Get Connected!

 As well as uni work, I am part of a group of four third year BA (hons) Embroidery students who are putting on an exhibition at Nexus Art Café in Manchester’s Norther Quarter. When we conceived the idea we were driven by a shared desire to explore, expose and celebrate the creative practice that we have inherited from studying Embroidery. After news of out course being merged with Textiles and Textile Design for Fashion our point is now even more vital to us. As a course we are known, and even expected, to create beautiful and technically skilled textile work. However, there is much more to BA Embroidery than just stitch. The Embroidery degree at MMU has consistently challenged and confounded perception. Not restricted to the traditional or technical, the teaching on this course actively encourages an in depth questioning of our practice that allows for such excitingly diverse work. What will happen to the truly unique part of Embroidery when it is merged with two strong design courses because of government cuts? We already have to explain and defend our art but we do so in the knowledge that our tutors and fellow students are exploring the same path. We do this in the hope that through our own creative output we are not only challenging preconceived ideas of embroidery as a narrow, limited, aging craft but we are also tackling the huge questions of what art actually is. We believe that the work that comes from the Embroidery programme plays a unique, challenging, innovative and intelligent role in this discussion. Through a physical and personal engagement with our work that comes from a collective love of fibre, thread and a broad understanding of materials, Embroidery perhaps approaches art making from a different angle. 

 As part of our exhibition we will be holding a discussion titled ‘What is Embroidery?’ on the 6^th of May. We will be inviting current students, past students, tutorsasnd the Dean of the School of Art to join the conversation. We want to explore what our practice is, what it can be, what it should be, where it lies in the art hierarchy, if what we do should even be called embroidery. We want to question what it is about our course that creates such interesting and diverse art and what it’s future is when the backbone of this unique approach is removed.

 If anyone lives in or around Manchester then please come and see our exhibition. Nexus Art Cafe is a great space and they have really exciting exhibitions that change every two months.

Our preview is next Thursday, 10th March, from 7pm onwards.

We've set up a group blog that we're all going to contribute to further as the exhibtion and events happen.  

http://midconversation.wordpress.com