The Bernat Klein Fellowships Symposium

On Saturday 8 March 2025 Cove Park presents a one-day event for textile designers, artists, curators, researchers, and those interested in contemporary textile design and the work of the designer, writer, and artist Bernat Klein (1922-2014).

This special event coincides with Cove Park residencies for the textile designers Moira Nilsson (Sweden) and Mariam Syed (Scotland). Moira and Mariam were awarded the 2025 Bernat Klein Fellowships, a new programme to support research and the development of new work in both Scotland and Sweden. During the residencies at Cove Park, the designers will also benefit from supported access through the Bernat Klein Foundation to Klein's archives and collections in Scotland.

The day will include studio visits with Moira Nilsson and Mariam Syed and talks by Professor Alison Harley (Chair & Founding Trustee, Bernat Klein Foundation) and Professor Maja Gunn (Research Leader, Department of Craft, Konstfack, University of Arts, Craft & Design, Stockholm, Sweden). Morning coffee and lunch will be provided.

This event is organised in partnership with the Bernat Klein Foundation and Konstfack University of the Arts, Craft & Design, Stockholm. The Bernat Klein Fellowships are generously supported by the William Grant Foundation and The Embassy of Sweden in London.

Programme Schedule

11.00am - 11.15am: Arrivals & Refreshments

11.15am – 11.30am: Welcome & Introductions (Alexia Holt, Director, Cove Park)

11.30am – 12.15pm: Presentation by Professor Alison Harley

12.30pm – 1.00pm: Presentation by Professor Maja Gunn

1.00pm – 2.00pm: Lunch 

2.00pm – 3.00pm: Studio Visits

3.00pm: Panel Discussion: Professor Maja Gunn, Professor Alison Harley, Moira Nilsson, & Mariam Syed

4.00pm Close & Tours of Cove Park

If you have questions about this programme or event accessibility, please get in touch with Alex Marrs (Senior Producer - Awarded Residencies). 

Speakers

Alison Harley is a Founding Trustee & Chair of the Bernat Klein Foundation (BKF). Over the lifetime of the foundation she has developed her role as the Creative Director for the BKF. Previously Alison held senior leadership roles in Art & Design Higher Education as Head of the School of Design, The Glasgow School of Art; Dean of the Faculty of Design, Lasalle College of the Arts, Singapore; and Professor and Head of the School of Textiles & Design, Heriot-Watt University. In 2012 Alison interviewed Bernat Klein at his home High Sunderland, in which he discussed his work as a designer, artist and industrialist. Since 2016 Alison has worked as an independent practitioner developing her particular interest in Bernat Klein, which has been shared through exhibition and publication, including Bernat Klein (Schoeser / Harley) published in 2022 marking Klein’s centenary. Established early in her career through the gallery system, Alison’s studio practice continues to inform and underpin her ideas about the Klein archive collections. Alison studied Printed Textile Design at The Glasgow School of Art, and also holds an MLITT Dress & Textile Histories from The University of Glasgow.

Maja Gunn is an artist, designer, curator, professor and researcher at Konstfack, Stockholm. In her artistic practice and research, Gunn investigates textiles and clothing in relation to identity politics and collective organisation, performativity and staging, language and materiality, and historical writing and power structures. She is particularly interested in collective processes, the roles of art and design as an agent for change, as well as the development of artistic methods and their uses. Gunn has had numerous exhibitions, public commissions, performances, and publications. She is currently conducting research about museums' textile collections and how these can become visible, activated, and actualised.

Images: above, Courtesy of Mariam Syed; below and from left, Moira Nilsson (photography, Elise Westin), Mariam Syed, Alison Harley, Maja Gunn (photography, Patrick Miller)