Professor collects MBE at Buckingham Palace

A professor from the University for the Creative Arts (UCA) received her MBE from Prince Charles at Buckingham Palace today (18 November).

Lesley Millar MBE, who is Professor of Textile Culture at UCA Farnham, was awarded the title in the Queen's Birthday Honours list earlier this year for her outstanding contribution to the creative arts in Higher Education.

Professor Millar, who founded UCA's Anglo-Japanese Textile Research Centre in 2001, has become a global expert on textiles and curated several major exhibitions around the world.

Lesley Millar MBE said: "It is an enormous honour to receive this award and I feel very privileged to be invited to Buckingham Palace and stand alongside so many inspirational people.

"It is fantastic to see that higher education and the creative arts are still being recognised in this way despite the current upheaval – it truly validates what we do and what we have achieved at UCA.

"Prince Charles was utterly charming and very interested in my work and the state of textiles worldwide. I told him that I was a walking Anglo-Japanese Textile ambassador by wearing a Vivienne Westwood jacket and Yoji Yamamoto skirt.

"I wouldn't be here at Buckingham Palace today if it wasn't for UCA and the opportunities it has given me in my textiles research so I would like to thank everybody at the university for this too."

Dr Simon Ofield-Kerr, Vice-Chancellor at UCA, said: "Everyone at UCA is very proud of Professor Millar's important contribution being recognised in this way and on behalf of the university it is my pleasure to congratulate her publicly – it is thoroughly deserved.
 
"Professor Millar has championed textiles research in the UK and Japan for more than 15 years and is currently bringing this to the public through major exhibitions in Birmingham and London.
 
"It is fabulous to see craft, design and Higher Education being honoured by the country in this way."

Professor Millar, who lives in Cranbrook, Kent, has curated two major textiles exhibitions that are currently open to the public.

Lost in Lace, which explores textiles and space, is on at Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery (BMAG) from 29 October 2011 to 19 February 2012.Bite-Size is an exhibition of miniature works by textile artists from the UK and Japan and is showing at the Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation in London from 31 October to 14 December 2011. It will then travel and be shown in Japan.

Professor Millar has been a practising weaver since 1975. Her work is in the permanent collections of both The Crafts Council and Arts Council England and is listed on the Crafts Council Index of Selected Makers. She has exhibited throughout the UK, in Europe, the USA and Japan.

In 2007 she was appointed Professor of Textile Culture at UCA and in 2008 received the Japan Society Award for significant contribution to Anglo-Japanese relationships.

Last month, former UCA Vice-Chancellor Professor Elaine Thomas received a CBE for her contribution to the creative arts in higher education.

For more information contact:

David Reilly, Press Officer, UCA
T: 01252 892939
E: dreilly@ucreative.ac.uk

Twitter: @UCA_creative