Programme Director of School of Fashion & Textiles
Sharon Ting is Programme Director in the School of Fashion & Textiles. She currently leads our BA Textiles and MA Textiles (new sustainable courses which she wrote in 2022), MA Digital Fashion, Integrated Foundation SoFT, BA Fashion Textiles Yr3 (Rochester) and BA Textile Design Yr3 (Farnham). She is also a Link Tutor for BA Hand Embroidery at the Royal School of Needlework, a UCA collaborative partner until 2024. Sharon has been an External Examiner at various institutes, currently CSM/UAL.
Bio
Appointed as Programme Director in 2022, Sharon was a graduate of one of our founder colleges and a graduate from the Royal College of Art. She set up a studio in London and has over 20 years experience as a designer-maker and textile artist.
She has taught widely across many higher education institues and exhibited nationally and internationally through galleries, trade shows and exhibitions. Her work has been collected by the Victoria & Albert Museum and The Crafts Council, UK, and she is a recipient of the New Generation Award, British Fashion Council.
Sharon believes in individual creative expression, strong technical fundament, diverse material applications for textiles in art, built environments, craft, fashion and interiors.
Research statement
‘Universal forms and humanistic values, living spaces and power of art’
Personal connections, inspired by trips to Malaysia and Borneo. A Buddhist temple, an ancestral family site (Sam Poh Tong Temple, Ipoh, Perak) which inspired the aesthetics for the art interventions for a major public commission at the Royal County Hospital in Brighton.
- https://www.uca.ac.uk/news/2023/academic-completes-major-nhs-arts-commission/
- https://www.uhsussex.nhs.uk/about/trust/improvement-projects/lmb/connect-art-programme/commissions/sanctuary/
‘East Side Voices’
As a first generation BBCM (British Born Chinese Malaysian) I am conducting research into creative women of Southeast Asian descent in the UK.
Inspired by the book (first-of-its-kind) showcasing essays and poetry celebrating East and Southeast Asian well-known and celebrities living in Britain today, edited by Helen Lee.
Do You Dream in Colour?
Preserving and reinvigorating heritage craft techniques, mainly in coloration /colour in dye and print. We have two textile archives at Epsom which have examples of heritage craft techniques from the UK, China, India and wider. These are held in our International Textile Collection and in Deryn O’Connor’s research into dye and print (a unique collection of works bequeathed to us).
- Worshipful Company of Haberdashers Prize
- Pantone Colour award for Colour in Textiles.
Selected Commissions:
- 2011-13 Royal County Hospital, 3Ts re-development, Brighton. Stage 1 working with architects BDP for the ‘Design phase’.
- 2015 – 2020 Stage 2, re-engagement for fabrication, on going commission to produce integrated artworks and interventions for the Sanctuary.
- 2010 Allure of the Seas - Royal Caribbean Cruise Liner. Design and production of multi-media art works in acrylic, textiles, paper and print.
- 2009 Oasis Of the Seas - Royal Caribbean Cruise Liner. Design and production of multi-media artworks in printed textiles, manipulated papers and found objects.
- 2009 The Newport. London restaurant, a series of framed textile artwork.
- 2009 Independence of the Seas - Royal Caribbean Cruise Liner. Design and production of textile art pieces, combining hand printed and digitally printed fabrics.
- 2008 Guys and St.Thomas Arts and Heritage Trust HQ offices at Counting House, London Printed hangings, commissioned and installed for The Director of Arts and Heritage.
- 2007-08 Springfield building, a Community Building and Health Centre, GP accommodation and Council Offices in Stockwell, London. Large-scale hangings commissioned by Guys and St.Thomas’ Hospital Trust and Architects Stock/ Wolstenscroft.
- 2008 Independence, Royal Caribbean Cruise Liner. Textile artwork boxes.
- 2006 Illusions, Royal Caribbean Cruise Liner. Textile and multi-media artwork.
Sharon has created textiles for a number of high-profile fashion retailers including Liberty, Selfridges, Takashimaya, and Barneys. She has created textiles for unusual interior spaces and public buildings, which have included commissions by The Open University, Royal Caribbean Cruise Liners, Royal Horseguards Hotel, and Guys and St Thomas’ Hospital. Her work can be seen in the textiles collections at the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Crafts Council.
Work featured in books:
- 2012 Dyeing and Screenprinting on Textiles by Joanna Kinnersly-Taylor.
- 2010 New Textile Patterns by Drusilla Cole.
- 1999 British Textile Design from 1940 to the Present by Ngozi Ikoku.
- 1998 Main artist interviewed for the arts and crafts programme, Master Crafts Programme, BBC2.
- 1997 Fabric Dyeing and Printing by Kate Wells.