Arts University Plymouth awards Honorary Fellowship to Zowie Broach

Arts University Plymouth has awarded an Honorary Fellowship to Zowie Broach in recognition of her outstanding contribution to fashion and to fashion design education.

The honour was awarded at the arts university’s first Graduation ceremony since formally achieving university status, where the first cohort of students to formally graduate from Arts University Plymouth celebrated their graduation with friends and family in a ceremony at the city's Theatre Royal.

Designer and artist Zowie Broach graduated from a Foundation Diploma in Art & Design at Arts University Plymouth in 1985. She first attracted attention for co-founding in 1997 the avant-garde fashion label BOUDICCA, who were the first independent British label to show during Couture Paris, as well as exhibiting at the Chicago Arts Institute and Tel Aviv Museum. Their Invisible City collection AW04 is part of the permanent collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Zowie has also consulted for Cartier.

BOUDICCA, which was the first fashion show to be live-streamed, back in 2004 by SHOWstudio, continued to investigate the digital interface as a tool and an exploration of identity and material, with a fellowship at The Stanley Picker Gallery 014 that echoed the virtual worlds of computer gaming – ‘The Liquid Game’, an immersive audio-visual installation.

Alongside her role as a designer and artist, Zowie Broach has been involved in fashion education for over a decade. Teaching for eight years at the University of Westminster in London, Parsons The New School for Design in New York, SIAC in Chicago and Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem. Between 2009 and 2011, Zowie was appointed designer in residence at London College of Fashion. And in 2014 she returned to Arts University Plymouth for an exhibition of BOUDICCA’s work called ‘Move’ in what is now MIRROR.

Every year Arts University Plymouth awards Honorary Fellowships to recognise exceptional achievement in the creative arts, as well as recognising individuals that have achieved significant social change through arts and culture. Past recipients of Honorary Fellowships from the university include Anne Barlow, Director of Tate St Ives; Sir Nicholas Serota, Chair of Arts Council England; and Richard Deacon CBE, the leading British sculptor and Turner Prize winner.