Freddie Robins will be presenting at the Dr Brenda M King Research Symposium – The Textile Society: Future Advocacy and Activism.
Saturday 10 October 2026
11.00am to 4.30pm
(Registration from 10.15am)
The Art Workers’ Guild
6 Queen Square, London WC1N 3AT

To ensure that the Textile Society continues to promote the study of textile disciplines, both traditional and contemporary, this research symposium highlights Advocacy and Activism as a key focus for the future. The schedule introduces a programme of diverse position papers with time for members to discuss the ideas presented.

Presenters: Dr Beverly Ayling Smith, Eleanor Burkett, Jan Connett, Portia Dadley, Dr Elizabeth Gaston, Lucie Hernandez, Dr Ruth Lloyd, Hester Mauduit, Mabel Okuta, Sarah Pardoe, Seam Collective, Ruth Singer, Louise Surowiec, Dr Angharad Thomas, Professor Freddie Robins, Meredith Wood

Moderators: Dr Linda Brassington (Chair), Professor Emerita Lesley Millar MBE,
Dr Joanne Horton (Vice Chair)

For more information, to become a member and purchase tickets

Freddie Robins speaks about her own practice and her time as Interim Head of Programme for MA Textiles at the Royal College of Art, a role that she shares with Richard McVetis. She talks about subversion as a form of critique and the balance of humour and fear in her work, before turning to what has changed in the students walking through the RCA’s doors since she began teaching.
Read the interview

DIAGRAPHIC

Emma Biggs, Ben Coode-Adams, Lee Grandjean, Marcia Mihotich, John Plowman, Freddie Robins

CLOAKROOM, Church Rooms, Camping Land, Swaffham, Norfolk PE37 7RB
Launch Event: Saturday 4 July 6 – 8pm
Open every Saturday 10am – 1pm
Entrance is free and everyone is welcome.

CLOAKROOM’s inaugural exhibition Diagraphic takes its cue from ‘Fig 7-Identify a Thing’ a work by Marcia Mihotich bringing together two dimensional works of six artists who are all makers of ‘things’. The works in this exhibition are neither finished nor resolved in much the same way as the location of the exhibition, a Grade 2 listed former National School in Swaffham, Norfolk which is currently being renovated.

CLOAKROOM is an artist-led gallery project in a historic building in Norfolk, UK, initiated by The Grange Projects. It hosts a curated programme of public exhibitions, talks, and events, facilitated by artists John Plowman, Dr Nicola Streeten, and Sally Plowman. Adopting a multidisciplinary approach CLOAKROOM’s core aim is to create opportunities for artists to explore, question and test ideas. It makes visible the processes and activities that exist in the gap between inspiration and production across all creative practices.

This approach extends the ethos of The Grange Projects’ residency programme, which has been running since 2022.

The Old Grocery
The Blackwater Polytechnic
The Grange Projects

Freddie Robins will be exhibiting in Spacetime: awkward ;-) Curated and hosted by Grange Projects and Blackwater Polytechnic.

Spacetime: awkward ;-) It is a collaborative project by Blackwater Polytechnic and Grange Projects that responds to an accelerated and unstable world by building slowly, with skillful labour, friction and joyful imperfection. The stand works as a shared environment where polish gives way to presence, and where awkwardness becomes a way of looking harder, staying longer and making space for conversation. Be difficult.

Erskinehuset, Slakthusområdet (the former Meatpacking District)
Hallvägen 21
121 62 Johanneshov
Stockholm, Sweden

Opening hours:
Thursday 23 – Friday 24 April 14.00–20.00
Saturday 25 April 12.00–20.00
Sunday 26 April 12.00–18.00

Admission: 200 SEK
Seniors and students admission: 160 SEK
4-day pass incl Catalogue/Art Magazine: 600 SEK
Free admission up to 16 years

Exhibiting alongside Ben Coode-Adams, Cailin Cummins, Sophie Giller, Tilly Hawkins (Nukleopatra), Sara Impey, John Plowman, Sally Plowman, Plowman and Cummins & Nicola Streeton

Download Press Release here

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thegrangeprojects

To register you place please contact katy@seetapateldance.org by 14th January 2026.

The Art Station in Saxmundham invites you to dive headfirst into a riotous, exhilarating new exhibition presented by the Anglian Embassy (Blackwater Polytechnic in collaboration with the Grange Projects) — two insanely imaginative collectives whose playful, hands-on spirit blasts straight through the barriers of art and expectation. Their impact far outstrips their size. No holds barred.

Saturday 4 – Saturday 25 October 2025
Open 10am – 4pm weekdays, 12pm – 4pm Saturdays, closed Sundays
The Art Station, 48 High Street, Saxmundham, Suffolk IP17 1AB

Saturday 18 October 4pm – 6pm
Performances from Plowman and Cummins, Nukleopatra and Stuart Bowditch
The Old Bank, 24 High Street, Saxmundham, Suffolk IP17 1AE

Opening party Friday 3 October 6pm – 8pm. All welcome

theartstation
blackwaterpolytechnic
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Freddie Robins has won the prestigious Brenda M. King Prize for Critical Writing in Textiles 2025, awarded by The Textile Society, for her essay Softness is Power: A feminist discussion and subversion of softness.

“Within this essay Robins explores and questions the art world’s acceptance of the ‘soft stuff’. Despite the resurgence of interest in textiles in recent years, and the more prevalent utilisation of textiles by ‘fine artists’ as well as ‘textile artists’ it seems that there is still a reluctance to accept and acknowledge the physical characteristics of textile work. This ‘debate’ is not new, it has been discussed in many forums, but more from the craft and textile perspectives than from the fine art perspective. Freddie Robins’ essay demonstrates that this investigation is valid and ongoing, providing an interesting and pertinent summary of ‘soft stuff’ and how it is viewed within the contemporary art world.”

The essay will be published in The Textile Society’s annual journal Text No.52.

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Freddie Robins is featured in TEXTILE FINE ART – Conversations with Artists Creating by Hand by Helen Adams textilecurator.com, with foreward by Ann Coxon. Published by Laurence King, London 2025.

“This volume brings together the work of 50 contemporary artists who use textiles. All are linked through their commitment to creating by hand but each brings a unique perspective. Through their conversations with textile curator, Helen Adams, we discover the artists’ pathways, motivations and inspirations in their own words.”
www.laurenceking.com

Other new publications featuring Freddie Robins:

Brink (a chapter authored by Freddie Robins and Zoe Laughlin) in Contemporary Thinking on Play, edited by Victoria de Rijke & Rebecca Sinker, published by Springer Nature, Cham, Switzerland, 2025.
www.springer.com

Narrative Textiles: Tell your story in mixed media and stitch by Ailish Henderson, published by Batsford, London, 2024.
www.batsfordbooks.com