Symposium Speakers
Engagement
Clare Coyle
‘Weaving a Community’ was set up as a well-being and post Covid recovery project for the people who received support, staff who had worked incredibly hard during three years of Covid uncertainty, and for the families and supporters of all in the Action Group. The aim was to bring people together again, providing the opportunity to learn new skills, to contribute a small tapestry woven on a 10cm x 10cm loom (or several, which was the case for some participants), that when joined together created a 3.6 x 1.2 metre tapestry mural for their new headquarters in Granton, Edinburgh.
Margaret Jones
Public engagement: who do we want to get into our shows and why? How do we achieve this and once there how do we enthuse the woman or man in the street about tapestry weaving?
Heritage
Elizabeth Buckley
Elizabeth will give a brief overview of the Aubusson tapestry tradition she trained in via the oral tradition when she studied firstly with Jean Pierre Larochette and Yael Lurie in the United States, then with Gisèle and Henri Brivet in Aubusson, France over 35 years ago. At that time, generational knowledge of these tapestry techniques was disappearing because master weavers were dying and no sons or daughters within their families wanted to learn tapestry.
Through a selected retrospective of her work, Elizabeth will describe how her deepening understanding of these French tapestry techniques gave her the means to explore working in visual layers and with creating the illusion of transparency and three-dimensions.
Aino Kajaniemi
125 years ago, the first Finnish tapestries were woven for the Finnish pavilion at the 1900 Paris World’s Fair. At that time, Finland was part of Russia, but wanted to introduce Finnish culture to the world and prove that their country was worthy of independence.
Finnish tapestries have followed the art trends of their time: National Romanticism, Art Nouveau, Classicism, Gothic, Cubism, Abstractionism, Minimalism and Modern Art and Aino will briefly introduce tapestries of each style from different artists.
Aino has been weaving tapestries for over 40 years. She is a storyteller and reflects on things that are important to her through pictures. In this lecture, Aino will focus on the last of her 10-part series depicting depression and despite the sad subject, always strives to make optimistic and beautiful images
Collaboration
Terry Dunne and Frances Crowe
Terry and Frances will be discussing the Timelines projects. The first Timelines tapestry project included ten weavers working in collaboration and was led and guided by Joan Baxter who introduced the theme for the project as well as steering the design element to get to a cartoon stage ready for weaving.
The second Timelines tapestry project was very much a self directed piece, the weavers having gained the confidence from working on their first piece together. This second project, titled ‘Timelines on the Edge’ dealt with the theme of the climate crises.
The third Timelines tapestry collaboration titled ‘Growth and Catastrophe’ attracted substantial funding, which allowed the making of a video of the complete making process as well as funding a catalogue which is accompanying the nationwide touring exhibition. This time each weaver also made a tapestry to their own design, in keeping with the theme so the exhibition consisted of nine tapestries in total.
Joan Baxter
Joan Baxter has had a special interest in Collaborative Projects for many years.
In this presentation she will discuss some of the very different projects she has been involved in - from working with a contemporary dancer and creating a collective response to the glorious landscapes of New Mexico, to facilitating the making of a large mixed media wallhanging in collaboration with all the textile guilds in the Highlands of Scotland.
Joan notes that Collaborative work asks a lot of its participants, but notes that it is always a fascinating process.
Teaching & Learning
Sophie McCaffrey
During her talk, Sophie will focus on her experience as Dovecot Studios' current Apprentice Tapestry Weaver. This will include key learnings from sampling, completed tapestries and working within the wider studio as well as how the experience is helping her to develop her own weaving practice.
Irene Evison
Irene has spent years explaining to people that she never wants to deliver training or learning workshops, so thinks that you might be wondering why she has agreed to be included in this session! The reality is that Irene derives a huge amount of pleasure by introducing people to tapestry weaving by stealth, and in so doing, teaching them the basics of tapestry weaving. Her approach is to take people outdoors to weave the view, offering them an opportunity over a few hours or a few days to enjoy nature through art, using tapestry weaving as the medium. She also takes a loom to outdoor locations – a local woodland, the beach, an outdoors show – and offers people the chance to help weave part of the tapestry that she is creating. And yes, that is also a form of teaching, even if at a very simple level. Working this way attracts the interest of a whole range of people, not just the usual suspects who look like most of us in the room, and often people for whom art is not part of their everyday life. She looks forward to telling you more.
