The Visual Arts Data Service (VADS) is
pleased to announce that a further 200 objects from the material
archive at the Constance
Howard Resource and Research Centre in Textiles at Goldsmiths,
University of London, has been digitised and made available
online.
The Constance Howard Resource and Research Centre in Textiles
documents, promotes, and fosters the pioneering history of textiles at
Goldsmiths from the 1940s to the present day, and works with alumni,
contemporary practitioners, museologists, curators, writers,
performers, oral historians, anthropologists and technologists on the
generation, presentation, and promotion of textiles as a primary source
of cultural knowledge and heritage in the UK, and internationally.
The Centre's material archive was originally formed in the 1980s and
reflected the pedagogic principals of Constance Howard and Audrey
Walker, two former Heads of Textiles at Goldsmiths College, University
of London. At the heart of the material archive is the story of the
evolution of contemporary textiles as they progressed over the life of
this remarkable textile course. The Collection also includes an
eclectic, international treasure trove of textiles that are
extraordinarily rich in breadth and diversity, ranging from full-scale
quilts and hangings to tiny fragments of embroidery and lace. Several
special archives are now contained in the Collection, these include a
special archive of Japanese techno-fabrics and donations by
ex-graduates from the 1980s and 1990s, the 62 Group archive, ‘Common
Threads’ the Mary Harris maths/textiles archive, The Ann Sutton
Foundation archive, Fibre Arts archive, some of Dorothy Benson’s
remarkable sampling and work for Singer Sewing Machines and many other
remarkable bodies of work that contributed to contemporary textile as
it is today.
These newly digitised objects add to an existing collection of
digitised material from the Centre which is available on VADS, and now
totals some 2000 digitised items. Users can also access multiple shots
of the same objects from different angles and images showing rich
details.
VADS is a research centre within the Library and Learning Services
Department at the University for the Creative Arts, and specialises in
the management, storage, presentation, and archiving of digital images
and other arts-based digital assets. The VADS website provides online
access to
over 120,000 digitised images of rare and unique collections from
across libraries, museums, and archives in arts universities, colleges,
and art departments, for use in learning, teaching, and research.
To view items from the Constance Howard Resource and Research Centre’s
material archive, visit: http://www.vads.ac.uk/collections/CHM
To view the Centre's slide collection of student work, visit: http://www.vads.ac.uk/collections/CHS
To view all the VADS collections, visit: http://www.vads.ac.uk/collections