Arts Foundation Futures Awards

ARTS FOUNDATION FUTURES AWARDS

Bethany Williams awarded a £10,000 Fellowship for Material Evolution Award

The Arts Foundation Futures Awards (AFFA) track five exciting areas of the Arts – from those experimenting in film and music to focusing in on material innovators with new ideas that address our social needs – from working conditions and education to community development, health and climate change. Artists, who are all at least three years out of education and have developed a solid base of work, are nominated by both practitioners and experts involved in their respective art forms. Finalists each receive £1,000 with the winner in each category taking home a £10,000 fellowship.

The Company proudly supported the Social Innovation Material Evolution Award, which has an emphasis on the origin of materials, how they are made and distributed, and how they leave us. The goal is for nominees to explore the intersection of material innovation with social design to create sustainable transformations in today’s society.

Bethany Williams took home the prize. Her upbringing in a creative and environmentally conscious family has heavily influenced her practice as a fashion designer, exploring innovative design solutions to sustainability whilst empowering marginalised communities.

Her ‘Women of Change’ collection (2018) was created in collaboration with female prisoners and women from the San Patrignano drug and alcohol dependency program. She took inspiration from materials found on the grounds of San Patrignano and used recycled wool and denim from Kent. The wool was hand-knitted via cottage industry on the Isle of Man, where Williams grew up – her mother even handknitted the samples.

Williams’ most recent collection, ‘No Address Needed to Join’ utilises waste materials from the publishing industry to create garments that, alongside being recycled or organic, have a considerable social impact. For example, she uses buttons that are produced by the Manx Workshop, which supports people with disabilities into paid employment.

Grateful for the recognition, Williams described the support of The Arts Foundation as a ‘crucial’ part of backing young creatives in the UK right now. She has said the prize will particularly help support her work for the next year, preparing designs for the next year or two years of fashion seasons. It will also enable her to continue working in London, where she has built a number of relationships with nonprofit organisations that inspire and shape her work.

Shortlisted in the same category were artists Jack Herring, Lewis Hornby and Fernando Laposse. You can read more about Bethany’s work – and the work of the other shortlisted artists – at: www.artsfoundation.co.uk/affas/2020.

Clothworker Scarlet Oliver was one of three judges for the Material Evolution Award, lending her textiles expertise to AFFA. Scarlet herself designs fabric for couture fashion, bespoke interiors and architectural projects. She is a strong supporter of British-based textile manufacturing, and uses British weavers in her own practice.

Model William Soames in one of Bethany’s designs, created from recycled plastic and dead stock yarn. The shirt was hand-woven by women from the San Patrignano drug and alcohol dependency programme, working in collaboration with Adelaide House (a women’s shelter in Liverpool).