The Crafts Study Centre continues to add to its object and archive collections through donations, bequests and purchases. All potential additions to the collection are reviewed by the Centre’s Acquisitions Committee, which meets approximately twice a year, and are considered against the collecting priorities set out in the Collections Development Policy.

Acquisition highlights October 2023-November 2024

Large Triangular Dish by Siddig el Nigoumi: A significant work from the Sudanese-born potter who settled in Farnham in the late 1960s. The dish, from 1979, is made from earthenware that has been inscribed and burnished. The Arabic calligraphy on the face of the dish reads ‘Oh Generous’. Purchased with the support of the V&A Purchase Grant. For more details read the full press release. Now on show as part of Open (until August 2025).

Mary Farmer archive: A full archive donated by the Mary Farmer family estate, documenting the life and work of this radical textile artist known for her bold, abstract tapestries. Parts of the archive were exhibited in Mary Farmer: A Life in Tapestry (May - September 2024).

Donations from Ann Sutton archive: Two tranches of the material: the first relating to the production and correspondence involved with producing the 1985 book British Craft Textiles (London: Collins); the second, correspondence between Sutton and Enid Marx about the 1979 exhibition of Marx’s work and career at the Camden Arts Centre that Sutton organised.

Weaving by Theo Moorman: A silk hanging representing a fissure in a Cornish cliff to join the Moorman collections at the CSC which includes samples, archival material and three other works.

Addition to the Barron and Larcher collection: A piece of cotton designed by Phyllis Barron c.1935 for Turnbull & Stockdale Ltd, with a design not previously in the CSC collections. The item comes to the CSC after the closure of Middlesex University's Museum of Domestic Design & Architecture.