Althea McNish

**Althea McNish**  (bɛ daa dɔɣi o la silimiin goli May biɛɣ'pinaanu dali yuuni 1924 ka daa kpi silimiin goli April biɛɣ'pinaayobu dali yuuni 2020) daa nyɛla nucheeni baŋda ŋun yina Trinidad ŋun daa leei tuuli Black British textile designer.

Bɛ daa dɔɣi o la Trinidad, McNish ka daa labi Britain yuuni 1950s. O nyɛla ŋun daa be Caribbean Artists Movement (CAM) yuuni 1960s, ka nyɛ ŋun daa niŋdi CAM's exhibitions din yɛn kpaŋsi Caribbean nucheeni baŋsim. O tumanima nyɛla din be Victoria and Albert Museum, the Whitworth Museum,  Philadelphia Museum of Art, Museum of Domestic Design and Architecture n-ti pahi  Cooper-Hewitt (Smithsonian Design Museum).

McNish nyɛla ŋun daa be Chartered Society of Designers. O nyɛla ŋun daa kuli John Weiss (1933–2018).

## Selected exhibitions
;Solo exhibitions
* 1958: *Althea McNish*. Woodstock Gallery, London.
* 1982: *Althea McNish*. People's Gallery, London.
* 1997: *Althea McNish*. Hockney Gallery, Royal College of Art, London.
* 2003: *Althea McNish: My World of Colour: The international work and inspirations of a Black British Trinidadian textile designer*. Ohio University, Athens, USA.
* 2022: *Althea McNish: Colour is Mine*. William Morris Gallery, London.
* 2023: *Althea McNish: Colour is Mine*. University of Manchester, Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester.

;Group exhibitions
* 1961: *Paintings by Trinidad and Tobago Artists*. Commonwealth Institute, London.
* 1967: *Caribbean Artists Movement*. Theatre Royal, Stratford.
* 1968: *Caribbean Artists Movement*. Digby Stuart College, House of Commons of the United Kingdom and London School of Economics, London.
* 1971: *Caribbean Artists in England*. Commonwealth Institute, London.
* 1975: *Caribbean Women Artists Exhibition*. Olympia International Arts Centre, Kingston, Jamaica.
* 1978: *Afro-Caribbean Art*. Artists Market, London, organised by Drum Arts Centre. 
* 1978: *The Way We Live Now*. Victoria & Albert Museum, London.
* 1981: *INDIGO '81 International Exhibition*. Indigo, Lille, France.
* 1982: *Commonwealth Festival Exhibition*. Brisbane, Australia.
* 1986: *Make or Break*. Henry Moore Gallery, London.
* 1996: *Caribbean Connection 2: Island Pulse*. Islington Arts Factory, London.
* 1997: *Transforming the Crown: African, Asian & Caribbean Artists in Britain, 1966–1996*. Caribbean Cultural Center, Studio Museum in Harlem, and Bronx Museum of the Arts, New York.
* 1997: *Trinidad and Tobago Through the Eye of the Artist: From Cazabon to the New Millennium 1813–2000*. Commonwealth Institute, London. Exhibition in celebration of the 35th anniversary of independence of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago.
* 1998: *Six into One: Artists from the Caribbean*. Morley Gallery, London.
* 2007: *Trade and Empire: Remembering Slavery*. Whitworth Art Gallery, University of Manchester, Manchester.
*2011: *RCA Black*. Royal College of Art, London.
* 2019: *Get Up, Stand Up Now.* Somerset House, London.

## Awards and accolades
* 1976: Chaconia Medal (Gold), Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, "for long and meritorious service to art and design"
* 1988: Scarlet Ibis Award, Trinidad and Tobago High Commission, London
* 2006: Honorary Doctor of Fine Art, University of Trinidad and Tobago
* 2008: Journalist Angela Cobbinah described her as "immediately influential, helping to establish new furnishing trends as well as inspire more adventurous fashion designers further down the line like Zandra Rhodes."
* 2012: Jubilee Gala Award for Achievement in the Arts at the UK High Commission of Trinidad and Tobago, celebrating the 50th anniversary of independence.

## Kundivihira

## Further reading
* Roxy Harris and Sarah White (eds), *Building Britannia: Life Experience With Britain: Dennis Bovell, Athea McNish, Gus John, Rev. Wilfred Wood, Aggrey Burke, Yvonne Brewster, Alexis Rennie*, New Beacon Books, 2009, .
* Christine Checinska (2009), "Althea McNish and the British-African Diaspora", Chapter 3 in Anne Massey, Alex Seago (eds), *Pop Art and Design*, Bloomsbury Publishing, pp. 73–81.

* Christine Checinska (March 2018), "Christine Checinska in Conversation with Althea McNish and John Weiss", *Textile*, Volume 16, Issue 2: Aesthetics of Blackness? Cloth, Culture and the African Diasporas, 16:2, 186–199. DOI: 10.1080/14759756.2018.1432183.

## External links
* 
* "Althea Marjorie McNISH" at *Debrett's People of Today*.
* "Dr. Althea McNish in conversation with John Weiss". Stuart Hall Library, InIVA, 2015. "Audio recordings of Althea McNish in conversation with John Weiss" , InIVA, 5 May 2015.
* "Designer Desire: Althea McNish", *H is for Home Harbinger*, 18 August 2018.
* Angela Cobbinah, "Althea: the original material girl", *[[Camden New Journal]]*, 20 June 2019.
* Libby Sellers, "Althea McNish", *Maharam*.
* Jess Johnson, "A Spotlight On… Althea McNish", Liberty, From the Archive.