Image: Shirin Melikova, Director of Azerbaijan Carpet Museum

We are excited to confirm the first appointments to the selection committee for Selvedge World Fair 2021. Taking place over five days 31 August - 4 September 2021, the event will celebrate handmade textiles and makers from more than fifty countries. Due to the number of applicants to the 2020 event, the 2021 selections will be made by six separate independent panels, by continent, with an additional category of cross-cultural collaborations. Each selection panel will include people who live or work in the same area as the applicants. We welcome Alvaro Catalán de Ocón, Lorna Hamilton-Brown and Shirin Melikova to the European panel. If you are a maker, we warmly encourage you to apply. Applying and exhibiting are free for artisans and applications are open until the end of November.

Alvaro Catalán de Ocón, Designer

Alvaro Catalán de Ocón trained in product design at the Istituto Europeo di Design in Milan and Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design in London. In 2004 he started up his own studio in Barcelona where he designed the LA FLACA lamp, winner of the Design Plus Award (Frankfurt) and nominated to the DELTA Awards in Barcelona. In 2009 he moved his studio to Madrid where he also teaches at the Istituto Europeo di Design and is a member of DIMAD Executive Board. He won Best Product Designer of the year in the IED Awards 2019, and was a finalist in the Dezeen Awards 2019 for the best Design Studio. His work is part of the design collections at Centre George Pompidou and Centre National des Arts Plastiques in Paris, the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne, M+ West Kowloon Museum in Hong Kong and the Denver Art Museum.

Image: Lorna Hamilton-Brown MBE RCA. Photographer Ann Chown.

Lorna Hamilton-Brown MBE started her career as a full time artist at the age of 53. Before this she had been a lecturer at De Montfort University and Ravensbourne. At 60 she gained an MA in knitted Textiles from the Royal College of Art. Lorna has been called the ‘Banksy of Knitting’ for her use of the medium for social commentary. She is a Patron of the Knitting and Crochet Guild and a member of Vogue Knitting’s Diversity Advisory Council. Her current work responds to the death of George Floyd and the issue of racism.      

Shirin Melikova is a lecturer at the Art History Department of the Azerbaijan State University of Culture and Arts. She regularly gives lectures in leading textile museums around the world, and participates in international symposiums and conferences. Dr. Melikova is the author of more than 20 books, and has curated many international exhibitions. Shirin Melikova played a leading role in the development of two museums in Baku – The Stone Chronicle Museum and The Museum of Art. She is also the director of the Azerbaijan National Carpet Museum, and worked on the development of the museum’s new building and displays. In 2016, Dr. Melikova was elected as the Chair of the ICOM Azerbaijan National Committee, and twice she has sat on the Jury for the WWC Seal of Excellence for Handicrafts. In 2018, Shirin Melikova was awarded the title Honoured Worker of Culture by the order of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev.

For more information visit Selvedge World Fair 2021.