Kate Egan
Senior Lecturer
Textiles in Practice
Kate Egan is a Senior Lecturer and Employability Lead for the School of Art and Design, and an Institutional Lead Scholar alumnus focusing on enterprise. In her employability role, Kate drives the School's strategic approach to career readiness, embedding employability into the curriculum, enhancing placement opportunities, and improving graduate outcomes through cross-institutional collaboration aligned with Faculty and University goals.
Kate's innovation scholarship within LEED has developed initiatives such as SPACE: Start Up Cafe - an entrepreneurial space for MMU students, Art School Commissions - supporting students in their creative careers, and a staff-facing community of practice to share approaches around curriculum employability.
Kate brings to the Textiles in Practice programme a wealth of expertise from over three decades of cross-disciplinary practice as a Creative Practitioner. She has taught across multiple disciplines at MMU and other institutions, exhibited her work internationally, and completed major public art commissions for interior and exterior spaces. Her collaborative approach creates innovative partnerships that enrich both her artistic practice and her teaching, including running commission-based external projects that give students real-world professional experience.
Kate has served as Programme Leader for BA (Hons) Textiles in Practice, BA (Hons) Creative Practice, and BA (Hons) Embroidery at Manchester School of Art. In 2017, she was awarded a mini-sabbatical to develop a portfolio of speculative 'smart textile' samples, exploring the intersection of traditional craft and emerging technologies.
Collaborative work includes 'Growing House' with Assadour Markarov China Academy of Art, 2022 Being Theoria: 4th International Hangzhou Triennial of Fibre Art. 'Carefully Descending Everywhere,' an installation created with Brendan Dawes for the Frontier Data Lab at PwC LLP London (August 2017), demonstrating her continued commitment to interdisciplinary innovation at the cutting edge of art, technology, and design.
Exhibited in the 2025 5th Hangzhou Triennial of Fibre Art, China.
Kate Egan is on the EPC pathway
Projects
Geofrey Manton MMU student commission 2013
Geoffrey Manton Student Commission (MMU) was a live commissioning project for the Humanities Building, initiated by Sharon Handley, resulting in ambitious, conceptually driven large‑scale artworks. Students responded to a real‑world brief and pitched proposals to a panel, gaining first‑hand experience of professional commissioning processes including negotiating budgets and proposing detailed budget breakdowns. Details…
Aura: Resonance of the Unseen - Current Practice in Progress 2025-6
My practice investigates the invisible waveform made seen through colour. I make large-scale interactive textile installations that respond to the human body — work grounded in David Bohm’s concept of the implicate order, where the unseen is made felt through material and light. Details…
Baker Tilly external commision with staff and students 2009
This project involved staff and students working together for a commission brief for the new Spinningfield offices of Baker Tilly Accountants.2009 . Details…
Beachcroft external commision with staff and students 2010 + 2019
Beachcroft Commission was an experimental, site specific project involving both staff and students, designed to model collaborative professional practice within a live office environment. Students pitched proposals directly to the client and worked to develop responsive artworks for the space, gaining experience of commissioning, site specific thinking and material decision making. Details…
Bruntwood Manchester One student commission 2017
Bruntwood Manchester One Commission (2017) was a competitive, site‑specific live brief that mirrored professional commissioning and pitching processes. Vanessa Lam was selected to produce a large‑scale textile installation for the windows of Bruntwood’s Manchester One building, winning the brief through a proposal that responded sensitively to the site through material exploration and conceptual thinking. Details…
Bruntwood Oxford Place student commissions 2017
Bruntwood Oxford Place Commission was a site‑specific live brief designed to embed employability and professional practice within the curriculum. Students responded to a commercial client brief and pitched proposals to a panel of clients and staff, gaining first‑hand experience of real‑world commissioning processes including presentation, negotiation, budgeting and decision‑making. Details…
