DONNA LOWSON
Artist Researcher.
Material remembers where the archive forgets
Museum Studies
Fieldwork and material reading
Museum Studies operates as a field of material inquiry within my practice. Museum collections are approached not as static archives, but as active sites where objects, techniques, and histories can be read through material encounter, documentation, and reconstruction.
These visits form part of an ongoing process of working with hair work objects, Victorian material culture, and associated archival traces, in which making and reading become interlinked methods of research.
Brontë Parsonage Museum 2026
Study of the Brontë hair collection, including research findings accepted into their research Library
Recognising the Double Elastic Braid (J13 & J43)
Elastic Hairwork Circulation and the Brontë Collection (J13 & J43)
Unpicking the Square Braid: Hairwork, Kumihimo, and the Brontë Bracelet (HAOBP J30)
The Margot Robbie/ Wuthering Heights review. Therads of Loss: Then and Now, 2026
Bankfield Museum 2025/26
Study of mourning jewellery and hair embroidery collections.
Includes material engagement through exhibition and public demonstration.
Bury Art and Sculpture Museum 2024/ 25
Study of Victorian hair embroidery and related archival material.
Includes research findings accepted into museum archives.
Whitby Museum 2026
Study of Victorian hair work collection.
Research finding coming soon
