Dr Sarah-Joy Ford
artist & independent scholar
sarah_joy_ford@hotmail.co.uk
Artist Representation
Cassinelli Mills https://www.cassinellimills.com
Education
2018 - 2022 PhD Art and Design | Manchester School of Art
2020 Associate Fellowship of the HEA
2017-2018 MA Textile Practice | Manchester School of Art, Distinction
2016-2017 The School of the Dammed |Year of the Monkey
2013-2014 Printmaking | The Hungarian University of Fine Art
2011-2015 BA Hons (Int) Fine Art | The University of Leeds, First Class
Solo and Duo Exhibitions
2025 Dykeland: Volume 2 | Ulster Presents, Belfast
2025 Dykeland: Volume 1 | The Whitaker Museum, Rossendale
2024 RABBIT | Bury Art Museum & Sculpture Center
2023 HARE | Bobinska Brownlee Gallery, London
2022 Quilting the Lesbian Archive | See Through Space, Manchester
2022 Looking for Lesbians | One Archives Gallery, West Hollywood, Los Angeles
2022 Beloved: crafting intimacies with the Ladies of Llangollen, Plas Newydd Historic House and Gardens
2021 Oranges are not the only fruit, Accrington Library, British Textile Biennale
2021 Archives and Amazons: a quilter’s guide to the lesbian archive | Granada Gallery HOME, Manchester
2021 Log Cabin | Digital Exhibition in Collaboration with Jordan Taylor, Commissioned by Superbia
2018 Hard Craft | Vane Gallery, Newcastle
2018 Queen | COLLAR, Manchester
Commissions/ed Projects
2025 Protest! IAP: MCR, People’s History Museum
2025 Listening to Lancaster: Paupers, Poachers and Vagrants, Judges Lodgings Museum
2024 10 Artists for 10 Years [Quilt] | HOME, Manchester
2024 The Kiss | From the North , The Mollie's Manchester Art Collection
2023 Embroidering Heritage Oral Histories | Elizabeth Gaskell House
2023 The Fabric of Science and Technology | BASE: Manchester Science Park, Bruntwood Sci Tech
2023 Building Bridges Pendle Commission [Co-created banners] | In Situ, Pendle
2022 A Tall Order |Touchstones Rochdale
2022 Queering the Whitworth [Banner Quilt] | The Whitworth Manchester
2022 Collaborative Banner Commission: Targeted Youth Support LGBT+ Group Banner Barnsley Civic
2021 A Terrible Accident | Islington Mill Heritage Project
2021 Pandemic Diary | [Digital Project], Decorating Dissidence
2019 Log Cabin | [Digital Project] Superbia, Manchester
2019 Beyond the Binary [Quilt] | Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford
2019 Collaborative Banner Commission: Women’s March Banner Making, Loughborough Arts.
2018 Processions: 100 years of suffrage [Banner] Artichoke Productions
2018 Rebel Girls Banner, Art School for Rebel Girls. Pavilion, Leeds
2016 Yorkshire Year of the Textiles [Installation]| Stanley and Audrey Burton Gallery, University of Leeds
Selected Community Workshops and Co-Produced Commisions
2025 Queer Utopia Workshop Series, Culture Co-Op, Rochdale
2023 Lesbian Textiles making party | Tate Modern
2023 LGBTQ Banner Making | Story House, Chester
2022 Feminist Banner Making with the Bronte Sisters | The Bronte Parsonage Museum
2022 LGBTQ Mini Banner Making Workshop Series, The Whitworth, Manchester
2022 Aberrations LGBTQ Mini Banner Making Workshop, Aberystwyth Arts Center
2021 Oral History Pennants Workshop | Metro Woolwich Equality Community Hub & Bijou Stories
2019 There is no place like home, Victoria and Albert Museum, London
2019 Lesbian History Miniature Banners, L Fest
Selected Group Exhibitions
2026 Re/Assemble | The People’s History Museum, Salford
2025 Soft Power| Royal West of England Academy
2025 Material Power | Hardwick Hall, The National Trust
2024 Tangled Up | Sunny Bank Mills, Yorkshire
2024 Ultra Violet | Cardigion Arts
2023 Islington Mill 100 Years in the Making | Salford Museum & Art Gallery
2023 Wink, Wink | The Whittaker
2023 A Tall Order | Touchstones, Rochdale
2023 (Un) Defining Queer | The Whitworth, Manchester
2022 Archives at Play | Castlefield Gallery
2021 Rebel Dykes | Golden Thread Gallery, Outburst Festival, Belfast
2021 Rebel Dykes Art and Archive Exhibition, Space Station Sixty Five, London
2021 Women Making History, Scottish House in London
2021 Beyond the Binary | The Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford
2019 Banner Culture | The British Textile Biennale, Brierfield Mill
2017 Weaving Europe | Shelly House, Paphos, Cyprus
2017 Cut Cloth: Contemporary Textiles and Feminism | The Portico Library, Manchester
2017 100% Absolutely Genuine Certified Degree Show | The Royal Standard, Liverpool & Set Space, London
2016 Lives, Love and Loss: Traces | Fenton House National Trust, London
2016The etiquette required for keeping still is similar to playing dead| Stanley Audrey Burton Gallery, Leeds
