Penelope Anne "Penny" Sparke (born 6 November 1948) is a British writer and academic specialising in the history of design. She has been Professor of Design History at Kingston University, London, since 1999, where she is also Director of the Modern Interiors Research Centre.
Sparke was born on 6 November 1948 in London, England. [1] She studied French Literature at Sussex University between 1967 and 1971, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree. [1] [2] She remained at Sussex to undertake a Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE), which she completed in 1972. [1] She undertook postgraduate research at Brighton Polytechnic, and completed her Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree in Design History in 1975. [1] [2] Her doctoral thesis was titled Theory and design in the age of pop. [3] Sparke was awarded an honorary degree from the University for the Creative Arts in 2016. [4]
From 1975 to 1982, Sparke was a lecturer in design history at Brighton Polytechnic (now the University of Brighton). [1] She was then a lecturer in design history at the Royal College of Art in London between 1982 and 1999. [5] In 1999, she joined Kingston University, London, where she had been appointed Professor of Design History. [1] She additionally served as Dean of its Faculty of Art, Design and Music from 1999 to 2005, and as Pro-Vice Chancellor (Research and Enterprise) from 2005 to 2014. [1]
Sparke has written 15 books about Twentieth-Century Design. She has also curated a number of exhibitions, including The Plastics Age at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London in 1990. [6] Her areas of specialism include design history, history of the modern interior, and design and gender. [5] In 2010, Sparke’s book The Genius of Design was published to accompany a 5-part BBC Two television series under the same title which was broadcast in 2009. [7] [8]
In 2007, Sparke, worked as a consultant for Pyrex helping with the communication project for their new cookware range designed by George Sowden.
She was previously the Course Director of the V&A Museum/Royal College of Art Postgraduate History of Design Programme. [9]
Sparke is Chair of the Editorial Board for the Journal of Design History, published by the Design History Society. [10]
The University of Brighton is a public university based on four campuses in Brighton and Eastbourne on the south coast of England. Its roots can be traced back to 1858 when the Brighton School of Art was opened in the Royal Pavilion. It achieved university status in 1992.
Shepherd's pie, cottage pie, or in its French version hachis Parmentier, is a savoury dish of cooked minced meat topped with mashed potato and baked, formerly also called Sanders or Saunders. The meat used may be either previously cooked or freshly minced. The usual meats are beef or lamb. The two English terms have been used interchangeably since they came into use in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, although some writers insist that a shepherd's pie should contain lamb or mutton, and a cottage pie, beef.
Steak and kidney pie is a popular British dish. It is a savoury pie filled principally with a mixture of diced beef, diced kidney and onion. Its contents are generally similar to those of steak and kidney puddings.
Elsie de Wolfe, Lady Mendl was an American actress who became a very prominent interior designer and author. Born in New York City, de Wolfe was acutely sensitive to her surroundings from her earliest years and became one of the first female interior decorators, replacing dark and ornate Victorian decor with lighter, simpler styles and uncluttered room layouts.
Paola Antonelli is an Italian architect, curator, author, editor, and educator. Antonelli is the Senior Curator of Architecture and Design at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York, where she also serves as the founding Director of Research and Development. She has been described as "one of the 25 most incisive design visionaries in the world" by TIME magazine.
Paula Shane Pryke is a British florist and author.
Catherine McDermott is a Professor of Design at Kingston University in London, England. She specialises in the curation of contemporary design, and has been described by Design Week as "one of design's most prominent academics".
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Frock Me! is an exhibition that specialises in vintage fashion. Frock Me! was created in 1997 and takes place in Chelsea, London and in Kensington, London. Frock Me! has been influential on modern fashion trends with many buyers from High Street fashion stores sourcing inspiration for their designs and patterns from this event. The name Frock Me! was coined by founder Matthew Adams who studied theatrical costume design at Central School of Art.
There are 24 Grade I listed buildings in the city of Brighton and Hove, England. The city, on the English Channel coast approximately 52 miles (84 km) south of London, was formed as a unitary authority in 1997 by the merger of the neighbouring towns of Brighton and Hove. Queen Elizabeth II granted city status in 2000.
Amon Wilds was an English architect and builder. He formed an architectural partnership with his son Amon Henry Wilds in 1806 and started working in the fashionable and growing seaside resort of Brighton, on the East Sussex coast, in 1815. After 1822, when the father-and-son partnership met and joined up with Charles Busby, they were commissioned—separately or jointly—to design a wide range of buildings in the town, which was experiencing an unprecedented demand for residential development and other facilities. Wilds senior also carried out much work on his own, but the description "Wilds and Busby" was often used on designs, making individual attribution difficult. Wilds senior and his partners are remembered most for his work in post-Regency Brighton, where most of their houses, churches and hotels built in a bold Regency style remain—in particular, the distinctive and visionary Kemp Town and Brunswick estates on the edges of Brighton, whose constituent parts are Grade I listed buildings.
Judith Henderson Miller was a Scottish antiques expert, writer, and broadcaster.
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Elizabeth Wilhide is an author and novelist who has written extensively about design and decoration. Wilhide's first novel, Ashenden, was published by Penguin in June 2012. Her second novel, If I Could Tell You, was published by Fig Tree Penguin in February 2016. She was born in the United States and has lived in the United Kingdom since 1967. Wilhide currently resides in South London.
Elizabeth Denby was an English social housing expert and consultant.
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Theresa Ann "Tag" Gronberg is an art historian with Birkbeck College, University of London. She is a specialist in the art of the Vienna Secession and Viennese coffeehouse culture. Her research interests also include gender and visual culture in 1920s France.
Cheryl Buckley is a British design historian whose research has focused on feminist approaches to design history. She has published on British ceramic design and fashion. Her works include the influential article "Made in Patriarchy: Toward a Feminist Analysis of Women and Design" (1986) and the books Potters and Paintresses (1990) and Designing Modern Britain (2007). She was professor of fashion and design history at the University of Brighton from 2013-2021, and was previously professor of design history at Northumbria University. In 2021, she was made Professor Emerita at the University of Brighton.
Elsa Gullberg was a Swedish interior architect and textile designer. She was a pioneer of modern textile design in Sweden and played an instrumental role in transforming the textile industry. She was one of the renowned Swedish textile designers including Erik Wettergren, Carl Bergsten and Gregor Paulsson, who worked to modernize textile industries in Sweden.
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