Ontario Arts Council grant for Convergence in Alburquerque New Mexico

On Monday of this week I received an envelope in the mail. In it, I had been notified by the Ontario Arts Council that I had received a grant. Part of what I have to do is to use the Ontario Arts Council logo on all media that I use to publicize the event. The grant will enable me to attend the Handweavers Guild of America Annual conference to be held this year in Aburquerque New Mexico. It's something I would never be able to do with my financial resources so for me this is one of my dreams come true. I've always been drawn to New Mexico and I've never been able to afford to attend a Convergence conference so I'll be able to accomplish both in one trip!

I'm attaching a link to the conference site http://www.weavespindye.org/?loc=8-00-00 where you can view all the events that are happening at the conference as well as check out what an amazing place New Mexico is. There is so much to explore and so much for the fibre enthusiast as there are fibre artists and activities a plenty, even without the conference. The conference doesn't happen until the latter part of July of this year. I'm sure it will be scorching but they say its cool in the mountains at night and one even needs a sweater or light jacket!

Of course I had to tell as many people as I could....friends and relatives. Most responded so positively and the one thing that kept coming up was that I deserved it! I felt an incredible wave of support from many friends and this was just as good as receiving the grant from the OAC. So thank you friends for those wonderful supportive words and feelings!

Just this morning I signed up for the workshops, seminars and studio sessions that interest me: warp painting with Jannie Taylor; Cavandoli Tapestry knotting (who knew!); and Natural Dyeing for 2 days. There are lots more I'd like to participate in but the schedule limits how many I can choose. There are tours as well. One is to Santa Fe where we will visit with a couple of tapestry artists.

It's nice to dream about this excruciating heat that I might encounter when I'm there at a time in February when its pretty drab, damp and cold. When I was looking at the accommodation that I might take, I noticed on the website that the temperature today was 30 degrees and it was sunny!

Well....back to work!










The Ontario Arts Council is an agency of the Government of Ontario