Cloth & Memory 2 was a project that drew together and developed all the strands of my research, extending them into new areas – for me, for the artists involved, and for the partner institution and the general public.
Cloth and Memory 2 was a site-sensitive exhibition located in the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Salts Mill, Saltaire, Yorkshire UK, which is also an anchor point in the European Route of Industrial Heritage. The owners of Salts Mill invited me to curate an exhibition linking the history of the Mill with contemporary textile practice. This represented a completely new development for the Mill. The exhibition consisted of 23 emerging and established international artists, who each, in collaboration with me, developed new work in response to the place. It was shown in the original Spinning Room, which at 168m x 16m was thought, when first built, to be the largest industrial room in the world. Apart from a new roof, it has not been restored or refurbished, and is not normally open to the public.
Bradford has been described as the archetypal post-industrial city yet now has an increasing textile presence (see www.bbc.co.uk/bradford/sense_of_place/textiles_2.shtml). This exhibition of outstanding contemporary practice, generated in response to the industrial history of Bradford as exemplified by Salts Mill as a centre of excellence, represented a significant drawing together of past and present practice, at a moment of revitalisation of the textile industry in Yorkshire. Bradford is also identified as an area of low creative engagement, falling within the lowest 20% of engagement in local authority areas nationally (Ref: Active People data - 2009 and 2010). Siting the exhibition within Salts Mill (free entry, approx. 500,000 visitors p.a.) and its catchment area was an exceptional opportunity to introduce and develop a new audience for contemporary textile art
