Participants add embroidery magic to PRONI's photographic collections

Textile Stories brought together 19 women from across the region to explore the art of storytelling through textiles, fashion and archives.

This four-week programme offered a series of online talks and creative workshops which inspired participants to inject new life to PRONI's photographic archives.

The programme started with curators Lynsey Gillespie and Rachel Sayers showcasing highlights from PRONI's photographic collections and discussing issues of preservation, conservation and accessibility.

Participants also heard from Roberta Basic, Elsie Doolan and Breege Doherty about the Conflict Textiles project and how textiles can work as live and archival language.

Costume supervisor Gillian Lennox spoke about her work in theatre and film production and the role of archives in her costume research for the Lyric Theatre.

Costume designer Liz Cullinane gave an informative talk about Modernism, Fashion and War and showed how fashion has evolved in the first half of the 20th century. 

Participants also received a personalised photo embroidery kit in the post and took part in a creative workshop with artist Kerri Todd where they learnt how to create their own embroidered postcard.

An online exhibition has been created to showcase their fantastic work and can be accessed here: https://www.textile-stories.org/