Alice Kettle curates Soft Power: Lives Told Through Textile Art at RWA Bristol

Gallery artist Alice Kettle has curated an exhibition at the Royal West of England Academy located in Bristol. Soft Power: Lives Told Through Textile Art is co curated with Professor Lesley Millar and explores the role of cloth as a vehicle to express and communicate human experience. Opening on 17 May 2025, this evocative exhibition will occupy the RWA’s four main galleries. Alongside curating this exhibition, Alice will also be exhibiting work with the 23 selected artists.

 

Through knitting, sewing, stitching, and embroidery, artists from across the world have transformed cloth into a means of storytelling, addressing themes of longing, loss, love, conflict, and ambition. Soft Power invites visitors to experience these deeply personal and socially resonant narratives told through textiles. The exhibition builds on themes explored in their forthcoming book Reading the Thread: Cloth and Communication (Bloomsbury Academic, 2025).

 

The exhibition runs from 17 May - 10 August 2025. For more information on the exhibition, please visit the RWA website here.

May 17, 2025