'At The Edge - Extending Textile Boundaries' Launch Conference

Date:05/03/2005

'At The Edge - Extending Textile Boundaries' The Textile Forum South West Launch Conference.

"The TFSW launch conference 'At The Edge - Extending Textile Boundaries' was held at The Somerset Centre for Enterprise, Somerset College of Arts and Technology, Taunton, on Saturday 5th March 2005. The event provided an excellent opportunity for networking, bringing together practitioners, curators, students and academics from across the southwest and other regions of the UK. 160 people participated in the event and (as was hoped) networking and debate was intense throughout the day, between delegates over lunch and coffee and within discussion groups in the afternoon session.

Sonja Andrew was the first speaker, outlining the reasons for setting up Textile Forum South West as an umbrella for a wide range of textiles interests within the region, giving a brief history of the process so far and setting out the direction of TFSW for the future. She was followed by Beatrijs Sterk, secretary general of the European Textile Network, who gave a presentation which outlined Europe-wide connections between people and organisations involved in textiles, through a series of 'textile routes' within Europe, and an ongoing series of international conferences and events.

Shelly Goldsmith, a leading textile practitioner, academic and winner of the 2002 Jerwood Prize for Textiles gave an inspiring exposition of her thought processes and how concepts lead through to her final textile work.

Sarah Braddock-Clarke spoke about new technology-led textiles and illustrated this with images from her new book 'Techno Textiles 2' which follows on from her previous, influential publication 'Techno Textiles'. The day's final speaker was Polly Leonard, publisher of Selvedge magazine, the new journal which seeks to cover the widest possible range of approaches to textiles, from art criticism to interior decoration.

As well as the formal speakers, there was a session of small discussion groups to help formulate the future direction of Textile Forum South West and discuss issues raised during the conference presentations. The information and comments from this were fed back to the management group to guide the direction and structure of the textile forum for the future.

The launch was a stimulating and well organised event, accessible for both textile professionals and enthusiasts and I hope future TFSW events will continue to be of benefit to everyone involved in textiles in the south west and other regions of the UK."

(Feedback from Anne Jackson, conference delegate from Exeter,  TFSW member, tapestry weaver and member of the South West Textile Group).

Further comments from delegates:

"Good choice of speakers, pointing the way forward for TFSW in terms of serious debate and professional standards."

"Great to meet so many diverse people with a uniting interest in textiles."

"The atmosphere was wonderful -everyone was friendly and generous with ideas and encouragement. There was no 'us and them' between professionals and amateurs - everyone's opinion seemed equally valued."

"Shelly Goldsmith's talk was inspirational, a personal journey and insight into her work."

"Very impressed with the planning and organisation and welcome the whole initiative."

"Delighted by how many people from all over the region made the effort to come, and by how easy it was to approach strangers and make contact - networking!"

The conference proceedings provide a full text version of all the speakers presentations with full colour images. The proceedings are free to all delegates who attended the conference.

If you would like a copy of the conference proceedings (£6.00), please contact Liz Harding (treasurer) for details. TFSW members can purchase the conference proceedings at a reduced price of £5.00.
Email: contact@textileforumsouthwest.org

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