Kerry is Dean of the School of Communication at the Royal College of Art.
Kerry has extensive leadership experience in higher education. Prior to joining the RCA in April 2021, she was Head of Bath School of Design at Bath Spa University, leading teaching and curriculum innovation in disciplines both within and beyond the School of Communication’s portfolio. Kerry’s student-centred strategies ensure that students are challenged and supported in their practice and can thrive within a collaborative community of artists, communicators, designers and researchers.
During Kerry’s RCA 1997 graduation show in MA Textiles, she was appointed as the new textile designer for Alberta Ferretti and subsequently worked in-house for Valentino and Nina Ricci. Kerry has a wealth of industry experience delivering high-profile collaborations with the British Council, Indian Design Council and through the development of textiles for brands such as Chloé, Stella McCartney, Calvin Klein, Donna Karan, Givenchy, Dolce & Gabbana, Lanvin and Fendi. Kerry has also created work for music videos, illustration, styling and exhibition curation.
Kerry’s current research focuses on design approaches to disaster responses, with experience of working on participatory scenarios related to climate change in her project Imagining Neutopia, which fabricates and documents fictional events to further Climate Change discourse.
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Through participatory scenarios Kerry’s research, Imagining Neutopia, fabricates and documents fictional events to further Climate Change discourse.
The most recent project Dressing for Evacuation focuses on and offers insight into the human emergency response of getting dressed and gathering a limited selection of possessions. Participants were asked to dress as if they had been alerted to an imminent large-scale evacuation, responses were recorded in a photoshoot and accompanying survey. The project culminated in a series of life size photographic portraits, shown as part of the Tentworks exhibition at the Feverish World Symposium, 2018 in Vermont, USA, and the Fashion and Textiles FutureScan 4 Conference at the University of Bolton, UK in 2019.
Achieving post pandemic relevance, Dressing for Evacuation offers insights into our potential responses to a major disaster, shedding light on what clothes and objects we might deem essential, and suggesting an imminent re-evaluation of our relationship to the ‘clothes on our back’ and dressing for survival.