Christine Checinska

Christine Shaw-Checinska is a British womenswear designer and art historian. She is the Curator of African and African Diaspora Fashion at the Victoria and Albert Museum. Her work considers the relationship between cloth, culture and race.

Christine Checinska
Academic background
Alma materUniversity of London (PhD)
University of the West of England, Bristol (BA, MA)
ThesisColonizin in reverse! The creolised aesthetic of the empire windrush generation. (2010)
WebsiteChristine Checinska

Early life and education

Checinska studied textile design at the University of the West of England in Bristol and graduate with a bachelor's degree in textile design in 1996.[1] She earned a master's degree at the Surrey Institute of Art & Design in 2002.[2] Checinska moved to Goldsmiths, University of London for her doctoral studies, where she studied the aesthetic of the Windrush generation.[3] She was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of East London where she established the Clothes, Cloth and Culture group.[4][5] Checinska worked with Iniva (the Institute for International Visual Arts) on several projects, including Cloth & Differences and Social Fabric, which explored textiles and social processes.[2][6]

Research and career

Checinska was appointed as a Lecturer in Fashion at Goldsmiths, University of London, and held a joint position at the University of Johannesburg, Visual Identities in Art and Design Research Centre.[7][8] She has worked as a freelance fashion designer, leading collections for Margaret Howell.[9] Her work considers the relationship between cloth, culture and race; exploring themes such as colonialism and international trade.[10]

In 2016 her show The Arrivants debuted at the University of Johannesburg FADA (Faculty of Art, Design and Architecture) Gallery.[7] The Arrivants considered the intersection of race, culture and fashion, with a particular focus on the role of dress in the negotiation of social borders.[11][12] Later that year, she delivered a TED Talk that explored fashion as everyday activism.[13] During her talk she coined the phrase "Craftivist".[14]

In 2020, Checinska became the inaugural Curator of African and African Diaspora Fashion at the Victoria and Albert Museum.[15][16] She is Lead Curator of the Victoria and Albert Museum's major exhibition Africa Fashion (July 2022–April 2023).[17][18]

References
  1. Massey, Anne; Seago, Alex (30 November 2017). Pop Art and Design. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4742-2620-2.
  2. "Christine". Goldsmiths, University of London. Retrieved 6 June 2020.
  3. Hemmings, Jessica (15 January 2015). Cultural Threads: Transnational Textiles Today. Bloomsbury Academic. ISBN 978-1-4725-2499-7.
  4. "Checinska Christine". iniva. Retrieved 6 June 2020.
  5. Jefferies, Janis; Clark, Hazel; Conroy, Diana Wood (17 December 2015). The Handbook of Textile Culture. Bloomsbury Academic. ISBN 978-0-85785-775-0.
  6. "Christine Checinska". Engage. Retrieved 6 June 2020.
  7. "The Arrivants". VIAD. Retrieved 6 June 2020.
  8. Q42, Fabrique &. "Women Design : Day 2". Design Museum. Retrieved 6 June 2020.
  9. "Clothes, Cloth & Culture Group". iniva. Retrieved 6 June 2020.
  10. "Dr. Christine Checinska". Creatives Database. 17 December 2018. Retrieved 6 June 2020.
  11. Joja, Athi Mongezeleli (5 September 2016). "Two remarkable exhibitions in Joburg". AFRICANAH.ORG. Retrieved 6 June 2020.
  12. Checinska, Christine (3 April 2018). "Aesthetics of Blackness? Cloth, Culture, and the African Diasporas". Textile. 16 (2): 118–125. doi:10.1080/14759756.2017.1408938. ISSN 1475-9756. S2CID 192306614.
  13. "Dr Christine Shaw-Checinska". TEDxEastEnd. 20 November 2015. Retrieved 6 June 2020.
  14. "Reorienting Cultural Creativity: Collecting and (Re)presenting Global Culture in Museum". London Metropolitan Museum. Retrieved 17 October 2022.
  15. "Dr. Christine Checinska". Textile Society of America. Retrieved 17 October 2022.
  16. "Who's Haute? Interview with V&A's Dr Christine Checinska". Haute Fashion Africa. 11 August 2021. Retrieved 17 October 2022.
  17. Picarelli, Enrica (20 May 2021). "Christine Checinska: 'There Are Many Ways To Be African And Fashionable'". Griot. Retrieved 17 October 2022.
  18. Woode, David (28 June 2022). "Africa Fashion, V&A: 'I would love it if children of colour could come and see they are beautiful'". i. Retrieved 17 October 2022.
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