Log in
Ulinka Rublack's research focuses on the history of Renaissance dress. Her work has enhanced public awareness that social groups beyond courtly elites created fashion in the past. It led to a re-creation of one of the most significant outfits recorded in the wardrobe of a sixteenth-century accountant. Rublack's work has reached beyond academic audiences by influencing theatre practices and education and has been disseminated through broadcasting, filming and print media. Most recently, it has led to collaboration with a fashion designer and an artist to create contemporary fashion and photography in connection with the story of the Renaissance accountant.
This impact case study focuses on the ways in which original research on Anglo-Saxon textiles has contributed to the heritage industry and increased cultural understanding of early medieval life. Professor Gale Owen-Crocker's research impacts on the public's knowledge of the Anglo-Saxon world by engaging with non-professional historians, re-enactors, textile practitioners and creative writers through public lectures, consultancy work, collaborations with museums and living history organisations.
In expanding our understanding of how Henry VIII used clothes to fashion his image, this research has had a cultural impact nationally and internationally, while producing economic benefits for the British heritage industry and Hampton Court Palace in particular. It has helped to alter the practices of curators, designers, costume interpreters, and education officers in historic houses and beyond. Key outcomes were published to coincide with the 500th anniversary of Henry VIII's accession, thus benefiting from and contributing to, the large-scale public interest in the Tudors.
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.
This case study covers the work of five researchers at University of the Arts London (UAL), who have played a role in establishing a field of academically rigorous fashion research with a new relevance for industry and society. This has been achieved through innovative curatorial practices, publications, collaboration with practitioners, and interaction with broadcast, print and new media. The work of this group of academics has influenced the way fashion is presented and communicated within the museum, gallery and publishing sector, and in the fashion industry itself, both nationally and internationally.
Research on Scotland's Turkey Red printed-cotton industry 1840-1960, based on a museum collection of pattern books, has been conducted at the University of Edinburgh 2006-2013 by Nenadic and Tuckett, with cultural, commercial and practice-based impacts. Specifically, it has: (i) generated innovations in collections practices in the National Museums of Scotland, resulting in public and scholarly online access to a collection hitherto unavailable and little understood, and inspiring related digital initiatives in other organizations in the UK; (ii) enhanced cultural confidence in disadvantaged communities with Turkey Red connections through workshops, leading to a MSPs `Parliamentary Motion' and MSP-sponsored exhibition at the Scottish Parliament; (iii) educated and inspired contemporary designers and textile entrepreneurs.
Based at Birkbeck between July 2009 and June 2013 and undertaken in partnership with Instituto de Lengua y Cultura Aymara in Bolivia, the AHRC funded research project `Weaving Communities of Practice' has made a substantial impact on cultural life by creating new systems of cataloguing and digitising collections of Andean textiles and developing a digital, online database to manage complex visual information. Two museums in the UK and 10 in Latin America (Bolivia, Chile and Peru) have directly benefited from the project both in the development of the database and in the training provided; rural communities in Bolivia have also benefited from the recognition and recovery of their traditional craft.
Mass Observation has encouraged public participation in the creation of knowledge since 1937 and pioneered the dissemination of social research to a mass audience. Active collaboration between Sussex historians and the Mass Observation Archive continues to shape popular understandings of modern British social history, specifically through work with the media. This partnership has also created an Open Educational Resource through which the public can gain a hands-on understanding of the very recent past. Working with the Mass Observations Project, Sussex academics encourage `ordinary' people to write directly about their lives within a structured environment, creating historical sources for the future.
Deborah Wynne's research into nineteenth-century literature's engagement with material culture is internationally recognised. Her latest work on textiles underpins the Textile Stories Project, a celebration of the rich heritages of fabric, fashion and costume, particularly in literary contexts. The project is designed to appeal to members of the public with an interest in textiles, crafts, fashion, and the costume drama and has influenced public understanding of the significance of nineteenth- century literature. By demonstrating the role of textiles in literary contexts, the project also creates opportunities for general readers to enhance their understanding of, and pleasure in, the literary culture and screen adaptations.
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.