The Arts Society Nottingham - Young Arts

Co-ordinators : Kate Lewis and Margaret Morris

Young Arts now has a close connection with Nottingham Trent University which has developed over the past few years. The objectives of our society include the promotion and advancement of aesthetic education and the cultivation, appreciation and study of the decorative and fine arts.

There were interuptions due to Covid and then reorganisations at NTU. In 2024, their Department of Fashion, Textiles and Knitwear Design at Nottingham Trent University were delighted that TASN was again offering bursaries to three final year students, each of £500. The results of this can be seen below.

Nottingham Trent University Bursary

In 2018, we embarked on a new Young Arts initiative. We set up a bursary for a third year Nottingham Trent University Visual Arts Student to assist the funding of materials for their final degree show to the extent of £500. In 2019 we offered two bursaries each for £500 to fund materials for their projects.

This has continued since then, subject to difficulties with Covid and with the re-organisation of the Arts Faculty of Nottingham Trent University.

Initially the scheme was set up by Ilanah Dance and Sue Porter, and subsequently developed to suit the changing circumstances by Lynette Harris.

Ilanah Dance and Sue Porter with the first recipient of the bursary, Lucy Bentley.

Three Young Arts Bursaries in 2025 - 2026

It was agreed with Nottingham Trent University that we should award three bursaries of £500 each to 3 students in their final year and studying Fashion, Textile Design or Knitted Textiles. 30 candidates applied, an increase on the previous year. Six of these were chosen by NTU Heads of Department to make presentations to 3 members of the TASN committee, Margaret, Jo and Heather, at the end of term in December 2025. We are all grateful to Professor Lynette Harris, who has considerable past experience with the bursaries for all the help she has given, and also to staff at NTU who have given their time to help us choose the winners.

We were looking for:
Innovation, sustainability, value to a community or end user or cultural and educationalbenefits, and impact, including that on the environment.
Candidates who were seeking a career within the creative industries.
An end product which was both tangible and viable.
Details of how the bursary money would be used, and how it would assist the achievement of the project

The winners:

Phoebe-Nicole Steer (Fashion Design)

She intends to produce garments which reduce our interactions with technology and to restore fundamental human experiences. She wants to emphasize the tactility and textures of garments and the use of draping to enhance this. She will use knit and jersey
fabrics and zero waste pattern cutting. She wants the garments to be relevant to the natural, tactile and living world. She aims to use sustainable natural fibres, such as Milk Twill which is both soft and biodegradable. She has been experimenting with wearable art products made from ceramics and from silicone, but some of these use metallic powder and are expensive. She wants to explore
contact between these and the soft garments.
Her use of the bursary money was clear - £95 for mould making (for the wearable art), £45 for digital knitting, natural dyes £85, and fabrics (including experimenting with unconventional embellishments) £275. Without this, she would have to use cheaper materials which would reduce the impact of her designs.

Isabella Malmstrom-Bevan (Textile Design)

She wants to extend innovative textile materials to provide sustainable and striking performance fabrics. Her initial work is on designs for gym work and yoga. They require both durability and performance, and the user needs to be able to stretch. Her use of colour and pattern is striking and aims to make the garments calming, purposeful and mindful as well as comforting. She has been experimenting with natural dye from red cabbage. Using natural dyes would make the printing eco-friendly.
The clothes are aimed to be both functional and commercial. She wants to experiment with bio-based coatings to the printed fabric which would extend their life. This would allow use for other athleisure and possibly outdoor products.
Market trends and industry reports are being followed to add to her ideas.
She wants to do further work on the testing and refinement of materials (dyes, fabrics and coatings) and eco-friendly printing methods, and would use the bursary money for this. It would also allow a more professional portfolio. She would be able to extend the scope and quality of her work.

Molly Round (Fashion Design and Knitted Textiles)

She has based her work on nature’s cycles to increase transformation and resilience and to convey emotion in texture and form. She wants us to slow down and observe. Her work comprises pieces which are playful, sculptural and sophisticated. She has designed draped garments which are designed to last. She uses biodegradable and ethical nylon, and components which can be recirculated.
She has looked at natural fabrics such as flax, and has used Kew Gardens to find sustainable yarns. She has researched combinations of dye and yarn.
She has investigated the technology of knitting including the Shima machines and has learnt how to program machine knitting. She would like to combine organic forms with cutting edge knitwear technology which can produce some very complex weaving of the yarn. She monitors new knitwear shops which pop up for trends.
She has concentrated on the textures, patterns and colours of the knitwear, and has not yet produced final garments. The designs show flowing draped effects.
The bursary would be used for buying natural yarns £350, synthetic biodegradable yarns £50, dying materials £40, and fabric and patterns £60. Without this, she would have had to use to a mixture of cheaper and recycled yarns.

The finshed work will be shown at NTU at the end of the summer term, and a further report (with photos) will follow then.

Three Young Arts Bursaries in 2024 - 2025

NTU’s Department of Fashion, Textiles and Knitwear Design at Nottingham Trent University were delighted that TASN were again offering bursaries to three final year students, each of £500.

