New artist-in-residence makes his mark

TWO bespoke items of furniture inspired by the historic interiors of the Shakespeare houses will be created by one of the UK’s leading creative talents, Lee Lapthorne, who has been selected as the new artist-in-residence at the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust in Stratford-upon-Avon.

The items called The Bard’s Rest and The Love Settle will go on display at Anne Hathaway’s Cottage and Hall’s Croft from 11th March to 15th September.

The Bard’s Restis a re-interpretation of a Greaves & Thomas pop-up sofa designed with textiles inspired by the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust’s museum and archive collection. The Bard’s Restwill be displayed in Hall’s Croft, the elegant Jacobean home of Shakespeare’s daughter Susanna and her physician husband John Hall.

The Love Settle is an outdoor garden lounger bearing digital, screen-printed and embroidered weather-proof fabric inspired by love and romance in Shakespeare’s world. It will be located the historic gardens of Anne Hathaway’s Cottage.

Lee Lapthorne’s work is unique in creating a multi-disciplinary approach to fabric manipulation with hand printing, painting, embroidery, embellishment, devoré, discharge, fringing, digital printing, and sequining. He said, “It was a real privilege to have access to the Trust’s extensive collections, a rich and vast treasure trove of over one million Shakespeare-related items. I was especially drawn to the colours in the 250-year-old Garrick Jubilee rosette, which was commissioned for the very first festival in Shakespeare’s honour, and widely celebrated in his hometown of Stratford every year since.”