Textile Study Group returns to Stroud with free UNmaking exhibition

The Textile Study Group has returned to Stroud for its first collective exhibition in the town since 2017. UNmaking is open at the Museum in the Park until Sunday 8 November, with free admission, drop-in meetings with artists and a separate programme of paid workshops. Stroud District Council reported the exhibition’s run on 22 September, giving local visitors several weeks to see the work and take part.

The exhibition opened on 12 September. The group says two of its members, Ruth Issett and Dorothy Tucker, held a joint exhibition at the same museum in 2021. Their show was distinct from this return by the collective, a distinction that explains the nine-year gap cited for the group’s Stroud exhibitions.

What does ‘unmaking’ mean?

The artists’ premise is that taking a work apart can be part of making it. The group describes unravelling, cutting and unpicking as ways to examine familiar methods and materials, and asks whether a piece can be considered complete while it is changing or coming apart. The exhibition therefore puts the process of making, as well as its finished results, in front of visitors.

The Textile Study Group says work will evolve as the exhibition moves between venues, with each presentation responding to its setting. That makes the Stroud display one stage of a longer project. The group’s account of the opening identifies an installation by Lois Blackburn using cyanotype stoma bags as a work on view at the Museum in the Park. It does not provide a complete inventory of the Stroud display.

Free sessions with the artists

The museum lists free, drop-in Meet the Maker sessions from 2pm to 4pm with Siân Martin on 3 October and Polly Pollock on 9 October. Mandy Pattullo and Shelley Rhodes are listed together on 17 October, also from 2pm to 4pm. No workshop booking or fee is listed for these artist sessions.

Further free sessions are listed for Bobby Britnell on 18 October, Dorothy Tucker on 23 October, Amarjeet Kaur Nandhra on 31 October and Vivienne Beaumont on the exhibition’s final day, 8 November. Each is scheduled for 2pm to 4pm. The museum publishes the programme online; visitors can check its listing before travelling in case a session changes.

Workshops and booking

The paid programme offers more sustained work with textile techniques. The museum lists a small looped baskets workshop with Polly Pollock on 11 October, bark-cloth design with Bobby Britnell on 17 October and a reworked-cloth session with Shelley Rhodes on 18 October. Its descriptions distinguish these bookable classes from the informal, free artist meetings.

Later workshops listed by the museum include stitching into cyanotype samples with Dorothy Tucker on 24 October, printing with repurposed Tetra Pak packaging with Amarjeet Kaur Nandhra on 1 November and making fabric faces with Vivienne Beaumont on 7 November. The museum’s programme gives details of each activity and links individual workshops to booking pages.

The museum lists workshop prices at £80 per person, £76 for museum and Textile Study Group members or concessions, and £140 for two friends attending together. Those are workshop prices; admission to the exhibition is free. The published programme does not establish how many places remain in any class, so visitors seeking a workshop place should check its booking page for current availability.

A touring exhibition with a Stroud stop

UNmaking previously appeared at the Constance Howard Gallery in London from 16 February to 27 March. An independent visitor writing about that presentation described Alice Blackstock’s deconstruction of a shirt and Gwen Hedley’s reconstruction of an old book. Those observations show how the theme was explored in London; they do not confirm that either work is installed in Stroud, where the group says the exhibition may change between venues.

The Textile Study Group lists later stops at the Station Gallery in Richmond, North Yorkshire, from 12 August to 8 September 2027, and the Craft Study Centre in Farnham, Surrey, from 22 February to 13 May 2028. For Stroud visitors, the immediate opportunity is the current museum display and its remaining autumn programme.

The Museum in the Park lists its address as Stroud, Gloucestershire GL5 4AF. It is open Tuesday to Friday from 10am to 4.30pm, and Saturday and Sunday from 11am to 4.30pm; it is closed on Mondays. Exhibition admission is free. The museum’s online programme has the session schedule and workshop booking links for anyone planning a visit before 8 November.