Back earlier in 2024, after the residency at the National Civil War Centre in Newark on Trent, I was commissioned by the National Trust at Southwell Workhouse in Nottinghamshire to design a large cotton participatory cotton banner to celebrate the iconic buildings 200th anniversary. The Bicentenary banner featured a large black and white line drawing that I had digitally printed onto 100% cotton. It pictured the whole of the Workhouse and productive gardens too. The banner was intended to celebrate all the life and colour that has passed through it in that long history, and to express too how we can relate to it in our times too.
On a sunny day in July, over 200 visitors of all ages came to help me colour in the banner and it turned from black and white into a riot of colour with lots of patterns, animals, nature, birds and people added. See the next post to see the finished banner!
The banner was printed by the wonderful Prinfab in Kent and fabric pens used to colour the banner were Italian pens bought from Dryad Educational in Leicester.
