Storytelling through craft: using stitch as a catalyst for feminist and change-making conversations Vanessa Marr, Prinicpal Lecturer, University of Brighton

Join Principal Lecturer and practice-based researcher and maker from the University of Brighton, Vanessa Marr RSA SFHEA, for an insightful journey into her stitch-based approach to research. Vanessa's work resists gendered expectations of domesticity, positioning embroidery and commonplace household cloths as the catalyst for feminist and change-making conversations.

Vanessa will reflect on the origins of her practice and explore a selection of research outcomes that employ stitch as a way of coming to knowledge through autoethnographic storytelling and critical reflection. She will also share her best-known project Domestic Dusters, which invites women to embroider yellow dusters with their experiences and perspectives of domesticity.

These dusters, some of which will be displayed throughout the Wardlaw Museum throughout March 2025, have made international impact, underpinned by publications that explore the duster as a research tool through drawing with thread (Marr 2019), storytelling through craft as a feminist and craftivist practice (Marr 2021), Vanessa's own domesticated experiences of academia (Marr, 2023), and stitch-drawing into a duster as an autoethnographic practice for personal wellbeing (2025). Vanessa will also take part in a panel discussion on Saturday 8 March at the Wardlaw Museum.