Events

PLATFORM: ZINE LAUNCH EVENT

21 March 2024

Home. Ukrainian Photography, UK Words: Tour

4 March - 28 February 2025

Exhibitions

Home: Ukrainian Photography, UK Words @ New Adelphi

4 March - 8 March 2024

Past Events

CREATIVE SOCIAL: IN THE ABSENCE OF FORMAL GROUND

2 March 2024

Exhibitions

We Feed The UK @ Exterior Walls

8 February - 31 March 2024

Events

Contrail Cirrus: the impact of aviation on climate change

7 March 2024

Exhibitions

Tree Story @ Liverpool ONE

16 February 2024

Open Source #27: Saffron Lily – In The Absence of Formal Ground @ Digital Window Gallery

6 February - 31 March 2024

Past Events

Contemporary Photography from Ukraine: Symposium @University of Salford

4 March - 5 March 2024

Past Events

Is Anybody Listening? Symposium: Commissioning and Collecting Socially Engaged Photography

29 February 2024

Past Events

Different approaches: Artists working with scientists

15 February 2024

Events

LOOK Climate Lab 2024: All Events

18 January 2024

Exhibitions

Diesel & Dust @ Digital Window Gallery

18 January - 31 March 2024

Events

Tree Walks Of Sefton Park with Andrea Ku

21 January 2024

Past Events

Artists Remake the World by Vid Simoniti: Book Launch

31 January 2024

Past Events

Shift Liverpool Open Meeting

6 February 2024

Past Events

We Feed The UK Launch and LOOK Climate Lab 2024 Celebration

8 February 2024

Past Events

Cyanotype workshop with Melanie King

17 February 2024

Past Events

End of Empire: artist talk and discussion

22 February 2024

Past Events

Book Launch: What The Mine Gives, The Mine Takes

24 February 2024

Past Events

Local ecology in the post-industrial era: open discussion

14 March 2024

Events

Plant a seed. Seed sow and in conversation with Plot2Plate

16 March 2024

Events

Waterlands: creative writing workshop

23 March 2024

Events

Erosion: panel discussion

9 March 2024

Events

Waterlands: an evening of poetry and photographs

23 March 2024

Events

Force For Nature Exhibition

27 March - 28 March 2024

Voices of Nature: Interactive Performances

28 March 2024

Past Events

Sum of All Parts: Symposium

27 February 2024

Exhibitions Main Exhibition

LOOK Climate Lab 2024

18 January - 31 March 2024

Past Events

MA Socially engaged photography Open Day event

1 February 2023

Past Events

Tish: Special screening and Q&A

13 December 2023

Past Events

Book Launch: A Look At A New Perspective

23 November 2023

Events

Community workshops @ Ellesmere Port Library

6 November - 5 February 2024

Past Events

Book Launch: ‘544m’ By Kevin Crooks

30 November 2023

Past Exhibitions

Bernice Mulenga @ Open Eye Gallery Atrium Space

17 November - 17 December 2023

Past Events

Bernice Mulenga: Artist Talk

18 November 2023

Past Exhibitions

Local Roots @ The Atkinson

14 October 2023

Exhibitions

Community @ Ellesmere Port Library

26 October - 11 April 2024

Past Events

Critique Surgery for Socially Engaged Photographers

6 November 2023

Past Events

Deeds Not Words: panel discussion

12 October 2023

Past Exhibitions

Deeds Not Words @ Atrium Space

3 October - 22 October 2023

Ode To Our Space @ Digital Window Gallery

29 September - 23 December 2023

A Look At A New Perspective @ Digital Window Gallery

29 September - 23 December 2023

Past Events

Book Launch: Crow Dark Dawn

19 October 2023

Past Events

Exhibition Launch: A Place of Our Own

28 September 2023

Reflections

12 September - 22 December 2023

Past Events

Sandra Suubi ‘Samba Gown’ Procession

9 September 2023

Exhibitions Future Exhibitions

A Place of Our Own

29 September - 22 December 2023

Past Events

POETRY BOOK LAUNCH: JACK BENNETT – LUNETTE

7 September 2023

Exhibitions

A Portrait of the High Street @ Prescot

31 August 2023

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Make, Mend & Sustain @ Chester Charity Shops

8 July - 5 August 2022

How can creativity and transformation feed new life and worth into second-hand clothes? 

University of Chester students in BA Fashion Design and BA Photography, have collaborated with local charity shops Save The Children and ShareShop to design and photograph a sustainable fashion collection, upcycling used textiles from clothing donations and exhibiting them in the charity shop windows in the Chester city centre.  

Make, Mend and Sustain was conceived as part of Open Eye Gallery’s ongoing research on Climate Change for the LOOK Photo Biennial 2022. The project started as a response to The Slum Studios, a Ghanian textile brand that was part of Open Eye’s exhibition Follow the River, Follow the Thread”. The Slum Studio highlights global issues related to over consumption and fashion waste by creating wearable art from the discarded clothing inundating Ghana’s second-hand markets. Visiting the exhibition and learning about the work helped provide a starting point for University of Chester students to initiate their own projects, translating the global message of The Slum Studio into the local context of Chester charity shops.

