Here you’ll find our digital exhibitions and stories; shared and curated by artists, academics and community curators – see how others are engaging with amazing textile heritage objects across Lancashire.
Password protected exhibitions allow us to work collaboratively on them while we create and upload the content ready for the finished exhibition to be made public. If you click on an exhibition and it asks for a password please be patient and check back soon to see the final exhibition once it is shared.
Threadbare Narratives
In this digital exhibition artist Madhu Manipatruni explores the story of chintz and shares her own artwork as well as work created through block printing and embroidery community workshops held at Queen Street Mill alongside items researched at several museum collections that inspired her work.
View exhibitionThe Footwear Industry Shaped Me
Artist Sharon Brown presents archival materials, embroidery and digital collages that explore and capture the personal experiences and memories of a Lancashire community’s industrial textile heritage.
View exhibitionExploring Ecclesiastical Textiles
Researcher Esther Rollinson explores three intricately worked ecclesiastical textiles in detail; using digital microscope images to reveal the materials and technical skill with which they have been created.
View exhibitionModest Fashion with Olive High School & Burnley Boys and Girls Club
GTC worked with Olive High School and Burnley Boys and Girls Club to deliver a project about modest clothing linked to the heritage textiles held in the Gawthorpe Textiles Collection. The brief was for the Olive High students to develop design drawings for modest sportswear.
View exhibitionChamba Rumals
A partnership between Gawthorpe Textiles Collection and Dr Rohini Arora to give an in depth look at two rare and precious examples of embroidery from the Chamba region of India.
View exhibitionSkilled, Responsible & Hardworking
Academic research by Gill Crawshaw focusing on the stories of Lancashire's disabled cotton workers.
View exhibitionGlobal Threads: African Fashion
A collection of fashion forward garments designed and made by first year Fashion Design students at UCLan drawing inspiration from traditional African and African Export textiles in the Gawthorpe Textiles Collection.
View exhibitionCloth Cultures Season 2
Join Fashion Historian Amber Butchart for a series of podcasts showcasing some amazing objects from six different Lancashire museums and collections.
View exhibitionRhythm of The Looms by Scott Robertson and Janet Swan
A soundscape combining mill sounds from Queen Street Mill with the poetry of "mill girl" Ethel Carnie Holdsworth.
View exhibitionSiri, stop the patriarchy
A digital zine by artist Emily Simpson looking at feminism, gender equality, our rights to protest and what feminism means to the artist as a non-binary person.
View exhibitionTurkey Red & Khaki at Elmfield Hall
Exploring the connections between two iconic dyes and the story of William Gatty and his home; Elmfield Hall in Accrington.
View exhibitionCloth Cultures - Cotton
Fashion Historian Amber Butchart curates an exhibition exploring movement, migration and making using pieces found in the Gawthorpe Textiles Collection.
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