01
April 2025

VISIONARIES OF 20th CENTURY TEXTILES

Welcome to Hambleton Arts Society!
Tuesday, April 1, 2025 - 19:00
Online Event

An epic tale of two extraordinary figures from the same valley in Yorkshire who were destined to change the world of fashion and design for all time. A story that takes us from the mills of Yorkshire in the 1920s to the coast of Cornwall. From Welwyn Garden City to the corridors of power at Westminster. Art, design, textiles, fashion, politics, publishing, philosophy, and the very genesis of modern art in Britain. This lecture tells the story of creativity, determination, passion, and resilience of a true textile Maverik.

THE ARTS SOCIETY ACCREDITED LECTURER

Mr Ashley Gray

Ashley Gray is a leading specialist and curator in the key art discipline of Modern Textiles and their history. He is a regular vetter at international fine art fairs and served on the Fair Committees of BADA, The Works on Paper Fair and on the BADA Council. He is regularly invited to lecture on the subject both in the UK and the US and sits on the advisory board of The Frances Neady Collection at FIT, New York. As a curator and archivist, he works with institutions and foundations on conservation and exhibition projects; most recently as co-curator of Material Textile: Modern British Female Designers’ and Material Textile: Creativity, History & Process, both with Messums Gallery, Common Thread at New Art Centre and From Bauhaus to our House at Cromwell Place. He also curates the acclaimed exhibition Styled by Design that celebrates the innovation of Modernist textile design alongside a comprehensive lecture programme that accompanies the exhibitions.