The students started by building a relationship with the two local charities to understand how they operate, learn about their key objectives, and integrate this into the design of the garments and collection. Following initial meetings and visits with both charities, the students joined the volunteering team to help out in a donations sorting day. This was an opportunity for fashion students to collect textile materials to use in their designs and for photography students to document the unseen work and journey behind the distribution of donated clothing. 

In the next stage of the project, the students reworked the second hand textiles into new vibrant garments. Photography students captured the creative process, from hand painting on textiles, to trousers made from duvet covers. The finished pieces were photographed in a fashion photoshoot staged at the charity shops involved, ShareShop and Save The Children, and in ShareAid’s donations distribution center in Mold. By bringing the garments back to their point of donation, the images visually narrate the journey the materials had been through. Both the final designs and photographs were exhibited in the high street facing windows of the charity shops as part of Open Eye Gallery’s festival LOOK Photo Biennial 2022: Climate

The outcome of Make, Mend & Sustain shows us how creativity can  extend the life of your clothes as an act of kindness to our planet. Living sustainably is about starting to take more care with the materials we consume, and to ask questions as to where they come from, and where they go. The journey and story behind the work of the University of Chester’s students aims to change habits and inspire confidence in the way that everyone can introduce a change in their lives, which is mindful of waste, sustainability and climate change. 

The work of the students listed below was coordinated by course leaders for Fashion Design and Photography, Delphine Wilson and Cian Quayle respectively, with visiting staff Jen John and Aj Wilkinson, in conjunction with Diane Hamilton, and Núria Rovira Terradas at the Open Eye Gallery.

Charity Shop Collection by Rebecca Parker, Annie Dinis, Jamie Flint, Saviour Jaffier, Kerrigan Collins, Natasha Rowland, Marta Castro Permuy, Louise Morgan, Jessica Rimmer, Sophie Pomfrey, Diane Maccabe, and Katriona Heritage.

Photography by Simon Hyde, Charlie Harris, Emily Johnson and Anna Carter

Models: Tyler and Bernice. 

Thanks to Save the Children and Share Shop for their generous support and access to their donations. 

The work is on display in Save the Children, 9 Grosvenor St, Chester, CH1 2DD and Share Shop, 50 Northgate St, Chester, CH1 2HA.

Cover image: Simon Hyde

How can creativity and transformation feed new life and worth into second-hand clothes? 

University of Chester students in BA Fashion Design and BA Photography, have collaborated with local charity shops Save The Children and ShareShop to design and photograph a sustainable fashion collection, upcycling used textiles from clothing donations and exhibiting them in the charity shop windows in the Chester city centre.  

Make, Mend and Sustain was conceived as part of Open Eye Gallery’s ongoing research on Climate Change for the LOOK Photo Biennial 2022. The project started as a response to The Slum Studios, a Ghanian textile brand that was part of Open Eye’s exhibition Follow the River, Follow the Thread”. The Slum Studio highlights global issues related to over consumption and fashion waste by creating wearable art from the discarded clothing inundating Ghana’s second-hand markets. Visiting the exhibition and learning about the work helped provide a starting point for University of Chester students to initiate their own projects, translating the global message of The Slum Studio into the local context of Chester charity shops.

The students started by building a relationship with the two local charities to understand how they operate, learn about their key objectives, and integrate this into the design of the garments and collection. Following initial meetings and visits with both charities, the students joined the volunteering team to help out in a donations sorting day. This was an opportunity for fashion students to collect textile materials to use in their designs and for photography students to document the unseen work and journey behind the distribution of donated clothing. 

In the next stage of the project, the students reworked the second hand textiles into new vibrant garments. Photography students captured the creative process, from hand painting on textiles, to trousers made from duvet covers. The finished pieces were photographed in a fashion photoshoot staged at the charity shops involved, ShareShop and Save The Children, and in ShareAid’s donations distribution center in Mold. By bringing the garments back to their point of donation, the images visually narrate the journey the materials had been through. Both the final designs and photographs were exhibited in the high street facing windows of the charity shops as part of Open Eye Gallery’s festival LOOK Photo Biennial 2022: Climate

The outcome of Make, Mend & Sustain shows us how creativity can  extend the life of your clothes as an act of kindness to our planet. Living sustainably is about starting to take more care with the materials we consume, and to ask questions as to where they come from, and where they go. The journey and story behind the work of the University of Chester’s students aims to change habits and inspire confidence in the way that everyone can introduce a change in their lives, which is mindful of waste, sustainability and climate change. 

The work of the students listed below was coordinated by course leaders for Fashion Design and Photography, Delphine Wilson and Cian Quayle respectively, with visiting staff Jen John and Aj Wilkinson, in conjunction with Diane Hamilton, and Núria Rovira Terradas at the Open Eye Gallery.

Charity Shop Collection by Rebecca Parker, Annie Dinis, Jamie Flint, Saviour Jaffier, Kerrigan Collins, Natasha Rowland, Marta Castro Permuy, Louise Morgan, Jessica Rimmer, Sophie Pomfrey, Diane Maccabe, and Katriona Heritage.

Photography by Simon Hyde, Charlie Harris, Emily Johnson and Anna Carter

Models: Tyler and Bernice. 

Thanks to Save the Children and Share Shop for their generous support and access to their donations. 

The work is on display in Save the Children, 9 Grosvenor St, Chester, CH1 2DD and Share Shop, 50 Northgate St, Chester, CH1 2HA.

Cover image: Simon Hyde

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