![CORDILLERA A Weave Learning Tool Kit](https://www.mmu.ac.uk/sites/default/files/styles/page_header_half/public/2022-05/image23%20rachel%20kelly.jpg?h=dac3a5ca&itok=-aivrt-v)
Research theme: Community, Culture and Heritage
Using design and craft research to understand and relate to places, people, history and culture.
About our research
About our research
In the Community, Culture and Heritage group, we focus on the relationship between design or craft practices and artefacts, places and people. We use materials as an agent for change, as testimony and as an activist voice, often in relation to place or to current events. Sustainability is central to how we move forward.
We examine identity and society — who we are, where we come from, and our relationship with the world and each other — through material practice. Engagement with diverse cultures and their heritage, marginalised groups and displaced people is key to our research.
Our projects aim to:
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empower communities
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work with neighbourhoods
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raise awareness of social justice
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promote cultural inclusion, equality, diversity and alternative ways of being
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use socially engaged research methods
We view collaboration as a means of connection. Co-creation and co-production methods develop a better understanding of the social impact of craft and design.
We challenge fixed assumptions about identity, culture and cross-cultural exchange. Our practice encourages co-operative ventures and participation.
Drawing on histories and traditions to examine the past and its relevance to the present is a common theme of many of our research projects. We often work with archives, collections, institutions and communities. We have strong links across the University, as well as to poets, historians, social scientists and education.
We are interested in hearing from potential PhD candidates with proposals in the areas we cover.
Our research areas
Through design and craft, we explore how to:
- reclaim lost or hidden identity
- sustain skills
- practise knowledge-based ways of making
- support heritage practices
Selected projects
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Key publications
Kettle, A and Millar, L (2018) The Erotic Cloth: Seduction and Fetishism in Textiles Bloomsbury
Dixon, S (2020) What Need of Tears? Collaborative memorial making in the centenary of The Great War in Cornish, P and Saunders, N (eds) Curating the Great War, Imperial War Museum
Kelly, R (2019) The Digitization of Cordillera Weaving: Designing a New Oral Tradition in Rodgers, P (ed) Design for Change
Dixon, S (2019) Ceramics, narrative and commemoration, Craft Research, 10(1) pp. 121-131
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Key exhibitions
Mulhearn, E (2021) Use and Ornament — InsideOut House Airspace Gallery, Stoke-on-Trent, British Ceramic Biennial
Kettle, A (2020) Fabric: Touch and Identity Compton Verney Art Gallery, Warwickshire
Kettle, A (2019) Thread Bearing Witness Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester
Adkins, L (2019) Notes for a Performance — Weather Permitting Art Gene Black Combe Fell, Lake District National Park
Mulhearn, E (2017) Antimate Portico Library, Manchester
Dixon, S (2017) Heart:Beat, Kanoria Centre for Arts, CEPT University, Ahmedabad
Dixon, S (2017) Passchendaele: Mud and Memory The National Memorial Arboretum, Alrewas
Dixon, S (2016) Resonance: reflections on the Great War through artworks responding to Staffordshire collections the Wedgewood Museum, Stoke on Trent
Kettle, A (2016) The Scalloped Edge Galeria dos Prazeres, Madeira
Gannon, L (2013-2020) Bradford Pit Memorial Manchester
Gannon, L (2015) Propellers of the City Sunderland
Setterington, L (2015) Sew Near — Sew Far Haworth, Yorkshire
Setterington, L (2014) Signature Cloths, International Quilt Study Centre, Nebraska, USA
Organisations we work with
![Arts Council England logo](/sites/default/files/styles/logo_scalable/public/2022-03/Arts-council-logo.png?itok=4pK9lyvQ)
Arts Council of England
![Crafts Council logo](/sites/default/files/styles/logo_scalable/public/2022-03/Crafts%20Council%20logo.jpg?itok=ryrOirbG)
Crafts Council
![Portico Library Manchester logo](/sites/default/files/styles/logo_scalable/public/2022-03/Portico-Library-logo.jpg?itok=8iDGonEM)
Portico Library Manchester
Refugee Action
Contact information
Contact us
For general enquiries about our Community, Culture and Heritage research group, you can contact its lead Prof Alice Kettle.