PROFILE
JOAN CHARNLEY (1928-2016)

Joan Charnley was born on January 17th, 1928 in Southport, Lancashire.  Her father Reginald was an estate agent and her mother Dora an artist. Inspired by her mother’s work, Joan kept sketchbooks throughout her childhood and was a naturally gifted artist. After graduating from Scarisbrick Girls School in Ormskirk, Joan studied at Manchester School of Art from 1946 to 1949. One of only a handful of female students, Joan excelled at art school and continued her studies with a Diploma in Textile Design.

The period between 1946 and 1951 were the most prolific years for Joan, with over 100 landmark textile designs, including ‘Geometric’, ‘Viking Rune’ and ‘Sliced Fruit’. Inspired by up and coming British designers Ernest Race, Eileen Gray and Lucienne and Robin Day, Joan visited the 1951 Festival of Britain, and returned to Manchester to complete a whole new set of designs including ‘Prospectus’, ‘Quayside’ and ‘Timeshare’.

In 1950 she won the prestigious Heywood Prize for Design and in 1954 sold her ‘Beachcomber’ design to Alistair Morton of Edinburgh Weavers. Beachcomber was acquired by the V&A museum in 2009 as part of their mid-century textile archive.

In September1951 Joan was appointed lecturer in textile design at Great Yarmouth School of Art and in1958 promoted to vice principal. In October 1963 she married the Scottish artist Archibald MacDonald and moved to Uppermill in Manchester as principal of Oldham College. Throughout the 1960s, as principals of two northern art schools, Joan and Archibald were a Northern Art power couple, holding court in galleries and hosting dinner parties in New Street. Joan’s archive reveals photographs of Archibald and L.S. Lowry curation exhibitions together, and images of Joan and Archibald visiting galleries across the country. It must have been a fascinating time. 

In the1970s and 1980s Joan concentrated on botanical designs, producing tea towels, scarves, calendars for leading British designers. She taught field studies with John Nash at Flatford Mill and lectured extensively on Hebridean cruises. After Archibald died in 1991she visited the USA, India, Japan, Australia, Europe, South America, and the Galapagos Islands, chronicling her travels with highly-detailed art journals.

Joan died in July 2016, leaving her home and extensive archive to her close friends Julian Bovis and Nigel Durkan, with a wish that her house be converted into an art gallery for the people of Greater Manchester. Three years later Julian and Nigel converted Joan’s home into Weavers Factory gallery, and in 2021 donated the Joan Charnley Archive to Manchester Metropolitan University Special Collections Museum, where they can be viewed by appointment.

Copyright and License @ Joan Charnley Estate

GALLERY