Art School Conversations

Art School Conversations is a series of talks and debates hosted by Manchester School of Art. The talks will bring leading world class professionals to MMU to discuss a range of topics of interest to our students, industry professionals and the wider public.

In this presentation Lesley Millar will discuss her work as curator and project organiser working with international textile practitioners, particularly those from Japan and the UK. She will describe the cross-cultural connections and differences developed through her projects and also her latest interest in trans-discipline outcomes.

Lesley Millar has worked as an exhibition organiser and curator specialising in textiles since 1987 and has been project director for 7 major international touring exhibitions:

• 'Revelation' (1996-98)
• 'Textural Space' (2001)
• 'Through the Surface' (2003-05),
• '21:21 – the textile vision of Reiko Sudo and NUNO' (2005-7)
• 'Cloth & Culture NOW' (2008)
• 'Cultex: textiles as a cross-cultural language' (2009-11)
• 'Lost in Lace' (2011-12)

She is currently leading on an EU funded collaboration between the UK, Denmark, Greece and Italy: 'Transparent Boundaries' (2012-13).

Lesley writes regularly about contemporary textile practice, particularly that in Britain and Japan, including a monograph on Chiyoko Tanaka. In 2006-07 she undertook a major AHRC funded research project investigating approaches to contemporary textiles through collaborative research between Museums, HEI's and Practitioners.

In 2005 she was appointed Director of the Anglo Japanese Textile Research Centre at the University for the Creative Arts, and in 2007 was appointed Professor of Textile Culture. In 2008 she received the Japan Society Award for significant contribution to Anglo-Japanese relationships and in 2011 was appointed MBE for her contribution to Higher Education.

Severija Incirauskaite-Kriauneviciene / Peteris Sidars / Machiko Agano