Awakening: women in art, design

Steven Miller

Kathy Doughty

Julie Paterson

The focus this Arts Thursday is on women in arts and design.

Starting with stories of four Australian women, born in the nineteenth century, but influential in shaping cultural expression and understanding in the twentieth, the program then moves to a explore the life and inspiration of a contemporary fabric designer and a quilting guru.

Steven Miller, who heads the National Art Archive at the Art Gallery of NSW is my first guest. Awakening: Four Lives in Art, written with Eileen Chanin and published by Wakefield Press, spans from the 1860s to the outbreak of WW II lives and traces the lives of Sculptor Dora Ohlfsen; music publisher Louise Dyer; Clarice Zander a publicist for that male bastion the London Royal  Academy and charismatic art educator Mary Cecil Allen. All Australian born, they found success internationally and yet faced many challenges at home.

listen to the interview here

Following the story of their historic predecessors are two further guests, working today in arts and design fields.

Julie Paterson, the founder of Cloth fabric joins me to tell of her life, interwoven with her textile business. The interview coincides with her recently released publication Cloth Bound, (published by Murdoch Books) and a survey exhibition ClothFabric – 20 years in the making at Sturt Gallery, Mittagong, which is showing until 31 May.

Coincidentally, Julie has worked with Kathy Doughty a redoubtable quilter, teacher and fabric designer, whose colour- zinging quilts, inspiring publications and shop Material Obsession has inspired a new generation of quilters. Kathy is my third guest on the program

Join me Maisy Stapleton, for three in-depth interviews on Arts Thursday, 10:30 til noon.

For further information:

Kathy Doughty and Material Obsession: https://www.materialobsession.com.au/

Julie Paterson https://juliepaterson.com.au/ and cloth Fabric https://clothfabric.com/

Sturt Gallery https://www.sturt.nsw.edu.au/whats-on/current-exhibition

The Awakening https://www.wakefieldpress.com.au/product.php?productid=1211

You can also order it from the Art Gallery of NSW shop https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/shop/item/9781743053652/

If you miss this show, or want to listen again, go to https://eastsidefm.org/arts/artsthursday/ and scroll the program guide to 21 May 2015.