Tapestry weaves Community

COMMUNITY THREADS exhibition: Line Dufour and the Nottawasaga Handweavers & Spinners                                                              Opening reception: October 27 2-5pm
The Nottawasaga Handweavers and Spinners, situated at the Gibson Centre in Alliston, Ontario Canada,  asked me to help them design 12 handwoven tapestries depicting the cultural and historical aspects of the New Tecumseh municipality. The initiative commenced in July of 2011 and is entitled Community Threads.    The Ontario Arts Council gave me a grant to work with the guild to this end. Once the designs were created, there were many hours of creating the cartoons, preparing the yarns for the tapestries, and preparing the looms. 

During the project, I’ve been blogging about how the project has been evolving noting the people involved,  my own observations, insights and surprises as well as posting lots of pictures of the projects denouement: http://www.tapestryline.blogspot.ca/.  I’ve been showcasing the talents of the guild members, many never realizing they had artistic aptitude, nor having much confidence. It’s been very rewarding to see their creativity emerge and blossom. Some guild members, after years of fabric weaving, are discovering that maybe tapestry is more their thing!  It’s been a positive experience for all of us. People have donated yarn, materials, equipment, food, and above all hours of their time. People have also donated time preparing audio visual presentations. Local papers, magazines, and the Ontario Handweavers and Spinners “Fibre Focus”  have written stories about the Community Threads initiative. . I made a video of the birthing of the project and you can see it on You Tube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BtqjcDtrYfY.  

Fate, Destiny and Self-Determination/le sort, le destin et l'auto-determination.

Weavers and non weavers from all over the world are participating in  co-creating a tapestry installation entitled Fate, Destiny and Self Determination/le sort, destin et l'auto-determination.  

The tapestry installation is composed of three sections. Section one is being woven entirely by myself in my studio. 

Section three is being woven on the Gobelin loom at the Toronto Weaving School in Toronto. Anyone and everyone is welcome to visit and weave a portion of the pre-determined design. You are welcome to participate Mondays and Wednesdays 10am to 9pm except on October 14 2013. 255 Royal York Road, 2nd floor, Room 30. Email me (Line Dufour) at tapestryline@sympatico.ca. \

Section two is composed of shapes, not greater than 10cm (4”).  186 people have asked for 230 shapes from 20 different countries.  The shapes can woven  in any tapestry or rug technique with whatever non perishable material or fibre. If you would like to create a shape contact me at tapestryline@sympatico.ca. So far, 81 shapes have been returned and documented on my blog. Below, recent shapes that have arrived. 

 MarieThumette Brichard, France

Once all the sections are completed, they will be exhibited in a gallery and the exhibition may end up touring. All who have participated will have their name included as being makers of the tapestry installation. I’ll be putting together a video and slide show of the project. This video will be exhibited with the final tapestry installation. 

Janette Meetze, Oklahoma, USA. 

www.jmeetzestudiocommonthreads.blogspot.com

Bernadeta Nowak, Poland. 

Kate Kitchen, Ontario Canada.

http://www.katekitchenart.com/

A Weave-In project inspired my other community based tapestry endeavours. Shown here Marie Payne and Gail Sheldon and below Fran Gurwitz.

Tapestry by Marie Thumette Brichard, France. 

1.       Jobs at the Dovecot in Edinburgh (for a weaver and a rug tufter)

The deadline for applications is soon. For more information visit their web page  http://dovecotstudios.com/

[about] TAPESTRY EXHIBITIONS

Lynn Mayne writes:

Traveling south from Michigan this week gave me the opportunity to visit “Outside The Line,” ATA’s Small Tapestry International 3 in Troy, Ohio. This second venue of the show is just six miles off I75 in a landmark mansion on the main street which has been converted intoa cultural center owned by the city.

The show is up a wide staircase on the second floor on beige fabric-covered walls. I enjoyed seeing these actual works which in manycases were even more impressive than their images in the exhibition’scatalog. The dimension and color of the catalog cover tapestry, “Colorin” Books" by Sharon Crary was striking. Margo Macdonald’s “Ebey’s Prairie” was made even more beautiful by the paper collage mounting which doesn’t show up in the catalog picture. Similarly, I
could really appreciate the delicacy of Dorothy Clews’ “The SpaceBetween” by seeing it in person. “Beyond the Line - A Sense of Injustice” by Suzanne Fitzgerald was arresting and Joyce Hayes’ “Etude
4” just shimmered.

This upstairs space could have used more tapestries and would have been better if the eight small and 3D pieces would have been positioned with the others instead of being enclosed in a big display cabinet on the first floor. The exhibit coordinator told me that this show met the center’s requirement for a traveling show, especially since it is an international one. I also want to encourage anyone who can to visit The Folk Art Center in Asheville, NC for the Tapestry Weavers South show, “ The Beat Goes On.” This is a beautiful big show with 49 tapestries in a high-ceilinged gallery. The exhibition will be on display until January 12, 2014.
to see Lynn Mayne's work go to: 
http://americantapestryalliance.org/artist-pages/lynn-mayne/

3.       ARAKNE exhibition in Norway, Opens Saturday October 12 (flyer and invitation attached)

From Anne-Kirsti Espenes:

Hei

Enclosed invitation and flyer for Tapestry Group ARAKNE’s exhibition in Galleri Rød, Halden, Norway.

Artist Talk  Friday Oct. 11th 18.00.

Opening Saturday Oct. 12th 12.00.

Theme for the exhibition is ‘100 th Anniversary for Universal Suffrage in Norway’.

Welcome!

www.arakne.no
 Kind regards, on behalf of ARAKNE, Anne-Kirsti Espenes