Orleans House Gallery has been selected to take part in museumaker, a prestigious, national project involving 16 museums across the country. museumaker is an ambitious partnership between makers, museums, and visitors, and is supported by the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council, Renaissance in the Regions and Arts Council England.

Outstanding contemporary makers have been chosen to create exceptional new commissions for each partner museum in response to its site and heritage collections. A participatory project, involving the public, is an integral element in each programme. By exploring the possibilities of creative interchanges between the historical and the contemporary, museumaker offers something special for existing museum visitors, as well as establishing ways to develop new audiences.

Eleanor Pritchard is an internationally acclaimed weaver. Her designs celebrate traditional British fabrics, reinterpreting them in a contemporary context. Eleanor will be exploring the great social event of dining and how this would have linked the real inhabitants of the houses along this stretch of the Thames including Orleans House, Ham House, Strawberry Hill and Garrick’s Temple.

She will be creating a fantasy banquet at Orleans House, which tells the story of each guest and also reflects the architectural finery of these grand houses. She will also be running a range of workshops for families with Keirion Carrol, including a ‘ruffs and cuffs’ workshop for children to re-create extravagant Elizabethan and Stuart ruffs and a special project as part of the summer Carnival in June.