Society announces new Honorary Fellowships
The Society has conferred Honorary Fellowships to Diana Springall, Dids Macdonald OBE and Matthew Bullock.
Diana Springall
Diana has been a member of the Society since the 1960’s and became a Fellow in March 1970. She served as Chairman of the Society from 1987 to 1990.
Diana has not been creatively active with stitch over the last three years but this has enabled her to devote a lot more time to building and documenting her collection covering the contemporary art of embroidery.
Recent acquisitions such as Karen Nicol’s wonderful 'Swan' and Chilean artist Estefania Tarud Karl’s 'Self Portrait' (see images below) are just two of the pieces in the collection. Plans for the gift of this collection to Sunbury Embroidery Gallery, Sunbury-on-Thames, are still in place and fundraising continues for the new extension. Support for this is always much appreciated.
Examples of Diana's own work can be found on her Society Maker Page - Diana Springall - and the Diana Springall Collection can be seen here.
Dids Macdonald OBE
Dids Macdonald has over 35 years’ experience within the design sector and co-founded ACID (Anti Copying in Design), which represents 1000’s of designers and campaigns for design law reforms, most notably the introduction of criminal provisions for the intentional infringement of a registered design enshrined in the 2014 Intellectual Property (IP) Act.
Dids is passionate about helping micro and small/medium enterprises (SMEs) protect their valuable IP via education and awareness and helping them create a proactive IP Strategy.
Dids is an Honorary Fellow of the British Institute of Interior Design (BIID) and in 2015 was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for her services to the design industry.
In 2016 she was admitted to the Design Week Hall of Fame and the first to be awarded the Alliance British IP Day Champion.
She is currently Vice-Chair of the Alliance for Intellectual Property and she is on the Steering Board for the 2021 Design Council Design Economy.
In May 2019 she was installed as Master of the Worshipful Furniture Makers Company and is still actively involved as a Past Master.
Matthew Bullock
Many of you may have heard Matthew's name mentioned over the years as it is definitely a name with a legacy in the Society. In the 1970's and 1980's, he was highly involved in many aspects of the SDC, not least in his role as treasurer, and his work then is still bringing the Society and its members benefits today. Among the many important projects he oversaw was the purchase of our garages in Cambridge and the setting up of SDC Ltd to enable the acquisition of 24 Rivington Street in London, the rent from which now helps to keep the Society on a strong financial footing.
Matthew’s background is in both academia and the financial world. He was master of St Edmund’s College, Cambridge 2014-2019 having previously read history at Cambridge as a student: And his long and distinguished banking career has encompassed stints in senior management at both a high street bank, an investment bank and a building society.
He was heavily involved in the financing of technology companies in the first stages of the Cambridge Phenomenon (the term used to describe the extraordinary hub of technology, life sciences and service businesses which have grown up around Cambridge since the 1960s).
He also found time to sit on several governmental advisory boards and tosupport his former university and its city in numerous roles – for instance as a founding member of the Cambridge University’s Judge Business School and as a non-exec and chairman of the audit committee of Addenbrooke’s hospital.