We are delighted to launch our new season of Live Online Talks revealing pieces from its unique Archive & Textile Collection and insights into the RSN throughout the years.  These exclusive Talks feature fascinating topics from Royal Life and Royal Commissions to Whitework and Embroidered Millinery.

Join presenters RSN’s Chief Executive and Curator, Dr Susan Kay-Williams, and RSN Senior Lecturer in Contextual Studies, Amy Hare as they bring inspiring stories to life for embroidery lovers around the globe. The next Talks will be hosted on Wednesdays at 7pm (UK Time) as follows:

Whitework & Lace: A Shining and Affirmative Thing – 24 March 
The RSN Collection houses stunning examples of Whitework and lace objects spanning four hundred years.  Join Amy Hare as she explores the function and meaning of white embroidery in the past and highlights some of the most delicate and interesting pieces from the RSN’s Collection.

The RSN’s Warm Welcome: 150 Years of Royal Visitors – 14 April The School of Art Needlework was founded in 1872, and gained its Royal prefix in 1875 when Queen Victoria became Patron.  In this talk, Dr Susan Kay-Williams will reveal some of the RSN’s esteemed visitors from Queen Victoria herself to foreign heads of state, as told through newspaper accounts of the time.

Hand Embroidery in the 20th Century: Modernism in the RSN’s Collection – 28 April
How did hand embroidery adapt to the challenges of modernism and develop its own distinctive direction at the RSN in the twentieth century?  By considering samples, design work and unusual embroidered objects in the RSN Collection, Amy Hare explores how hand embroidery looks to the past and to the future by creating the art of the moment.

Four Weddings, Four Coronations & Two Funerals: RSN’s Royal Commissions – 12 May
Don’t miss some of the RSN’s precious gifts and commissions for the royal family illustrated by objects from the archives, letters and accounts in newspapers of the day.  Join Dr Susan Kay-Williams to view some of the principal and well-documented items from 1901 to 2011.

Hats, Bonnets & Veils: Embroidered Millinery – 26 May
From the purely functional to the highly symbolic, head coverings and their embellishment can tell us so much about how people lived in the past.  Amy Hare reveals stunning examples of millinery throughout the years.

Landscapes in Stitch – 16 June
Join Dr Susan Kay-Williams to see some embroideries by past and present RSN students as they take both rural and urban landscapes as their inspiration for Canvaswork, Blackwork and Appliqué projects.

All That Glisters: The Historical Appeal of Metal Thread Embroidery: 30 June
Amy Hare examines Goldwork embroidery and considers the global appeal of this technique throughout history.  Through the objects in the RSN Archive, learn more about how metal thread embroidery has played an important role in the material culture of power, status and identity.

Discover more about the Royal School of Needlework and why it has been the international centre of excellence for the Art of Hand Embroidery since 1872. Each Talk costs a minimum of £5 donation.

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