Exhibiting Fashion Toolkit

Project duration: 14 December 2021 – 14 June 2024
Funded by: Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC)

The exhibition Unpicking Couture’ at Manchester Art Gallery is developed as part of the AHRC funded ‘Exhibiting Fashion’ project by Dr Jeffrey Horsley (Centre for Fashion Curation, LCF).

At Bankfield Museum, Halifax, INSPIRED: The Art of Making Historical Fashion  showcases fashion makers from across the country who design and make clothing based on historical dress.

Project summary

The UK's important fashion collections are increasingly on limited or inadequate display (or not visible at all) due to funding cuts to the museum sector and reductions in specialist curators. Fashion objects also present specific display challenges because of their fragility and the need to provide a replacement for the human body. Blockbuster fashion exhibitions hosted by major museums do not provide viable professional models for less well-resourced institutions without specialist fashion curators.

The potential of fashion collections in many small and mid-sized regional museums remains untapped. Over 200 institutions in the UK hold fashion and textiles items. The majority are small and mid-sized regional museums like the partners on this project: the Beecroft Art Gallery, Southend holds the UK's leading collection of swimwear; Manchester Art Gallery's collection encompasses a group of outstanding mid-20th century couture and McQueen; Bankfield Museum, Halifax contains exceptional local womenswear from the 19th century.

‘Unpicking Couture’ features Innovative display techniques, including dynamic visual and spatial strategies and a focus on the making of the exhibition. Part display and part studio space, 'Unpicking Couture' activates ideas around the value and care of collections, sustainability, expression of self, making and creativity.

The project will produce an 'exhibiting fashion toolkit' that will enhance the skill sets of non-specialist curators in small and mid-sized museums and equip them to produce resource effective, engaging and innovative displays.

Project team

• Dr Jeff Horsley, Research Fellow, Centre for Fashion Curation,
• Angela Piccini, Plymouth University

Project aims

• The overall aim is to advance professional, curatorial and museological practices in the field of fashion exhibition-making.
• To develop 3 venue-specific fashion exhibitions, informed by the principal investigator's exhibition-maker's perspective, that respond to each partners' collections, spaces, resources and audiences.
• To conduct an evaluative analysis of the practice-based research using participant-focussed techniques including film-making, interviews and project journals, to identify the particular qualities of exhibition-making and curatorial practices.
• To use the evaluated project findings to inform an 'exhibiting fashion toolkit' that will enhance the skillset of non-specialist curators at small and mid-sized museums and equip them to produce innovative, engaging and resource efficient displays that maximise the potential of outstanding dress collections across the UK. The toolkit will be hosted online by UAL.

Approach

Research will be led by the principal investigator from an exhibition-maker's perspective: a specialist approach that focusses on exhibition development guided by visual and spatial centred methodologies, in contrast to discipline-based curatorial practice centred on collection management and collections-based research.

The proposed project will also involve a filmmaker as co-investigator (Plymouth University) and three regional museum partners.

Partners

• Manchester Art Gallery, Manchester
• Beecroft Gallery, Southend, Essex
• Bankfield Museum, Halifax