This event, a collaboration between Manchester School of Art and Compton Verney in Warwickshire, examines the problematic rela-tionship that objects of material culture asso-ciated with the terms ‘folk art’ and ‘vernacular design’ have within debates about artistic value in British visual culture. It concentrates on the re-emergence of an interest in folk art, especially amongst women designers, in Britain in the first half of the 20th century, and looks at the way that both ‘folk art’ and particular types of design activity practiced by women have been omitted from traditional historical narratives of art and design.

The curatorial work and collections of women design-ers and educators during the early half of the twentieth century is one example of what Ellen Lupton calls the ‘intangible contribution’ women have made to the field of design. Noteworthy names in this respect are , Enid Marx, Phyllis Barron and Dorothy Larcher, Olive Cook, Peggy Angus, Pearl Binder, and Barbara Jones. All were design practitioners and private collectors, who found little interest during their lifetimes from the art establish-ment in legitimising the work their collections centred around. They nevertheless mounted their own small exhibitions and published books and articles to publicise the works to a wider audience (see Myrone, 2009).

These collector/practitioners took creative and practical inspiration from the objects and images as aesthetic and culturally significant designs, but they also had a profes-sional interest in the way that they had been made. Their collections were useful to the women in their profession as designers as well as ‘experts’ and educators. One of the aims of the event is to interrogate the relationship between the ‘discerning eye’ of the collector and creative practice.

ENID MARX AND HER CONTEMPORARIES

Women designers and the popularisation of ‘folk arts’ in Britain 1920- 1960.

ONE DAY SYMPOSIUM, COMPTON VERNEY, WARWICKSHIRE

FRIDAY 13th SEPTEMBER 2013

PROGRAMME

9.30 Registration and coffee10.00- 10.15-Welcome and Introduction 10.15- 10.45- Penny Sexton: Curating the Marx/Lambert collection

SESSION ONE 11.00- 12.30

PANEL 1(A)

CREATIVITY AND COLLECTING (chair Jane Webb)

Anwyl Cooper- Ellis: Susan Williams-Ellis, Stoke Potter and Folk Art Aficionado.

Liz Mitchell: Creativity and wonder: the handicraft collection of Mary Hope Greg.

Linda Brassington : Collections of women textile artists in the 20th century: ‘my favourite things’ or an embodiment of creative reflection?

PANEL 1(B)

FOLK LEGACIES (chair Amanda Ravetz)

Lou Taylor /Jo Gladstone:Pearl Binder, Jewish socialist, satirical, graphic artist and her interest in popular culture: 1904-1990.

Marie Mcghloghin: Muriel Pemberton Fashion: An Unsophisticated Art?

Carolyn Trant: Peggy Angus, Folk Art and Vernacular design

LUNCH 12.30- 1.30 (also an opportunity to view the recently re-designed

Marx/Lambert exhibit)

SESSION TWO 1.30- 3.00

PANEL 2(A)

FIELD STUDIES (chair Rosemary Shirley)

Desdemona McCannon The Jobbing Artist as Ethnographer: Documenting ‘Lore’.

Anne SudrowLooking abroad: Enid Marx’s and Margaret Lambert’s Assessment of Design, Craft Education and Folk Art in Germany (1946).

Harriet Cory-Wright The Golden Age of Stone: The women of Puffin Picture Books 1940-1965.

PANEL 2(B)

INTERIOR VIEWS (Chair Liz Mitchell)

Louise CampbellWinfred Nicholson: modernism, craft, place.

Jane Hattrick Crafting the lives of Phyllis Barron and Dorothy Larcher: Issues of gender, sexuality, self-presentation and interiors, 1923-1942.

Jessica KellyPeggy Angus and Furlongs: a collage of the modern and the vernacular.

3.00- 3.15- Refreshments

SESSION THREE 3.15- 4.45

PANEL 3(A) WOMEN, DESIGN AND INDUSTRY (chair Penny Sexton)

Lotte Crawford The Unsophisticated Arts and the public space: ‘Recording Britain’, tube seats and the social use of ‘folk art’.

Fiona Hackney and Julia Bigham Feminising the Public: British women designers in the 1920s and 1930s

Amanda Girling Budd ‘An idiosyncratic exercise in shopkeeping’: the forging of a new craft aesthetic at the Little Gallery

PANEL 3(B) EVERYDAY CREATIVITY (Chair Alice Kettle)

Jane WebbCrafting Folk: defining folk, craft and design

Stephen KnottWhich vernacular? Professional and amateur appro-priations of British vernacular crafts, 1918-1939

Rosemary ShirleyGolden Jubilee Scrapbooks from the WI

5.00 -6.00 drinks/plenary session

Information about the ‘Folk Arts Research Network’ can be found here:

http://folkartdesign.org/

To join the network please sign up here :FOLK-ARTS-RESEARCH-NETWORK@JISCMAIL.AC.UK

AcknowledgementsWe would like to thank Penny Sexton at Compton Verney for enabling the symposium to happen, and Penny Macbeth Head of Art at Manchester School of Art for supporting it. Thanks also to Simon Costin and Ruth Armontsky for their generosity with their advice. and contacts. Also Abigail Woodhouse and Bethany Thompson for volunteering their time.