2016 Ebc006 Exhibition | East Bristol Contemporary Gallery, Bristol
2016 SNAKE/HORSE/GOAT/MONKEY | Guest Projects, London
Grants and Awards
2025 A-N Artist Bursary 2025-2026
2025 Curatorial Research Grant | Paul Mellon Center, Yale University
2024 Grants for Artists | Eaton Fund
2023 National Lottery Project Grant | Arts Council England, [RABBIT]
2022 Develop Your Creative Practice Grant | Arts Council England
2022 Emerging Artist Award | Cheshire Life Magazine, Cheshire Art Fair
2022 PhD Partner Placement Funding & Residency | NWCTDP, AHRC [ONE Archives, USC]
2022 PhD Partner Placement Funding & Residency | NWCTDP, AHRC [Plas Newydd]
2021 Short List | Janome Fine Art Textile Award, The Quilt Festival
2020 Artist Bursary | Curator Space
2020 Greater Manchester LGBTQ artist programme Project Funding | Superbia
2020 Cohort Development Fund | NWCTDP, AHRC [Queer Research Network]
2019 Explore and Develop Award | HOME, Manchester
2019 Cohort Development Fund | NWCTDP, AHRC [Proximity]
2019 PAHC Student Initiatives Fund | [Queer Research Network]
2018 National Lottery Project Grant | Arts Council England (Hard Craft)
2018 Full PhD Scholarship: North West Consortium Doctoral Training Partnership Award| AHRC
2017 National Lottery Project Grant | Arts Council England (Cut Cloth: contemporary textiles and feminism)
2015 Artist development award | Yorkshire Visual Arts Network
2015 Berkofsky Arts Award | Leeds University
2014 Santander Research Award | Study abroad research awards, Leeds University
2014 Leeds for Life Foundation Grant | Leeds University Union
Collections
The Lancaster Museum’s Collection
The Mollie’s Manchester Art Collection
Soho House Global Art Collection
Cardion Arts
The Whitworth, Manchester
The Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford
The ONE Archives, Los Angles
The V&A [Artist Book collection], London
The Bishopsgate Institute [personal archive], London
Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles
2025 Real Lemon: an intergenerational dialogue on lesbian tradition, Art History Journal, Special Issue on Queer Art since the 1980s, British Art Studies
2024 The Lesbian Quilt Manifesto, TEXTILE journal, p 625-630
2024 Archives and Amazons: a quilters guide to the lesbian archive, The Journal of Lesbian Studies, Volume 28, Issue 2, p 321-342
2022 Touching the Archive, Soanyway, Volume 2, issue 12
Book Chapters
[Author Accepted Manuscript 2025]: Queer Quilts: LGBTQ+ Mourning, Identity Formation and Kinship Building through Quilting, Encyclopedia of World Textiles, Politics and Power volume, Bloomsbury
2024 On Queer Archives co-authored with Ajamu X, (Un) Defining Queer: Queering the Constituent Museum, The Whitworth, The University of Manchester, p73-83
2024 Beloved: crafting femme intimacy and desire with the Ladies of Llangollen, Queering Desire: Lesbians, Gender and Subjectivity, Ryan Flood & Tooth Murphy, Routledge, p 342-359
Books
[Under Consideration 2026] In Proximity: methods of PhD practice based research in visual arts practice, Manchester University Press (co-authored with Proximity Collective: Ann Carragher, Jackie Haynes, Anthony Hall, Rebecca Howard & Anne-Marie Atkinson)
2017 Cut Cloth: contemporary textiles and feminism | PO Publishing, Leeds (Editor)
Book Covers
2024 Consent: Gender, Power and Subjectivity, Laurie James-Hawkins, Róisín Ryan-Flood (ed), Routledge
2025 Queering Women, Peace and Security, Jamie Hagan, Oxford University Press
Teaching and Research Roles
2025-2028 Visiting Research Fellow, Univerity of Leeds (joint with Rachael Field)
2025-2027 Paul Mellon Curatorial Researcher | Bishopsgate Institute, London
2021-2022 Associate Lecturer | Body Sexuality and Culture Unit, Sociology, MMU
2019-2021 Associate Lecturer | Contextualizing Practice [Fashioning Identity & Reading Objects], MMU
2016-2018 Research Support Administrator | School of Media and Communication, University of Leeds
Memberships & Boards
2025 Artist Representation | Cassinelli Mills
2025 National Executive Committee | Artist Union England
2023 - Editorial Board | Journal of Lesbian Studies, Taylor & Francis
2020 2024 Equality and Representation Committee Member, The Portico Library, Manchester
2019-2021 Harts online Editorial Assistant, Post Graduate Arts and Humanities, MMU
2018 to present Member | Proximity: practice led research collective
2018-2022 Co-director | Queer Research Network Manchester
2013 - 2018 present Co-director, Seize Projects, Leeds
2014 – 2015 Gallery Assistant | &Model Gallery, Leeds