ with reviews in ‘Crafts’ and ‘Modern, Carpets and Textiles for Interiors’. At the Whitworth Gallery, Manchester I delivered a public lecture and workshop

Assessing access barriers to maternal health care: measuring bypassing to identify health centre needs in rural Uganda.

BACKGROUND: In low income countries, several barriers exist to the use of health services for child delivery, including distance, transportation, informal costs or low perceived quality. Yet there is rarely information about which barriers are more or less important to the use of a given health facility. This study assessed the relative importance of different barriers to maternal health facility use in rural Uganda through the use of simple indicators based on locally available data. METHODS: Data from public health facilities performing deliveries in a rural district were used along with census information to construct a set of indicators useful for diagnosing barriers to delivery service use. Indicators included the number of facility-based deliveries per 1000 women served, the proportion of users from a facility's local area, and a new indicator, the 'bypassing ratio', defined as the number of women from a facility's local area who delivered in other facilities, divided by the number of local women using the facility itself. RESULTS: Numbers of deliveries varied greatly between facilities of the same level. A few very low use facilities saw over 75% of women come from the local area, while other facilities services attracted a large majority of women from other areas. The phenomenon of bypassing provides additional insight into the relative importance of distance or transport as opposed to internal facility factors preventing use. CONCLUSIONS: Simple and easily replicable tools are essential to assist health managers to identify communities and facilities needing improvements in access to delivery care. The methods developed in this paper could be utilized by local officials in other areas to assist planning and improvement of both maternal care and other health services

Jerwood Contemporary Makers 2010

Jerwood Contemporary Makers showcases work by the new generation of UK makers. Selected by Hans Stofer (chair), Richard Slee and myself, the exhibition investigates the notion of making by bringing together a broad range of work from across craft and the visual arts. Twenty-nine makers took part, each exhibiting one work and receiving an equal share of the £30,000 prize fund. Supported by the Jerwood Charitable Foundation. A catalogue in the form a newspaper broadsheet was produced with an essay, ‘The Making Game’ commissioned from Jeanette Winterson. A series of Monday evening events accompanied the exhibition. These included Emmanuel Cooper (ceramicist and craft writer) in conversation with Hans Stofer, Richard Slee and myself also a panel discussion exploring the notion of amateur making, chaired by Stephen Knott, (PhD student, School of Applied Art, RCA) with the research student that I supervise Emma Shercliff, (PhD student, School of Fashion & Textiles, RCA). At the National Craft Gallery, Kilkenny, Ireland I conducted a gallery tour and delivered a lecture and workshop on Curating Contemporary Craft alongside curator David Littler. The exhibition received considerable press including Crafts, July/August 2010 (Dr.Jessica Hemmings), Design Week, 27 May 2010 and The Independent, 29 June 2010 (Michael Glover)