Independent curator
Charlie Arnold is an independent artist curator who since 2000 has created several touring exhibition projects in NE England highlighting interdisciplinary work by contemporary designer-makers and artists. These include, 'Fifties Frocks' textile exhibition (Bowes Museum) 2000, 'ExtraOrdinary' jewellery (Bowes Museum) 2001, TrailerMade, silver caravan project (Designed and Made) 2004 and REAdesign (INSPIRE) mobile art and design installation 2007. She has also worked as project manager for Northern Print, Newcastle and as a temporary exhibition officer at the Bowes Museum in Barnard Castle. In 2004 she moved to France and is now renovating a family home and printing studio alongside her husbands contemporary furniture workshop in a 1920's hydroelectric factory 30 miles from St Etienne.
'Since moving to St Etienne I have been struck by the similarities that exist between it and Newcastle/Gateshead. Both have a history of coal mining and heavy industry that has now declined to be replaced by cultural regeneration. As the Sage and the Baltic have appeared in Gateshead so the derelict Arms factory in St Etienne has been gutted and transformed into an international centre for contemporary design- the 'Cité du Design'. Inspired by these connections I initiated a design exchange project in 2008, 10 N/10 S linking French and British designers from St Etienne and Newcastle. Following on from this I am now researching a an international textile project 'Habitacle' as a design exchange between diverse artists from France, Italy and the UK.
