Exhibiting Fashion: Exhibiting Collaboration

Exhibitions are increasingly seen as opportunities for ‘co-production’. This paper will discuss collaborative processes embedded in the AHRC-funded project Exhibiting Fashion. It will detail how (through the work of Dr Piccini, Dr Horsley and collaborating curators) these processes generated, and were incorporated into, exhibition content and subsequent public response to the display of curatorial process.

The AHRC has approved a major funding award to Dr Jeffrey Horsley (Centre for Fashion Curation, London College of Fashion) towards a project investigating fashion exhibition-making in UK museums. The collaborative, practice-based research aims to develop a ‘toolkit’ that will support non-specialist curators in small and mid-sized museums to create accessible and innovative fashion displays following a ‘low-impact resourcing’ model. Curatorial staff at Manchester Art Gallery (Manchester), the Beecroft Art Gallery (Southend) and Bankfield Museum (Halifax) are collaborating partners on the project.

Co-Investigator Dr Angela Piccini (University of Plymouth) is working alongside Dr Horsley, using participant-focused film-making techniques, to document live the practices of exhibition-maker and curators. The project supports production of fashion exhibitions at each partner’s venue and runs from winter 2021 until summer 2024. Content for the toolkit is being developed from analysis and reflection on Dr Piccini’s observation and recordings.