People

Anne TOOMEY
      Head of Programme, Textiles,

      School of Design, Royal College of Art
Anne is a textiles specialist with national and international experience in research-based design, product development, manufacture and postgraduate education.

With a background as a commercial designer and over 21 years in academia, Anne has a track record of initiating innovative approaches to cross-disciplinary collaborations.

As Head of the Textiles Programme at Royal College of Art, she leads a team of staff and over 140 students working at the creative interface between materials, making and meaning. Their collective focus is the innovation that impacts and spans across many sectors, exploring new territories for the twenty-first century Textiles specialist.

Under her leadership, the Textiles Programme has established the "Soft Systems" research group who focuses on Textiles Innovation, incorporating aspects of emerging material science with design to develop a platform of novel, multi-sensory textiles that explore new applications and routes to market.