Discover more about the RSN and find out why we’ve been the international centre of excellence for the Art of Hand Embroidery for more than 150 years. We’ll also introduce you to key guest speakers in our engaging live talks.
Easily accessed via Zoom, all of our talks are embellished by captivating images and are followed by live Q&A sessions.
| Please read the important information at the end of this page before booking a talk. Thank you. |
Queer Crafts: Material Practices and the Making of Identity
Artist, Curator and Researcher, Dr Daniel Fountain
Wednesday 11 March 2026, 7pm UK
From handmade clothing to protest banners and activist quilts, craft and DIY practices have long been used to explore identity, build communities, and drive social and political change.
In this talk, Daniel Fountain offers an insight into queer needlework practices across modern and contemporary history, from the AIDS Quilts of the 1980s to the continued prominence of textiles as a powerful medium for social justice. Drawing specifically on examples from LGBTQ+ artists and craftspeople working internationally—including Athi-Patra Ruga, LJ Roberts, and Paul Yore—the talk foregrounds textiles as a vital site of queer expression, resistance, and care.
An internationally recognised artist, curator, and scholar of queer contemporary art and craft, Daniel has been described by Apollo as one of “the most influential and talented people working in the space between art and craft,” and by the Crafts Council as the “world-leading authority on queer craft”.
Daniel is Senior Lecturer and Director of Postgraduate Research in Art History and Visual Culture at the University of Exeter, UK. He is editor of Crafted with Pride: Queer Craft and Activism in Contemporary Britain (Intellect, 2023) and Queer Crafts: Material Practices and the Making of Identity (Bloomsbury, 2026).
Fashioning the Crown: A Story of Power, Conflict and Couture
Author, Justine Picardie in conversation with RSN Curator of Textiles, Dr Isabella Rosner
Wednesday 18 March 2026, 7pm UK
From the birth of the house of Windsor in 1917, its leading women – Queen Mary, the Queen Mother, the Duchess of Windsor and Queen Elizabeth II – faced the perils of abdication and assassination, revolution and the rise of fascism, the threat of invasion and all-out war. Their sartorial decisions, alongside those of their royal husbands, projected power and perpetuity, diplomacy and defiance.
In this story of espionage and exquisite couture, acclaimed author and journalist, Justine Picardie reveals the undercover lives of the creators behind the façade – including Hardy Amies, Cecil Beaton, Norman Hartnell and Edward Molyneux – and traces the ways in which visual iconography safeguarded the monarchy, even when their reign seemed to be hanging by a thread.
Join Justine for this exciting RSN online talk with Dr Isabella Rosner to discover how her original research in the Royal Archives and her own experiences at Balmoral, Windsor Castle and Buckingham Palace, reveal the family feuds and international conflicts that challenged the Crown, and how royal fashion has long been wielded as a weapon.
This talk will not be recorded so please join us live on 18 March
Exploring 17th-Century Embroidered Boxes
RSN Curator of Textiles, Dr Isabella Rosner
Wednesday 25 March 2026, 7pm UK
Toward the end of their needlework education, many well-off girls in circa 1650-1700 England embroidered tabletop boxes called cabinets or caskets. These boxes held everything from sewing and writing supplies, to gems and jewellery, to tiny treasures in secret compartments.
Embroidered boxes are informative, thought-provoking tools through which to understand girls’ embroidery education and spaces of ownership.
In this lecture Dr Isabella Rosner will survey the history of these early modern caskets and cabinets, focusing on the variety of extant boxes, their compositions, and how they served as instruments of ownership, privacy, and agency for their makers and owners.
Isabella will also reveal embroidered casket panels from the RSN’s own collection.
Image credit: Cabinet with personifications of the Five Senses, 17th century, The Met Collection
Important Booking Information
Please note that these Talks are live online events and are not available to watch immediately afterwards. If you cannot watch the live event — or if you want to watch again in the future — some of our talks are re-released at a later date On Demand. Please note that there is a separate fee for Talks on Demand.
Bookings for live RSN Online Talks close at 3pm on the day of the event and are NON-REFUNDABLE. After booking, you will receive your unique Zoom invite by email 24-48 hours before each event (3 hours if booked on the day). The invite should arrive ‘from’ [email protected] – we strongly recommend that you add this address to your ‘Safe Senders’ list to ensure safe receipt.
If you do not receive your invite by the above deadline please first check your ‘junk/spam’ mail folder to ensure it hasn’t been routed there by mistake. If you still do not have the invite, please email [email protected] no later than one hour before the event is due to start. Please include your order reference number.
Each place booking and subsequent Zoom link is unique to ONE customer and ONE device only. If you wish to book multiple places on behalf of additional attendees please provide the name AND email address of any additional attendees in the ‘Additional information’ section of your order at checkout.
All RSN Live Online Talks are scheduled and advertised in UK local time (GMT or BST depending on the time of year). If you are outside of the UK please check your local time, particularly if your location changes to/from Daylight Savings Time on a different schedule to the UK during March/April or October/November. To check and convert times please visit TimeAndDate.com.
All RSN webinars include live Closed Captioning (subtitles). These can be disabled if not required.
If you require additional assistance, please refer to our FAQ page. Thank you.
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