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		Althea McNish Design John Weiss History    Design NEWS

TROPIQUE    Ascher,    1957 VANDA    Fedi Cheti,    1986 JUNGLE LEGEND    Cavendish    Textiles,    1960s CALYPSO    Edinburgh    Weavers,    1960s	SCROLL CROWN    detail,    2008 SCROLL FINIALS    detail,    2009 EARRINGS    silver, ivory,    coral &c,    2008 'American Settlers'    Trinidad map,    1850s	Publications *available from Althea McNish and John Weiss • Building Britannia: Life Experience With Britain* (New Beacon Books and George Padmore Institute): includes a chapter on Althea McNish. • Shirley Craven and Hull Traders: Revolutionary Fabrics and Furniture 1957-1980* (Lesley Jackson): includes work by Althea McNish. • The Merikens: Free Black American Settlers in Trinidad 1815-16* available again (2002 edition reprinted with supplements). Althea McNish design 2012 see NEWS. 2011 • 31 Aug - 6 Sep 2011 • Royal College of Art, London: Althea McNish took part in RCA Black, an exhibition arranged by the RCA and the African and African Caribbean Design Diaspora (AACDD), celebrating 60 years of African and African Caribbean talent from the Royal College of Art: Althea showed printed textiles from early in her career, GOLDEN HARVEST (c1957, Tofos Fabrics, later Hull Traders), POMEGRANATE (1960, Hull Traders) and FRESCO (c1961, Cavendish Textiles). • 27 June 2011, Royal College of Art, London: Althea McNish presented her annual prize for the use of colour in textiles to Jonna Saarinen, MA(RCA), newly graduated in the School of Fashion and Textiles. • 21 March 2011: Publication of Scarves by Nicky Albrechtsen and Fola Solanke (Thames and Hudson), including work by Althea McNish. • 15 January to 5 March 2011: Harris Museum and Art Gallery, Preston:work by Althea McNish in the exhibition Shirley Craven and Hull Traders: Revolutionary Post-War Fabrics and Furniture curated by Lesley Jackson. 2010 • 20 Oct 2010, King’s Lynn Arts Centre: Hull Traders Symposium including session Althea McNish in conversation with John Weiss (in connection with Black History Month) • Sep-Oct 2010, King’s Lynn Arts Centre: work by Althea McNish in the exhibition Shirley Craven and Hull Traders: Revolutionary Post-War Fabrics and Furniture curated by Lesley Jackson. • September: Althea McNish and John Weiss contributed pieces to Branching Out, a fund-raising project for The Arboretum Trust, Kew at Castle Howard by the Liveries Wood Group. • June: at the Private View of the work of new MA graduates in Textiles at the Royal College of Art, Emma Bradbury and Mary Penny received the Althea McNish Colour Prize, first awarded in 2002, and Jrumchai Singalavanij received the new Pollie Weiss Colour Prize, awarded in memory of the late Pollie Weiss (1909-2007). • 8 May, at Goldsmiths College, London: Althea McNish gave an illustrated talk on her work as a textile designer in Britain at the Annual General Meeting of CACOEU, Caribbean Communities in Europe. • 13 March to 9 May : Bankfield Museum, Halifax: work by Althea McNish in the exhibition Shirley Craven and Hull Traders: Revolutionary Post-War Fabrics and Furniture curated by Lesley Jackson. 2009 • Work for Hull Traders featured in exhibition and book by Lesley Jackson, curator and author: Shirley Craven and Hull Traders: Revolutionary Post-War Fabrics and Furniture (Ferens Art Gallery, Hull; and ACC Editions). • Work illustrated in L iberty and Co. in the Fifties and Sixties by Anna Buruma (ACC Editions). • The designs of Althea McNish, talk by Lara Goodband, project curator for Hull Traders, on 21 October, at the Ferens Art Gallery, Hull. "Trinidadian-born Althea McNish - Britain’s first and most distinguished black textile designer - created eight patterns for Hull Traders. This talk examines the vital contribution of her painterly florals to this innovative textile company." Part of the City of Hull’s celebrations for Black History Month. 