In 1916, the ‘Coloured Embroidery’ scheme opened its doors in war-torn northern France under the leadership of the British Quaker and mathematician Margery Fry. The vibrant pieces handsewn by French and Belgian displaced women reveal pioneering modernist geometric designs and use threads from the Omega Workshops, a design firm recently co-founded in London by her brother art critic Roger Fry in 1913. Studying the Coloured Embroidery Scheme offers an exceptional insight into the forgotten story of how British Bloomsbury modernist artists and relatives intervened directly in the battlezone of the First World War to develop a new visual language of internationalism aimed at creating harmony and solace in the face of trauma.

Our project has a number of aims (1) to test assumptions between art and therapeutic solace through confrontation with the soundscapes of WW1 (2) to identify the forgotten role of Omega modernist design and practice in bridging British art and international craft traditions before the Bauhaus opened in Germany in 1919 (3) to disrupt representations of the Bloomsbury circle’s pacifism as insular by integrating the history of the Belgian and French refugee diaspora and Quaker activism (4) to explore the contemporary significance of these avant-garde visual traditions and reflect upon the place of innovative design in refugee enterprises then and now. 

Our ‘Threads in Common’ project brings together histories too long kept apart. It bridges gaps in scholarship and museum collections and gives prominence to the experiences and material culture of those previously ignored, particularly female refugees. It will do so by testing and developing practice-based and collaborative methods of inquiry, while connecting organizations and community groups linked through a history of textile art but not so far in dialogue.

• Dr. Rebecca Gill (University of Huddersfield)
• Dr. Claire Barber (University of Huddersfield)
• Dr. Stéphanie Prévost (Université Paris Cité/ IUF)

Lacemaking is an important part of Belgium’s cultural heritage. During the First World War this renowned industry was in danger of disappearing forever: demand for the luxury handmade fabric plummeted, while the supply of materials was interrupted. Thousands of lacemakers faced unemployment. In response, humanitarian organisations developed lace-aid schemes with a twofold goal: saving an imperilled European tradition, and ensuring the wartime employment of Belgian lacemakers, often women who supported themselves and their families. The programmes were highly successful, bringing unprecedented publicity to the industry and to American philanthropy, and employing more than 50.000 women in German-occupied Belgium and among Belgian refugees in the Netherlands, France and the United Kingdom. War lace, with its unique iconography, refers directly to the conflict and includes battle scenes, names and portraits of people, places, dates, coats-of-arms or national symbols of the Allied Countries, of the nine Belgian provinces or of the Belgian martyr towns. 

Art historians and craft practitioners have known about war lace, but their focus has been on the small number of high-quality laces designed by recognised artists. Historians, meanwhile, have focused on wartime food and medical aid, rather than cultural and craft-related philanthropy. Through the example of war lace, this project investigates the overlooked origins of humanitarian organisations’ efforts to preserve cultural heritage – now a significant part of relief activities across the globe. In particular the project tests the relationships between humanitarian labour, female agency, and artistic expression. Through a combination of archival, collection and practice-based research, the multidisciplinary and transnational project produces an innovative history of humanitarianism, which equips historians to attend to the material object, and art historians and contemporary craft practitioners to engage with the historical processes and the production of embodied knowledge.

In the 19th century, amateur arts acquired a negative image. They became associated with women's leisure activities, domesticity and low quality. My PhD research broadened this narrow perspective. It showed how amateur arts were a powerful tool for women to shape their own identity, to gain a place in a socio-cultural network and to leave behind tangible memories.

The richly illustrated publication of my PhD research seeks out the company of aristocratic amateur artists. These women embroidered in the salon, learned to paint in the ladies' studio and exhibited their work at charity bazaars. Documents, objects and stories, mainly from private archives and collections, offer an in-depth look at their artistic activities. They reveal an interaction between the fine and applied arts, between individual and collective involvement, and between traditional expectations and personal ambitions.

Related prize: The monograph based on the doctoral thesis was published by Leuven University Press in 2023 and was awarded the Keingiaert de Gheluvelt Prize in 2021.