These were to assist students with the costs of the major projects which they undertake in their final year. From the 22 applications, it was unanimously agreed that the three 2024/5 TASN bursaries should be awarded to the following final year students.

Brodie Anderson (Fashion) who, after working as a design intern in Copenhagen and developing insights into issues of themes of weather and nature in Nordic countries, is developing a collection which will focus on sustainability, innovation and texture.

Brodie used fabrics and non-synthetic dyes to shape garments influenced by the wind in Nordic countries. She had kept meticulous notes and drawings of the whole process,. The clothes had shape and movement, and used soft colours related to the weather. They looked spectacular on the catwalk as her models opened the show.

Lucy George (Knitwear) who, after a year-long internship working in the production of process of textile recycling at a manufacturing company, used the bursary money to develop her knowledge in a specific new technical manufacturing knitwear programme and buying suitable recycled woolen garments to be incorporated into the new designs.

Lucy's clothing was both colourful and unusual. She used a number of woolens of different colours and textures in combination with striking and unusual results. She used felting for some components, and produced silk scarves (using some of the bursary money) to go with them.

Amelia Wylam (Textile Design) who is an embroidery specialist and is exploring the interaction of light and fluidity in textiles and is planning to develop samples for large wall hangings which are intended to promote well-being through encouraging feelings of balance, harmony and tranquillity.

Amelia was inspired by photographs of light striking water to explore the link between natural light and wellbeing. She used natural dyes in subtle shades and root biometrical material, plus embroidery to produce interior hangings which cast diffused shadows. The result was soothing, from the soft colours, and generated diffuse shadows. The hangings would be ideal for rooms for relaxation and contemplation. She wants to specialise in high end fabrics, and the bursary allowed her to work with silk and to buy biological stabilisers for the dyes.

All three showed us their work at the NTU Graduate event on 22 May 2025 including a cat walk show featuring Brodie's clothes. They each said that they had used the bursary money to buy materials to put ideas into practice or to develop tecniques to help them to do so, or to do extra research.

Three Young Arts Bursaries in 2023 - 2024

Following the discontinuation of Nottingham Trent University's (NTU) Decorative Arts degree in September 2022, applications for three Young Arts bursaries of £500 each were invited from final year students intending to develop careers in an arts related field to assist with the costs of their final year projects, Because of organisational changes, this proved to be impossible.

As a result, it was decided to approach a specific arts related department at NTU to if the bursaries could be organised at a departmental level. Following positive discussions initiated by Jackie Goode, applications for three bursaries were invited from NTU's Department of Fashion, Textiles and Knitwear Design. This led to some 30 applications and and six candidates being shortlisted against criteria agreed by the Department. The six on the shortlist made presentations on 12 December 2023 to the Assistant Head of Department and our committee members responsible for Young Arts, Lynette Harris and Jackie Goode.

The three selected Bursary Winners for 2023/2024 are:

Venetia Ejembi (Knitwear Design) who is developing innovative new knitwear weaves with a structural dimension to produce handcrafted headwear and potentially other items informed by Yoruba folklore.

Harriet Hyman (Fashion Design) whose "human centred design" project is focused on developing a clothing collection aimed at younger women with dexterity issues using alternative fastenings to assist independent dressing.

Iris Zhi-Ting Guo (Fashion Design) who is developing a fashion collection using entirely sustainable materials amenable to both structure and flexibility and designs inspired by nature found in her native Taiwan.

A full report, with illustrations, of their projects can be found at Young Arts Bursaries 2024 .

Young Arts 2018-2019 Report

In 2018, the Committee decided to institute a bursary at Nottingham Trent University and on 6th June 2019 The Arts Society Nottingham celebrated their first Young Arts sponsorship.

It was designed to assist a third year student towards the cost of their final degree show at the Nottingham Trent University Decorative Arts Department. Interviews were undertaken last October (2018) and Lucy Bentley emerged as the preferred candidate with an impressive presentation on the designs and dyes used by William Morris in wallpapers and fabrics. The dyes that he used were often poisonous but despite this, the subject matter influenced Lucy sufficiently and she went on to investigate “witchcraft” plants and develop her own designs which could be applied today.

The evening of the display provided an opportunity for the Committee and their guests to examine both Lucy’s and other students' fascinating shows across a broad spectrum of media. The Committee and University staff were delighted to have the evening brightened by the presence of Denise Topolski, our visitor from the Headquarters of The Arts Society, Guildford Street, London.

Our objective is to support the young setting out into a career in art and make closer links with Nottingham Trent University for our mutual benefit.

Cheers!! Lucy and Denise Topolski

“Witchcraft Designs” by Lucy

Nottingham Arts Committee and guests

All Photos by Maxine Spry NTU

UPDATE:

In an update to the story above, Lucy has been selected to exhibit at the New Talent area of the Surface Design show in London in February 2020 and has received £5,000 funding from the Hive at NTU to help her with setting up her wallpaper and fabrics business.