Burke, Frances Mary (1907 - 1994)

Frances Mary Burke was appointed as a Member of the British Empire on the 1 January 1970 for her contribution to art and design. In 1937 she established with fellow graduate Morris Holloway Australia's first registered textile printery - Burway Prints. The Frances Burke Textile Resource Centre at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology is named in her honour.

Chronology

1937	Founded Burway Prints, the first registered textile screen printery in Australia (Frances Burke Fabrics Pty Ltd)
1938	Foundation member of the Contemporary Arts Society
1940	Exhibiting member of the Arts and Crafts Society
1942	Commissioned to design fabrics for first Australian Embassy Washington, USA
1947	Foundation member of the Society of Industrial Designers
1958	Foundation member of the Industrial Design Institute of Australia (now Design Institute of Australia)
1958 - 1966	Council member at the Museum of Modern Art and Design Australia
1968	Foundation council member of the National Printery Council
1968 - 1971	President of the Arts and Crafts Society
1977 - 1981	Member of council at University College Melbourne
1980 - 1983	Chairman of the Course Advisory Committee in Textile Design at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT)
1987	Director of Arts Honoris Causa at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT)

Membership

• Lyceum Club (Melbourne) (1912 - )

Related Places

• Frances Burke Centre

Books

• Burke, Frances Mary, Exclusive hand prints, RMIT, Melbourne, 1996, 12 pp. [ Details... ]
• Casey, Maie, From the night / [poems by Maie Casey ; drawings by Frances Burke], M. Casey, [Berwick, Vic.], [1976], 41 pp. [ Details... ]
• Oswald-Jacobs, Robyn, Francis Burke fabrics / Department of Fashion & Textile Design, RMIT, RMIT, Melbourne, [1996], 12 pp. [ Details... ]

Catalogues

• Green, Erica, Frances Burke fabrics, 1937-1965 ; Gerry Wedd and Mambo, Harding, Peter, University of South Australia, Art Museum, Adelaide, 1999. [ Details... ]

Newspaper Articles

• 'Designer who did it her way', Age, 16 March. [ Details... ]

Theses

• Oswald-Jacobs, Robyn, 'A study of the work of Dr Francis Mary Burke, MBE, textile designer, with particular reference to the development of printed textile design in Australia.', Biographical Novel, RMIT University, 1997, 209 pp. [ Details... ]

Online Resources

• 'Burke, Frances', in Cyberfibres: Online Register of Australian Fashion and textile design, Frances Burke Textile Resource Centre on AustehcWeb, 2000, http://www.cyberfibres.rmit.edu.au/biogs/TRC0005b.htm. [ Details... ]

See also

• 'The fabric of a society [review]', Age, 22 April. [ Details... ]
• Cadman, Kerith A (ed.), Who's who in Australia, 1988, 26 edn, The Herald and Weekly Times, Melbourne, 1988, 960 pp. [ Details... ]
• De Nijs, Jenny, Women as designers in Australia, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Melbourne, 1986. [ Details... ]
• Kerr, Joan (ed.), Heritage : the national women's art book, 500 works by 500 Australian women artists from colonial times to 1955, Craftsman House, Roseville East, NSW, 1995, 483 pp. [ Details... ]