Join us for an evening of panel discussions, films and book launches as we celebrate Textiles from Bengal: A Shared Legacy.
📅 25 September 2025* ⏰.6:00pm - 8:30pm
📍the Whitworth - Study Centre
🎟️ Book your free tickets now
6:00-6:05: Welcome Address by Amy George
6:05-6:10: Welcome Address by Darshan Shah (Founder-Trustee, Weavers Studio Resource Centre)
6:10-6:25: Book Launch of Textiles from Bengal: A Shared Legacy (Mapin:2025) -
Discussion between Sonia Ashmore (Design Historian, UK), Tirthankar Roy (Professor, LSE, UK) and Ms. Darshan Shah
6:25-7:20: Presentationsa and Academic Panel Discussion:
Chair - Amy George
Sonia Ashmore: Imitation of Bengal Textiles in Manchester and Thomas Wardle
Tirkthankar Roy: De-industrialization and the Survival of Bengal Textile Industry
6:25-7:20: Panel Discussion
7:20-7:45: Screening of the Documentary on Bengal Textiles
7:45-8 PM: Viewing/Study Session with Objects on Display
8 PM - 8:30 PM: Tea and Snacks
Biographies:
SONIA ASHMORE is a design historian, lecturer and writer based in London, UK. As a Research Fellow at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, she has published on the museum’s extensive South Asian textile collections, including the book Muslin (V&A, 2012).
TIRTHANKAR ROY is Professor at Department of Economic History, London School of Economics. His research interests include the history and development of South Asia, global history, empires, and environmental history. His recent books include Crafts and Capitalism: Handloom Weaving Industry in Colonial India (Routledge, 2020), and Monsoon Economies: Indian History in a Changing Climate (MIT Press, 2022).
DARSHAN SHAH established the Weavers Studio in 1993 as a textile company with the mission “to use as many hands as possible.” In 2007, Weavers Studio Resource Centre (WSRC) was set up with a library and an archival collection of textiles. Over the last few years, the Weavers Studio Resource Centre has developed a multi–year international project to study the textiles of Bengal from the Mughal period to 20th century.
AMY GEORGE is Senior Curator of Collections, Textile and Wallpaper at the Whitworth in Manchester, where she has contributed many articles for publications on both texiles and wallpapers.
(Image Credit: Frederiksnagore, J. Hammer, Drawing in colour, 1810, Danish National Maritime Museum, MS Museet for Søfart)
