Convenors:
Mary Brooks and Dr Maria Hayward, Textile Conservation Centre, Hampton Court Palace, East Molesey, Surrey KY8 0AU. Tel. 0181 9774943. tccuk@compuserve.com.

When a textile passes from the context for which it was produced, whether sacred or profane, professional or amateur, to a museum or private collection, it becomes a historical artefact to be stored, studied or displayed. This strand will explore how contemporary textile professionals such as curators and conservators interpret textiles and whether these interpretations bear the mark of the interests of the professionals concerned. Papers considering the social, anthropological, historical, artistic, financial, spiritual and evidential value of textiles for the curator, conservator or art historian will be presented.

• Lisa Monnas (Independent scholar) Textiles and Paintings (14th-16th Century): The Benefit of Hindsight?
• Jane Bridgeman (Courtauld Institute, London) 'Riccamente vestiti e nobelmente adornati': Textiles for Dress and Furnishing - The Social Role of Textiles in 15th-century Italy
• David Mitchell (Independent scholar) The Development of Linen Damask Collections
• Ruth Barnes (Ashmolean Museum, Oxford) Indian Trade Textiles: Sources and Transmission of Design
• Christine Wise (Fawcett Development Library) Suffrage Banners at the Fawcett Library, London Guildhall University
• Dinah Eastop (Textile Conservation Centre, Southampton University) The Social Life of Representations, The Value of Haddon's String Figures
• Regula Schorta (Abegg-Stiftung, Berne) Learning about Medieval Textiles: Co-operation between Conservator and Art Historian