Museum of Mankey Tea Towels: Call for Tea Towels!
Written on May 25th, 2026 by Ben Kirman
Call for Tea Towels!
As part of ongoing research with tea towels and storytelling, we are co-organising an event at the arts and science festival Electromagnetic Field called “The Museum of Manky Tea Towels”.
This is a workshop where we explore the storytelling of tea towels. We uncover the politics and narrative threads of these everyday objects, and support visitors in modifying, staining, enhancing and re-designing tea towels to tell alternative stories about places and people.
I need your help: We need loads of printed souvenir/novelty tea towels, to serve as the raw material both for the exhibition, and also for people to cut up and repurpose. If you have any old souvenir tea towels you no longer want, I would love your donations for the collection. They can be in any state of stains and tatters (it is a manky museum, after all!).
Let me know if you can help! ben.kirman@york.ac.uk
