The Museum in the Park celebrates its 10th Anniversary this January and begins its 2011 programme with a special touring exhibition. ‘Plain Stripe Check’ opens on Saturday 8th January and brings together contemporary woven textiles from Japan and Britain with historic textiles from three different Museum collections.

Archaeological evidence shows that weaving has been a part of daily life for millions of years, with fragments of very fine woven linen and woollen cloth found in prehistoric graves in countries and cultures across the world. This exhibition celebrates the enduring craft of weaving and explores the timeless values of three key design trends – plains, stripes and checks – which appear and re-appear in woven fabrics created by peoples far apart in time, geography and culture.

‘Plain, Stripe, Check’ is a collaborative exhibition project in two parts: contemporary hand-woven textiles by Tim Parry-Williams (Stroud, UK) and Ikuko Ida (Kyoto, Japan); and historical woven textiles selected from museum and private collections in Britain and Japan. It represents the results of historical research across both Japanese and British sources, and practice based research (making) under the project theme. While the exhibition showcases numerous examples of museum textiles rarely seen, the collected works also reveal groups of design trends typical to both cultures. In particular it emphasises the key character values of the research theme: Timelessness, visual strength, understatement and simplicity.

On display are very beautiful, incredibly fine kimono cloth by Japanese weaver Ikuko Ida, who will be visiting Stroud to see in the exhibition, and exquisite scarves and hangings by Stroud-based British weaver Tim Parry-Williams. Contemporary work is complemented by historic textiles on loan from The National Wool Museum (The National Museum of Wales), the Crafts Study Centre (the UK’s museum of modern crafts), private collections, and Stroud Museum collections. These include fascinating mill sample books from Japan offering a glimpse into almost forgotten fashions and fabrics of past eras, 20th Century apparel cloth samples produced in Stroud mills, for suits, skirts and dresses sold by stores such as Marks & Spencers, and warm wool shawls from the Welsh valleys in traditional plaids and checks. It also includes a rare chance to see woven textiles by pioneering 20th Century weavers Rita Beales, Ethel Mairet and Elizabeth Peacock, on loan from the Crafts Study Centre collections. Across all these textiles, colours and patterns in plains, stripes and checks, appear and re-appear, echoing each other across time and place.

The exhibition is accompanied by special events and family activities, and will delight and intrigue anyone interested in textiles and design. Open Tuesday to Friday 10am to 4pm, and Saturday and Sunday 11am to 4pm. Admission free, donations appreciated, accompanying exhibition booklet £4. For further details see www.museuminthepark.org.uk

This exhibition is the first ever collective showing by the Gloucestershire-based Parkbench Artists: Noela Bewry, Terry Cripps, Marianne Hellwig John, Penny Prince, Sue Rae, and Maggie Shaw.

These talented abstract artists have exhibited locally, nationally and internationally, and the Museum in the Park is delighted to be hosting their first UK group show in its purpose-built art gallery. Its also the first ever abstract art exhibition to be held at this venue.

The Parkbench group was founded by artist Terry Cripps as a web based marketing operation to sell prints of work from the artists’ back catalogue. The website was launched in 2005 and offers hand finished prints direct from the artist. The aim is to promote those involved and deliver the maximum financial reward back to the artists, as well as delivering high quality hand-finished artists’ prints direct to private and public clients.

Colourful, uplifting, moving, invigorating …. this exhibition is worth making a special visit to see. Influences range from the wild northern landscapes of Scandinavia, to the rhythms of contemporary jazz, human gestures and interactions, and the local Gloucestershire landscape. Experience the paintings and meet the artists, who are stewarding the gallery.

Group and school visits welcome

Exhibition admission free
Open Tuesday – Friday 10am to 4pm
Open Saturday & Sunday 11am – 4pm
Closed on Mondays. Exhibition open until 31st October 2010.

www.museuminthepark.org.uk

www.PrintsatParkbench.co.uk

‘Pharma’s Market’ is a mosaic installation exploring the contrasting imagery of historical and contemporary farming. Although the setting of the exhibition is a traditional agricultural fair, visitors will experience an exhibition with a distinctly contemporary twist. Cleo Mussi has an engaging story to tell, and her characters, from life-sized ‘robo-rabbits’ to ‘space scientists’ and ‘bucolic farmers’, all jostle for their part in the plot. Her mosaics are made from recycled china, and her stories are derived from the real world of science and medicine, albeit reconstructed through the process of her own particular visual imagination and surreal sense of humour.

Illustrated Talk by Cleo Mussi - Saturday 10th July at 2.30pm – tickets £4

‘Meet the Artist’ (Cleo Mussi) drop in event for families on Sunday 11th July, 2pm – 4pm 

To book call: 01453 763394 www.museuminthepark.org.uk

‘Make Do & Mend’

An interactive textile installation presented by Studio Seven textile artists

Showing until 28 February 2010 at The Museum in the Park, Stroud

Presented by the Studio Seven textile artists, ‘Make Do and Mend’ first appeared at Stroud Valleys Artspace in 2008. It has now been carefully brought out of storage, dusted off and re-invented to delight visitors once again.

The installation focuses on the themes of weavers and weaving, woollen mills, the use of Stroud Scarlet cloth for military uniforms, women working during wartime, and the ethos of ‘make do and mend’. These threads are brought together by the seven artists into an atmospheric world of images and ideas which the audience is invited to explore.

Enter an Alice in Wonderland-like rabbit hole world of ‘eat me, drink me’ instructions; of objects out of scale and out of place; of looms and pulleys, fragments and whispers; of animated dummies and mechanical garments; or warp and weft weaving and unravelling across a textile landscape.

Admission £3 on the door (£2 concessions and free re-admission with badge). Open Tuesday to Friday 10am to 4pm, Saturday and Sunday 11am to 4pm.

The Museum in the Park, Stratford Park, Stroud GL5 4AF

Tel: 01453 763394

www.museuminthepark.org.uk

 The seven artists are: Liz Lippiatt, Kathryn Clarke, Jenny Bicât, Anne Rogers, Sarah Cant, Sarah Cooke, Corinne Hockley.

www.studio-seven.net