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National Lottery Heritage Fund
The National Lottery Heritage Fund is the largest funder for the UK's heritage. Using money raised by National Lottery players we support projects that connect people and communities to heritage. Our vision is for heritage to be valued, cared for and sustained for everyone, now and in the future. From historic buildings, our industrial legacy and the natural environment, to collections, traditions, stories and more. Heritage can be anything from the past that people value and want to pass on to future generations. We believe in the power of heritage to ignite the imagination, offer joy and inspiration, and to build pride in place and connection to the past.
Colourful Heritage
Colourful Heritage is an exciting and multi-faceted project funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund in collaboration with the University for the Creative Arts (UCA) and The Zandra Rhodes Foundation due to be completed in September 2025. The project aims to inspire future generations of young designers and creative practitioners by offering a dynamic platform for students to engage with creativity, fashion, and heritage.
The project has digitally archived 150 pieces of Dame Zandra Rhodes’ collections to expand the existing freely available digital archive hosted on VADS. Five internship opportunities were offered to current UCA students, four giving first-hand experience within Zandra Rhodes Studio in handling, restoring, and preparation of the garments to be photographed for the archive, and the other within the Digitisation Studio at the university.
Rhodes’ latest Style and Textile Bibles, which complete a comprehensive record of her work from 1969 to 2020, were transported to UCA to be scanned in the Digitisation Studio. The Style Bibles are previously unseen private working resources, held only in the Studio, which are now available online for anyone to browse. Additionally, creation of a knowledge bank of interviews capturing oral histories gives a deeper understanding of the pieces captured, their connections and the nuances around the working practices of 6 key people from Rhodes’ career.
The outreach programme has been designed to inspire and support Key Stage 5 learners from secondary schools/colleges across Medway, where Zandra Rhodes grew up. It offers a series of fully funded workshops using the digital collection as inspiration, co-creation of a digital creative community and an opportunity to exhibit work in a gallery. To support the legacy of this project there will also be a CPD opportunity for teachers of any level across the wider Kent area.
