Exhibition - Living In Silk

A touring exhibition from the National Silk Museum, Hangzhou, China
Plus material from NCMG’s collection curated by Nottingham young people
(part of national Stories of the World programme for Cultural Olympiad)

This major exhibition at Nottingham Castle Museum & Art Gallery will present outstanding examples of silk garments, accessories and textiles from the five thousand year history of Chinese sericulture. The exhibition will draw together key artefacts from Nottingham City Museums and Galleries’ own collection of Chinese material, with a substantial international loan from the National Silk Museum of China, Hangzhou.

Nottingham City Museums and Galleries holds a collection of circa 500 principal specimens of Chinese artefacts (garments, accessories, embroidered textiles/decorative arts) which date largely from the 19th Century. They were acquired by Nottingham Castle Museum & Art Gallery from its foundation, as examples of design which were used as inspiration for the local textile manufacturers. Today, two thirds of the museum’s permanent displays focus on its important holdings of Fine and Decorative Art and continue to provide inspiration for thousands of visitors, students and creative practitioners. This will be an important context for On the Trail of Silk. The exhibition will provide a stunning visual experience that gives visitors a strong sense of the beauty and ingenuity of Chinese silk art and design. However, of equal importance will be the exhibition’s exploration of silk processes and technologies, dyeing and weaving techniques and the origins of east/west links through trading in textiles from the time of Marco Polo and the opening up of the silk route.

Young Curators: A group of young curators from across the city, including representatives from Nottingham’s Chinese community, will be recruited to take part in the organisation of the exhibition. They will select garments and artefacts from Nottingham’s collection for inclusion in the exhibition, helping to plan the interpretation and design of this section of the display and articulating the relationships they discover between the historic garments/accessories and their own ideas about contemporary fashion and identity.