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Textile-heritage research at the University of Leeds has informed and improved public awareness and understanding of textile heritages among target audiences, especially school children, community groups, volunteers, interns and teachers. Through hands-on workshops, conventional publications, talks and lectures, a strong website presence and public exhibitions, the research has engaged and inspired audiences, and has underpinned a `best practice' resource for other museums and archives. Impact is demonstrated through direct feedback from workshop participants, evidence of community engagement, commentary in the visitors' book, website hits, and also from accreditations, awards and endorsements from key national arts organisations in recognition of initiatives enhancing public appreciation of textile heritages.
Five historic Blackfoot First Nations hide shirts held in the Pitt Rivers Museum (PRM) since 1893 were lent to two museums in Alberta, Canada, to promote cross-cultural exchange of knowledge. Under historic assimilation policies (1885-1970), most heritage objects had been removed from Blackfoot communities to museums, contributing to the destabilization of Blackfoot cultural identity and poor mental and physical health typical of indigenous populations. For the first time in a century over 500 Blackfoot people were able to handle objects made before the assimilation era. This provoked the sharing of cultural knowledge within the Blackfoot community, led to improved self-esteem, and intensified interest and pride in cultural identity. In exchange, Blackfoot people shared cultural knowledge about the shirts with museum professionals from all UK museums with significant Blackfoot collections, trained them in new approaches to museology, and co-curated exhibitions sharing Blackfoot perspectives in Alberta and Oxford reaching over 50,000 people.
Since independence in 1991, Kyrgyz women's domestic felt textile practices have been exposed to the influences and expectations of the global market. Dr Bunn's research on the dynamics of continuity and change in Kyrgyz women's textile work has given Kyrgyz NGOs and craft organisations access to a wider global perspective and forum for their work. She has linked local textile practitioners with international craft organizations through organized exhibitions and showcases in the UK, thus increasing their international profile and earning income; supported their links with international agencies such as UNIFEM and UNESCO; and enabled the UK arts and research community to gain access to this little known art form. Advancements have thus been made in both individual lives, e.g. in £42,000 (equivalent to 35 average yearly wages) sales of 12 Kyrgyz artists' work, and more broadly in Kyrgyz women's craft initiatives through sustained cultural exposure.
Research led by Paul Basu at UCL has explored cultural heritage in post-conflict development in Sierra Leone. The 2009-12 Reanimating Cultural Heritage project (RCH) has engaged in a sustained programme of outreach, advocacy, and capacity building in Sierra Leone's cultural and educational sectors. With partners in the UK and Sierra Leone, it has developed an innovative digital resource connecting diasporas of museum objects, images and sounds with diasporas of people, and provides new access to collections. RCH has contributed to the reanimation of Sierra Leone's National Museum and has mobilised cultural heritage as a wider social resource.
`Threads of Feeling', a major exhibition of the textile tokens left with abandoned infants at the London Foundling Hospital in the mid-eighteenth century, was curated and based on original research by Professor John Styles. Displayed at the London Foundling Museum in 2010-11, it received 19,132 visitors in six months. A permanent online presence from 2011 extended its reach, and when it travelled to the USA in 2013, a further 46,619 people saw it over two months. Its public popularity, enthusiastic critical reception and role in inspiring textile practitioners in particular have all ensured significant public awareness of this previously little known aspect of social history.
Research in electronic textiles, described in five granted worldwide patents, is having impacts in the health, sports, defence and fashion sectors. The central impact claimed comprises bringing second generation electronic textiles into manufacture through knitted garments for older people for vital sign monitoring that have been commercialised by a spin-out company, SmartLife Technology Ltd, and the development of a conductive suit for the Ministry of Defence. Work in the unit has also underpinned the development of electrically heated gloves by EXO2 Ltd and a new test for a hip protector system based on an advanced 3D spacer structure by Baltex Ltd. Baltex Ltd and EXO2 Ltd also plan to use the technology to develop additional products.
This case study focuses on three Science/Art collaborations Primitive Streak, Wonderland and Catalytic Clothing (CatClo) undertaken since 1997 by Professor Helen Storey. Storey's work is genuinely collaborative, spanning arts, sciences and new technology fields, and produces projects which illuminate aspects of science and well-being in ways that engage with the public, communicate complicated concepts, and demonstrate the potential of science in an innovative and accessible manner. The projects have reached huge audiences and have made a significant contribution to raising public awareness of science and issues faced by society.