Ann Sutton

Ann Sutton (born 16 May 1935) is a British artist, author, educator and broadcaster. She gained international recognition as an innovative textile artist and designer from the 1950s and has continued to develop her making and research in other media to the present day.

She was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in 1991 and Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2022 New Year Honours for services to the arts. She was made a Senior Fellow of the Royal College of Art and a visiting professor at the University of the Arts, both in 2005.

Early life and education Ann Sutton was born in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England, on 16 May 1935. She attended local schools, including the Orme Girls' School in Newcastle-Under-Lyme, winning several art prizes. She moved to Pontypool, Monmouthshire in 1947 and from 1951 to 1956 studied at the Cardiff College of Art, where she gained a National Diploma in Design.

Teaching career Graduating from art college, Sutton became a full-time lecturer in weave at the West Sussex College of Art, Worthing from 1956 until 1963, while also returning as Visitor, Cardiff College of Art (1960) and working as a student and then tutor at the Glamorgan Summer School at Barry, South Wales (1961–1968). As her own studio work progressed, she combined this with part-time teaching at the Croydon College of Art (1963–1965) and the North Oxfordshire School of Art, Banbury (1967–1974). In 1990 Sutton became a part-time lecturer in woven and embroidered textiles at the Royal College of Art, and has also served widely as an external assessor at both BA and MA levels at many universities and colleges, including the Royal College of Art. In 2005 Ann Sutton was made both a visiting professor by the University of the Arts, London, and Senior Fellow of the Royal College of Art.

In 1970 she won joint first prize in the Sculpture ’70 Welsh Arts Council competition, while in the same year the Victoria and Albert Museum commissioned and purchased 16 prints on paper and aluminium for the solo show Textile Images on Paper. In 1974 she designed a "logical colour scheme" for a new quadrangle at Keble College, University of Oxford, with the architects Ahrends, Burton & Koralek.

Parnham House Together with her then-husband John Makepeace, Sutton bought the 16th-century, Grade I listed Parnham House near Beaminster, Dorset, which was to become their new home, workshops and studios, combined with a new residential training college for craftsmen. In 1977 it opened as the Parnham Trust School for Craftsmen in Wood; early students included furniture designer and retailer David Linley, now the Second Earl of Snowdon. Sutton combined developing Parnham (the 80-roomed house was also open to the public) with her own work. There she wrote and presented the 1980 five-part BBC television series The Craft of the Weaver, together with the accompanying book. Consultancies and public service also continued, including the award-winning refurbishment of the Southampton Art Gallery (1990).

Sutton founded Sight Specific, an agency for applied artists' commissions (1992); was a member of the Southern Arts Regional Arts Board (1992–1995); and held a consultancy with the Museum of Science & Industry, Manchester (1996). In 2003 Sutton won first prize in the BPIF Fine Book Binding Awards and was also lead artist on the first phase of The Point arts centre development at Eastleigh, Hampshire (architects: Burrell Foley Fischer), with phase two following in 2010. 2004 saw Ann Sutton's solo retrospective exhibition by invitation of the Crafts Council, in London and touring, and in 2005 she founded Site Editions (commissioning and selling limited editions of sculpture for gardens), and was made the third Artist Patron of the Contemporary Art Society (with Anthony Caro and Bridget Riley).

Clearing the decks In 2010, Ann Sutton removed all the looms from her studio; a radical step for someone who had made an international reputation as a weaver and textile artist. While she had previously pioneered the use of computer-aided looms, she now got rid of them completely. This heralded a new phase of visual research and making, in which she worked increasingly in paint, drawing, and progressing to what she calls "spatial drawing". In 2017 Sutton gave the Fielding Talk under the title "Rebel with a Cause" for the Crafts Council, at St Martin in the Fields, London. In 2018 her work was included in "The Most Real Thing: Contemporary Textiles and Sculpture" at the NewArtCentre, Roche Court, Wiltshire, England, who now represent her as an artist. A major solo exhibition: “Ann Sutton: On From Weaving – Works 1955-2021” opened at the NewArtCentre Roche Court in November 2021.

Sutton's work is included in public collections in the UK and worldwide including Tate, the Victoria and Albert Museum, City of Leeds Museums (Lotherton Hall), National Museum of Wales, and the Crafts Council.

Prizes, travel awards, and international work Sutton has travelled extensively as part of her work, often in connection with awards, teaching and consultancies. Highlights include: a Royal Society of Arts (R.S.A) scholarship for travel and research in Nigeria and Morocco (1971); chairing the Fibre Programme: World Crafts Council conference, Mexico (1975); chairing the Miniature Textile convention, University of Athens, Georgia, (1980);

My Bones Are Woven The documentary film about Sutton: “My Bones Are Woven”, directed by Jane Mote and Joshua Kershaw (UK, 2022, 74 minutes), was screened as part of “Ann Sutton in Words and Film”, staged by the British Library, London, on 18 November 2022. Speakers included Ann Coxon, Curator of International Art at Tate Modern.

Publications Sutton, Ann and Pat Holtom. Tablet Weaving. London: Batsford, 1975. Sutton, Ann, Peter Collingwood, and Geraldine St. Aubyn Hubbard. The Craft of the Weaver. London: BBC Publications, 1982. Sutton, Ann. The Structure of Weaving. London: Hutchinson, 1982. Sutton, Ann and Richard Carr. Tartans. London: Bellew Publishing,1984. Sutton, Ann. British Craft Textiles. London: Collins, 1985. Sutton, Ann. Colour and Weave. London: Bellew Publishing and Asheville, NC: Lark, 1985. Sutton, Ann. The Textiles of Wales. London: Bellew Publishing, 1987. Sutton, Ann. and Diane Sheehan, Ideas in Weaving. London: Batsford and Asheville, NC: Lark, 1989. Sutton, Ann (editor and foreword). Falcot’s Weave Companion, translations by Anne Satow, London: Bellew Publishing,1990.

Media The Craft of the Weaver, five parts, writer and presenter, BBC Television series, 1980. Show5 Interview with Ann Sutton for the Craft Council 2003 exhibition project The Maker’s Voice Interview with Ann Sutton for the Crafts Council's 2016 series “My Bones Are Woven”, documentary film about Ann Sutton, directed by Jane Mote and Joshua Kershaw (UK, 2022, 74 minutes).