2007-8 • Work and career described in 'A Dash of Colour' by Angela Cobbinah in Black History, vol 2, no 1, Summer 2008, p5. • Printed textiles formed part of the exhibition Trade and Empire: Remembering Slavery at the Whitworth Art Gallery. • Work illustrated in Silk by Mary Schoeser and others (Yale UP). • Work illustrated in Twentieth Century Pattern Design by Lesley Jackson (Princeton Architectural Press). 2006 • November: awarded degree of Honorary Doctor of Fine Art by the University of Trinidad and Tobago. John Weiss design 2012-13 see NEWS. 2011 • 3-22 June 2011, Barbican Centre, London: John Weiss took part in the Summer exhibition of the Designer Jewellers Group. • January, Mall Galleries, London: Showed new work in Designer Crafts at the Mall 2011, the annual exhibition of the Society of Designer Craftsmen; and presented to Rebecca Blesovsky the Pollie Weiss Prize for the best use of colour by a new Licentiate of the Society. • 12 Nov 2010 to 5 Jan 2011, Barbican Centre, London: John Weiss took part in the Winter exhibition of the Designer Jewellers Group. 2010 • Exhibited with the Designer Jewellers Group at the Barbican Centre , June-July 2010 and November 2010-January 2011. • Contributed pieces to Branching Out , a fund-raising project for The Arboretum Trust, Kew at Castle Howard by the Liveries Wood Group. • January, Mall Galleries, London: Showed new work in Designer Crafts at the Mall 2010, the annual exhibition of the Society of Designer Craftsmen; and presented to Myung Nam An the Pollie Weiss Prize for the best use of colour by a new Licentiate of the Society. 2009 • Exhibited with the Designer Jewellers Group at the Barbican Centre, London, at the Chichester Festival Theatre and at the RWA Gallery, Bristol. • A Crown for the Tree of Life, a talk at the Spiro Ark, London, on recent work for the Bristol and West Progressive Jewish Congregation, with a review of the historical background of synagogue scroll ornaments. Part of the European Days of Jewish Culture and Heritage, September. • Designed and made a scroll crown in silver for the Bristol and West Progressive Jewish Congregation. 2008 • Designed and made a pair of scroll finials in silver for the Bristol and West Progressive Jewish Congregation. • Exhibited with the Designer Jewellers Group at the Barbican Centre. 2000-7 • Exhibited with the Designer Jewellers Group at the Barbican Centre. John Weiss history 2012 see NEWS. 2011 • October 2011, USA and Canada, first public screening and PBS broadcasting of The War of 1812 , a documentary on the War of 1812, co-production of WNED-Buffalo/Toronto, WETA, Washington, DC and Florentine Films/Hott Productions, Inc., including an interview with John Weiss 2008 • Participated as interviewee and expert in the making of the film The War of 1812: see October 2011 • Research by John Weiss on The Merikens described in 'The Great Escape' by Korkoh Duah, in Black History, vol 2, no 2, Autumn 2008, pp6-7. • 'Taking their freedom by way of the Royal Navy in the War of 1812', a paper given at the 5th International Congress of Maritime History, Greenwich Maritime Institute, UK. • 'The early workforce of the Royal Naval Dockyard at Bermuda: African Americans in transit from slavery to freedom', paper given at the conference War, Empire and Slavery, University of York, UK. 2007 • 'Sir Alexander Cochrane's first Corps of Colonial Marines: Marie-Galante 1808', US Naval Academy, paper given at the Naval History Symposium, Annapolis, USA. • 'Apprenticeship in the 1807 Slave Trade Act: a novelty and its development', paper given at the Centre for Caribbean Studies at Warwick University, UK. • 'Sir Alexander Cochrane's Trinidad Apprentices: an early application of the Slave Trade Act', paper given to the UK Society for Caribbean Studies, London Metropolitan University, UK.
		photo of Althea McNish by Derek Tamea Copyright 2013 Althea McNish & John Weiss: revn 9 Jan 2013