Bruntwood Riverside Public Art Commission 2019
Bruntwood Riverside Public Art Commission was a large‑scale live project resulting in the commissioning of 15 site‑specific artworks for a Bruntwood building in Manchester. Building on earlier Bruntwood commissions, the project was intentionally scaled to enable wider student participation while maintaining professional standards. Details…
Cheshire Oaks Public Art student commission 2015
Cheshire Oaks Public Art student commission. Details…
Crown Paint Metaverse Commission 2023
Mixed media installation with Crown Paints 'Metaverse' colour insights. Collaboration between Crown Paints, Tim denton, Neon Creations and students @annalouisetextiles, @kylietextiles @caraart and Mark Beecroft. Details…
Manchester Art Fair student stand and large-scale artworks
https://www.art. Details…
Miliners Wharf public space student commisson 2013
Miliners Wharf public space student commisson. Details…
MMU Library Chat Zone student commission 2012
MMU Library Chat Zone student commission. Details…
Oxford Road Chaplaincy Student Commission 2014
St Peters House Chaplaincy student commission. The quiet room walk way. Details…
Primary One Europe Manchester and London student commission 2017
. Details…
Royal London Insurance Headquarters 2021
Royal London Insurance Headquarters, Alderley Park Commission was a live, site‑specific project involving six students working to agreed materials budgets within a professional office environment. The brief was developed collaboratively with the client, giving students insight into how commissioning conversations are shaped by organisational context, audience and site. Details…
Textiles in Practice - In Progress Show 2016
Curated show - Textiles in Practice in Progress Show 2016. Staff and student work. Details…
Virgin Atlantic Commission for Manchester Airport 2020
Virgin Atlantic Commission for Manchester Airport was a live, competitive project developed in collaboration with Virgin Atlantic and STAC Architects, centred on re‑imagining materials from a decommissioned Boeing 747, including aircraft seats and seatbelts. Students responded to a real‑world brief for a public space within Manchester Airport, developing design proposals through a competitive pitching process with direct involvement from the client team. Details…
Research
Exhibitions
Egan, K., 2021. Out Of Place, British Textile Biennial, 10/2021 - 10/2021.
Cocchiarella, F., Shaw, A., McCullagh, J., Stephens, M., Grimshaw, D., Mulhearn, E., Kettle, A., McCullough, I., McCullagh, J., Hitchen, J., Egan, K., Aubrey, K., Raven, L., Gannon, L., Biggs, L., Setterington, L., Beecroft, M., McLeish, M., Threlfall, S., 2019. Radical Response exhibition in partnership with the International Association of Design Research (IASDR) Conference, Manchester School of Art, Manchester, 2/9/2019 - 5/9/2019.
Kettle, A.M., Brown, V., Grimshaw, D., Egan, K., Cocchiarella, F., 2014. A Place at the Table, 25/11/2014 - 18/1/2015.
McKeating, J., 2014. Scenes of Change, L'Aguille en Fete, Paris, February 2014.
McKeating, J., 2012. Hand Stich Perspectives, Knitting and stitching show Alexander palace London, Harrogate and Dublin, October -November 2012.
McKeating, J., 2012. Machine stitch Perspectives 2, L'aguille en Fete, Paris, February 2012.
McKeating, J., 2012. Pairings II: conversations and collaborations, Stroud International Textiles, Park Gallery, Stroud, April - may 2012.
Egan, K. and Dr Cutler, V, 2012. ‘Pairings II-conversations & collaborations’, Museum in the Park Stroud GL5 4AF, 28 April – 27 May 2012.
Webb, J., 2011. Pairings, MMU Special Collections, Otter Gallery Chichester, Fairfield Mill, Cumbria, September 2010 -.
McKeating, J., 2010. Machine Stitch Perspectives, Knitting and Stitching show, London, Harrogate and Dublin, Sept 2010 - Nov 2010.
Artefacts
Egan, K., 2022. 'Out of Place'.
Egan, K., 2021. 'Future Stitch'.
Egan, K., Dawes, B., 2018. 'The Jack Plug Universe', The Sage concourse Gateshead.
Egan, K., Dawes, B., 2017. ''Carefully Descending Everywhere'', PWC Frontier Data Lab, London.
Egan, K., 2015. ''Breathe'', Pallant House Gallery, Chichester.
Journal Articles
Egan, K., Turner-Pemberton, B., Potter, G., 2024. '"Out of Place": Cross-Cultural Collaboration and Virtual Space', Textile: the journal of cloth and culture, 22 (3), pp. 534-546.