Renaissance Skin's Kathleen Walker-Meikle is currently a Wellcome Trust Secondment Fellow at the V&A. Kathleen began her secondment in January 2020, and remains at the V&A until the end of the year. Kathleen has given an update of her secondment:
''As a Wellcome Trust Secondment Fellow at the V&A, I bring a medical humanities perspective on objects in the collection that complement art and design-historical perspectives of interpretation. For the new museum programmes at V&A East, I am working with two teams: one on the proposed permanent display for the museum at Stratford Waterfront and the other focused on the first exhibition that will be held in that space, engaging in object-lead research, sourcing potential objects for display, audience development and public engagement. In addition, I am collaborating with the Textiles and Fashion Department and an exhibition team at the V&A Research Institute, working on objects and the bodies that made, owned and used them, engaging with themes such as ageing, the history of hair and cosmetics and masculinity, while also researching the provenance and historical economic values of objects. I have also contributed three blogs to the Pandemic Objects project; designed and led gallery tour ‘Barking Around: Dogs in the Medieval and Renaissance Galleries’ in March 2020, and have developed online public engagement material in support of the museum’s collection''
We look forward to welcoming Kathleen back to Renaissance Skin in the new year.